I suspect BMW (and many other European car manufacturers) made a business decision quite some time ago (early 1990’s or so, I would say) based on calculations that they’d end up making higher profits by designing in parts that break after the warranty expires. That way, you’re either going to pay them top dollar for the parts or pay them for a new or CPO car – they’re going to get more sales out of you one way or the other as long as you really like the cars. I think the Germans used to manufacture for reliability in the 1980’s and early 1990’s but things appear to have changed after that. This is based on anecdotal evidence based on friends’ experiences over the years.
