Lexus vs BMW Reliability Is Totally Different Now!

Have you ever wondered which manufacturer makes a more reliable vehicle? Lexus or BMW? Well 10 years ago that question would have been very easy to answer. Lexus had all naturally aspirated, no turbos, their engines were bulletproof, with a lot of the great engines that we know and love, the 3.5 litre V6, the 4.6 litre V8 engine, as well as the 5.7 you'll find in the LX models. Lexus had all of the most reliable vehicles and engines that you could possibly imagine, and that's all because of their affiliation with Toyota. BMW on the other hand, 10 years ago, had a lot of struggles. They were dealing with engines like the N63, the oil burning, they talked about engine blowing up, they also had problems like the N54, that twin turbo straight six, which was notorious for turbos, wastegate rattle, leaky water pumps, they were electric, as well as every kind of oil and coolant leak you could imagine, kept that vehicle in the shop almost on a weekly basis, but things have grossly changed. Rarely are we seeing reliable engines like we're seeing in some of these older Lexus models, in many of the newer vehicles, because now they've upgraded, they've gone to turbos, hybrid systems, and much more complicated mechanics. Lexus and Toyota enjoyed the absolute top pop in terms of reliability, consumers reports loves them from top to bottom, and here one of the key reasons is the engine under this hood. What we're looking at is an outgoing model of the RX 350, obviously have the vents, and the beautiful wheels, LC 500 mirrors, and of course all of the great detail right here, but they also have one of the best engines that Lexus has ever made in the RX 350. That's right, it was a naturally aspirated three and a half liter v6 under the hood, that produced around 300 horsepower, some less, some more, and as well it had dual fuel injection from port fuel injection, as well as direct injected, was naturally aspirated, and it was good to run three or four or five hundred thousand miles. They also had v8 engines that were ultra reliable, but here's the new replacement for some of their 5.7 liter v8 engines. This current generation Lexus LX 600 has, instead of that 5.7 on the outgoing LX model, has switched it up to a twin turbo 3.4 liter v6, which coincidentally has been the butt of many jokes, because they've had many catastrophic engine failures, and are currently under a major NHTSA recall to potentially replace almost every one of these engines. 102,000 recalls to be exact by Toyota and Lexus. For many years Lexus believed in just like Toyota, keep it simple, stick with one of the engines that you know, the three and a half liter v6 or the v8 engines, go with what you know, and stick with it for literally ever, because they were tried and true ultra reliable, but of course like everything regulators get involved, governments get involved, fuel efficiency, co emissions, all becomes a conversation, and now unfortunately Lexus has to step up their game, create engines that are smaller, more fuel efficient, while they're demonstrating their ability to create some of the best, most reliable hybrid systems, and some of their CVT transmissions are better than anyone on the market, their engines have had a few skips and bumps along the way, because now unfortunately we go from an engine that's tucked under the hood of this beautiful ES 350, which is one of their most reliable vehicles they have ever produced, and it's absolutely gorgeous, you have the beautiful chrome detail, one touch in, of course you get a sunroof, LC 500 mirrors, F sport package, beautiful rims, and I love the headlights on these vehicles as well, look at the big mouth grille, absolutely gorgeous vehicle, you can't go wrong with the ES, it's a front-wheel drive with the v6, absolutely bulletproof, and they're replacing engines like that with the two liter turbo four-cylinder engines, and the v8s are also being wiped out by engines that are tucked under the hood of some of these vehicles, here's the latest Lexus GX 550, and of course the older outgoing GX model, while it was a little thirsty and ready for refresh, was one of the most reliable engines, the 4.6 liter v8 engine would literally run forever, but now this also in all of its beauty with the beautiful nice detail, of course I love this detail right here in the light bar, they have nice painted fender flares, alloy wheels that are laser cut, gorgeous mirrors, and a very jeep-like front end is now carrying that same 3.4 liter v6, so time will tell how these engines are holding up, but then you have BMW, which unfortunately has gone through their share, back in 2007 they had that twin turbo n54, which was ultra problematic, then they came with a whole series of other engines in a row that seemed to be a bit problematic, from the n20, it was a turbo four that ate up timing chains, to some of their smaller turbo diesel engines, the n63 twin turbo v8 as well, with the hot v cooking heads, as well as burning oil, like it was going out of style, BMW had some major problems, everywhere from 2007 till about 2017, BMW really struggled with a lot of their drivetrains, and couldn't get it right, they couldn't produce a vehicle that had the inherent reliability, that could even remotely compete with the likes of Lexus, and BMW here had some of the most problematic engines in their