I watched Doug’s video on the E60 M5. I love that car, I do, and so I find it sort of gutting that BMW could drop the ball so thoroughly on reliability. I know that it’s quite a complicated beast and expensive to repair by its nature - and maybe Doug was exaggerating a little - but even so. How can a company that’s been doing this for so long produce a flagship sedan that’s so incredibly bad?
And to take that further, how can people worship BMW the way some people do? How can you possibly support a company that would produce such a car, not to mention the general reputation among all its products for silly complexity and expensive repairs.
Maybe there’s something in my brain that’s just unable to accept this. I’m into (older) Japanese cars and one of the things I like is that they’re relatively uncomplicated and designed relatively well. If the opposite were true and my car, in this case a big beautiful powerful fancy BMW sedan, could grenade itself at any moment, I can’t imagine ever being happy with it. I’d feel betrayed at even the thought of it. I’d struggle to ever get over that betrayal and buy another BMW.
If anyone ever fawned over my M5 I’d feel like an imposter. Yes, I’d say, it’s very fast and all. But I’d know deep down that the price I’ve paid for such a trophy which could render itself worthless at any moment makes me a confirmed idiot, and any jealousy they might feel for me is badly misplaced.
I like the idea of BMW and I really do like this car. I think the styling has aged crazy well, it’s a car I always use for drifting in Gran Turismo. But it’s also a terrible, awful thing that I’d wish on nobody and that makes me sad.