Nothing has gone wrong with car, but it has a design flaw that makes it unpleasant to drive.
This car has a serious hesitation problem when you demand sudden power. Like in passing or left turning with traffic coming on. The hesitation varies from 0.5 to 3 seconds with the longest times always occurring at the wrong time. One time, left turning out of a shopping center, the car totally died and the oncoming traffic caught up to me and started blowing the horns. That's impossible because I am the hornblower not the hornblowee. The car has been to 3 separate dealers and none of them were able to do anything with it except to tell me the problem is in the motor controller and there is no fix for it. The first dealer originally said "problem not verified" which infuriated me to no end. This is a bad car so don't buy it unless you can deal with it mentally. I can't. I will replace it with something Japanese, no more BMWs in my life ever again. The way this car drives goes totally against the way BMW advertises it.
Wait for a software update and in the meantime drive it carefully. I have not heard of this happening with my friends, relatives, and acquaintances who own these. You must have some horrible dealers wherever you are because everyone I know has been impressed with the quick resolution of issues by our BMW dealer. Good luck with it!
Man please that some nonesense. Go buy a lexus that looks like some 9 year old design it. Bmw are for people that like driving well made performing cars. Go talk to your dealer.
Don't feel too badly. At least your car hasn't had the huge number of failures that many recent BMW buyers suffer. The manager of a BMW dealership told me that they run off owners of older cars by quoting huge prices for maintenance because they can't keep up with warranty repairs on the new ones. Three years ago, the price for an extended warranty on a 2001 740i was about $2,000. They lost so much money that the price for a similar warranty on a 2005 545i is now $5,400. That is a good indication of how much less dependable BMWs are now then they were when they were earning their reputation. Here in San Diego, the used car market is flooded with late model BMWs that are priced way below guide values. Eventually, the guides are going to reflect the transaction prices, and resale value will join good styling on the list of features BMWs used to have.
?? You realize the 325ix was made in the late 80's. Unless of course you are referring to the 325XI, which would explain a lot about this post. I highly recommend going back to Japanese cars, we don't want your kind. Negativity gets more attention the positivity. I have a 92' 325i with 207k on it and I guarantee it has/has had less problems then your old Acura, and hopefully your New Japanese car.
Acura and Bimmer are night and day and not all that comparable. I have both (325XI and RSX-S). Under warranty, the BMW's a way better car to own. Once the warranty has ended, Acura's in a whole other league. BMW can't compete with Japanese reliability (at least they can't any more).
I had the same problem. Replace your mass air flow and/or Oxygen sensor. Do that and I guarantee you'll fall in love with the bimmer all over again.
Dude... Don't hate on the 3 series. That is a great car!
The e36 model series are reliable cars and the ones to go for in my opinion. I've had two and they don't break. I'm using a 1995 328i at the moment.
Wow, there is some serious Bimmer fan-boys on this site. "Buy an E36" I see on every negative BMW 3 post. Dude, I had an E36, and it was the worst car I've ever owned. I spent $7500 on it in two years in repairs, and this was when the car was just a year out of warranty. When the head gasket blew for the second time at around 90K miles, I just let them repo the car. What a piece of trash. It literally fell apart in front of my eyes. I learned everything I know about cars from owning that E36 because I had so much replaced. And maybe someone that has a 2006 BMW doesn't want a model that is nearly 3 generations old; not exactly a perfect solution. "Simple dude! Just get a 12 year old BMW! That will solve your problems." What a joke. Sell crazy elsewhere.
E36 Head gaskets blow because the car overheats. The cooling system is to blame - it was not built tough at all and there were various updates (metal water pump instead of plastic, aluminum thermostat housing instead of plastic) that fixed this problem. The stock radiator is also cheap and an aftermarket all-aluminum radiator is a big upgrade.
If you take care of the e36's cooling system the motor has been known to last 250k miles and beyond. There are some 300k+ bimmers out there still rolling around, not burning oil like crazy as japanese engines will do. I have a 160kmi. 328is and my friend has a 190kmi. 328i. Having owned several mid 90's japanese cars, I feel that our e36's have held up better than anything else I've driven. My motor, for example, has 190psi across all 6 cylinders.
This is not to say BMW is super reliable. Generally they are reliable but each model has it's Achilles's heel. There are also various lemon models from each of the japanese companies from 1998-2003 if you look around.
Gee, I had a 2006 325Xi 6 speed, loved taking to Laguna Seca on open track day, sold car in late 2006, got in 2005. Leased a 225xi 2dr couple alpine white drive now.
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