history, of course some of these v8 engines, as you'll notice often found in vehicles like the 750, back in the day, we're talking about 10 years ago, were some of the most troublesome vehicles that you can possibly imagine, and that's why they garnered such a reputation, you actually don't see many of these full-size 5-6 series, including the GT series of vehicles from back in that generation, they just didn't last, the engines weren't that great, and many of their turbo sixes weren't that great either, here as we'll notice the 335i, this is a GT, this vehicle here actually has the N55 engine in it, which is the single turbo twin scroll, and it also had many problems carried over from the N54, but then a few bumps in the roads, and they came across a great engine, the N57, it's a turbo diesel engine that you found in x5s and several other models, we actually owned one too, and it was absolutely spectacular, the engine, the core engine is great, needs a delete after so many years, but the core engine is absolutely bulletproof, so you knew they were on the right track, and then we have the newer generation of the 3 series here, and that's kind of when we started to see the outgoing of the last generation, and of course the incoming of the new generation also carried roughly in 2017, what they call the B48 engine, which is their new modular turbo 2 liter 4-cylinder engine, heat encapsulation, better fueling, better bottom end, absolutely reliable, and that is now carried and ushered the new line of 4-cylinder engines, which are vastly more reliable in BMW's world than they've ever been. BMW had to pay their price, they had to take their licks, but they finally got it right, but then they had some great success after a couple of revisions, the V8 twin turbo engine that they put in this 5 series was vastly better, better shielding, better bottom end, better fueling, much better engine altogether, and now the BMW 550 as we see that's debadged right here is vastly better than any of the V8 engines that they had before it, so with some revisions and improvements and learnings, BMW's even made their V8 engines a lot better, and then along comes one of their best most tried and true most reliable engines that BMW has now revised, also since about 2017 thereabouts they changed their turbo 6-cylinder engine, and it's under this hood, truly one of the most popular performance vehicles that you'll find in the BMW lineup, and you can tell by these cross hatches on the front grille, of course you get vents, you get the beautiful angel eye headlights, beautiful rims, sometimes you can get the M package and the calipers, M badging, they don't always come standard of course with carbon fiber, but they do come with sunroofs, and all kinds of greatness, it's a beautiful vehicle, and what we're talking about is this one's an xDrive all-wheel drive, and it's a 340i, and the 340 as in here carries what they call the B58, one of their most reliable engines that BMW has ever made, they rarely break, if they do, a lot of miles will eventually start to cause them to leak oil and coolant, but they've replaced the problematic water pump, of course now with a mechanical pump, now they've also replaced the fuel injectors, the bottom ends more sturdy, and as well heat encapsulation ensures that there's less up and down temperature swings to impact the plastics under the hood, much much much more reliable, so while Lexus has been transforming into turbocharged engines, BMW has already gone through all the hard bumps and ups and downs and challenges, and now they've almost but perfected their turbocharged systems, their V8s, their 4s, their 6s are all almost bulletproof, vastly more reliable than anything they've built before, took them 10 years to do it, but here we are, not to mention BMW makes great cars that are very fun to drive, like this M2, which also carries a slightly detuned version of the M3, M4 engines, absolutely amazing, you get behind the wheels of one of these vehicles, and you never forget again what performance driving is all about, it handles like it's on rails, accelerates like a Lamborghini, and it's fun and fresh with some cool colors. So who is the ultimate in reliability between the two? We know Lexus is going through some teething problems, we know BMW had some, but they're starting to correct a lot of that, and we know Consumers Reports has absolutely favored BMW, they've risen to the top, and they've actually beat out Honda in terms of overall reliability, while Honda is diving off the deep end. So a lot of the leaky cooling system and oil systems are gone, or way of the dodo bird in BMW, and Lexus is now starting to struggle with some engine failures, some issues in quality control, and we're also starting to see that Toyota's following suit. So if you follow Consumers Reports, they'll tell you that typically Toyota and Lexus are still higher than BMW, although BMW's nipping at the heels of both those brands, and that begs the question, where does that leave the most reliable car, Lexus or BMW? Well according to statistics, the average vehicle on the market today faces about 186 problems per 100 vehicles, whereas BMW on the other hand currently today is about 184 problems per 100 vehicles, so clearly they're much better than the average. With that said, Lexus currently enjoys 133 failures out of 100 vehicles. Lexus is the winner.