Unrelated question. Is there public parking near the white house?

Capitalism sure does promote innovation. Just like BMWs proprietary screw head! Thats helped a lot of folks I'm sure. Or subscription seat heaters.

Ole reliable, smacks hood, explodes.

When I sold my 2011 BMW, one of the reasons I was happy to see it go was a lack of an oil dipstick. Zero dipstick.

Yes, you can check the oil level on the dashboard (engine running and warm, level ground, at idle, parking brake on). However, that relies on the oil level sensor working and actually sending the correct level to the computer. Sometimes you just want to see and smell the oil yourself and not being able to do that easily didn't sit right with me.

Oh and as a home DIYer I also didn't like that after changing the oil, I had to start the car, get it warm, then use the bleep bloop to check the oil level. Like if I somehow fucked up and put way too much or way too little I'd love to know that before starting the engine and letting it run 10 minutes! Sure, an oil pressure light might trip, but it might not...

Last, yes, mine also had an electric water pump. No pulley. They have lots of failures of them. I was lucky and never had an issue with mine.

Edit: one cool thing about the water pump: if you did coolant system work and had to drain some/all coolant, there's a procedure to have the cooling system self-bleed with the engine off. I forget how, but you like mash the throttle 10 times, say a prayer to Bavaria, and flash the high beams 4 times or whatever. Then you hear the water pump doing it's thing for like 15 minutes (best to have a battery tender hooked up). That part did feel like the future.

Yeah it's for parasitic draw, 2 speed water pump with a solenoid and speed sensor. If the water pump doesn't need to be on full blast it can be slowed to allow lower parasitic draw on the engine and improve fuel economy

If you buy new cars, BMW is a great brand, or at least was back then. 25 years ago, you could choose between the E46, the E39 and the E38 (and the OG X5 if that's your thing, but it's boring). The E38 was being phased out for the newer E65 7 series which sucks absolute ass used, but was ridiculously comfortable for the first owner.

Reliability 25 years later is kinda meh on all of those, but brand new they were all amazing cars. And to be fair, I don't see many 25 year old Mitsubishis here, they've all rusted through. I see a lot of late 90s and early 00s BMWs though.

Just as accurate today as it was then.

No one ever said gas cars don’t catch fire.

The difference is that conventional firefighting will put the fire out.

A massive battery will keep reigniting.

If that happens in a subterranean garage, where it’s already difficult to get firefighting equipment in, what are you going to do? Roast hotdogs on the smouldering embers of an apartment tower?

Bourgeoisie Meat Wagon

They have always been the General Motors of Germany.

No, the connector failed allowing the high current terminals to short and cause a fire.

This is only on the N20 engine, which mini never used.

The plane collision still makes the hairs on my neck stand up, decades later on a tiny screen.

These cars are all at least 10 years old...