| To avoid flaming I say the the following GENERAL REMARKS:
1. For the reliability issue? it all depends on the condition of the car you pick/year/mileage/history of ex owners for the obvious reasons. New vs. old and the 25K miles vs. the 250K!! Anyone can tell you which is more reliable.
As to maintenance? well BMWs are classified as luxury cars which carries with it a predetermined price/cost! slightly higher than average but there are ways around it as you may know. OEM parts over the net/plenty of after market parts as good as OEMs in fact in some cases these parts do exceed OEM specifications.
Finally if you are one of those DIYs you can save good $$$ by simply doing it yourself when both time and the nature of the problems allows you to do so.
Good luck a year from now
regards
billb | 
