Faults:

Head gasket.

Rear differential.

Auto gearbox.

Engine management computer - twice!

Radiator - twice!

General Comments:

Looks good - even now.

Very quick & handles well for a big car.

Comfortable.

BMW GB servicing is poor. Fine if you drive a nice brand new M3, but anything older than 5 years and they don't give a stuff.

Parts are staggeringly expensive... you pay for that badge!

As you can see.. they break OFTEN!!

In terms of reliability and servicing, this is without a shadow of doubt the worst car I've ever owned. For that reason I will NEVER, EVER buy a BMW again. My old basic Ford Escort was a better car!

Faults:

The car was missing slightly under initial acceleration, replaced all coil packs at 150,000km, which fixed the problem, a little expensive at A$125 each.

The 5 speed automatic transmission will often drop into fail safe mode and lock in third gear, it seems to be a quirk relating to very cold temperatures.

Since changing to fully synthetic oil the rocker box gasket has started to weep slightly, keeping an eye on it before changing the gasket, apparently a slightly expensive task.

I can't seem to adjust the low beam headlights, no up/down set screws to be found!

I'm the second owner and am expecting to replace a number of parts in a car of this age.

General Comments:

This is a great touring car, I regularly travel about 1200km in approximately 12.5 hours with one stop for fuel and a bite to eat, and I never feel uncomfortable. The car is very quiet and smooth, soaking up some seriously bad roads here in Australia.

Air-conditioning and heating is excellent as is the all round vision. I normally achieve about 34 mpg using 98RON fuel at a steady 120kph, the 80litre tank certainly gives good range.

I would prefer a different instrumentation colour for night driving, the red just seems to fluoresce too much.

I just love the sound of the engine under hard acceleration, and have to have the window down when travelling on mountain roads.

Faults:

Cylinder head gasket.

Eats brake discs.

Rust between the rear tailgate and bumper.

Overheated regularly.

Horrendous fuel consumption.

General Comments:

No idea why people like these cars. I only kept it for so long because it cost me so much at each service that I never had enough money saved up to get a better machine.

You hear so much about BMW build quality and reliability, but when an average service cost is ~£600 each year you start to wonder whether the car is reliable or if the dealer is rebuilding the engine at each service interval.

Dynamically the car was hopeless on anything other than straight roads or very wide A roads. The auto box robbed the driver of any chance to even keep pace with a well driven Fiat Uno when driving on twisty roads.

Bland interior, too many other 5-series on the road so no exclusivity, and I really can't think of any reason to justify spending this much on a car that is outclassed by so many other lower priced machines.