Obviously, you are getting defensive with my previous statement, "I did some research and I have found that no car is infallible, even the mighty Lexus." I did not come here to bash or be bashed. I do not consider BMW a mighty car, but before doing my research I honestly considered Lexus to be a mighty car, from what the perception was. After running into sites such as this: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/lexus.html I realized that there is no such a thing as a "mighty" car and that basically you can pick any model from the lowest of Yugo to the highest of Rolls Royce and you will always find mechanical problems across the line, so for you to go out of the way to find problems with BMWs was a little vengeful and not in line with my meek request. I found dozens more links bashing Lexus, Toyota, BMW, Honda, Acura, etc., so I guess ultimately it all comes down to what you, as the driver, look for in a car whether it'd be power, handling, style, electronic toys, and the likes, but my research threw the whole quality thing out the window as ALL makes seem to have their share of problems.
Sorry that I did not find your choice of automobile interesting enough for my driving tastes, but please come down from your high pedestal because you, too, are driving metal, plastic, glass, and rubber, just like the rest of the automotive world. In 11 years, besides brakes and oil changes, I had a window regulator and heat blower motor fail on a '94 325i at age 11 with 130K miles on the clock, and a seat heater element and a little exterior plastic trim falling off after striking it with a snow showel (accidentally, of course) on a '02 325i at age 6 at 99K miles. Yeah, sound like real lemons to me, right?
As for your little nugget, as a car person you should know that there are people out there that enjoy the challenge of swapping engines anywhere from lawn-mower engines to jet engines. You will see a lot more powerful engines transplanted into BMWs than any other car make because BMWs have the superior chassis and handling (stock) that is required to handle such swaps and in many cases they are better suited than the original cars the engines came from. If it is any consolation, I found a link where a guy transplanted a Chevy engine into a Lexus. Go ahead, google it.
Anyway, I am done with this thread as it seems that this is becoming a "pi#@ing contest." Guess what? ALL cars break down and ALL cars suck at some point(especially with age and/or high mileage), regardless of brand. I made my choice based on my driving style and I thank all who made helpful contributions and I also congratulate you all for your choice as it is the choice that made you happy and being happy is what it's all about.
Joe