"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message

I asked overrated by whom? The various surveys - JD, Which, etc have never
had them at the top of the list.

Overrated by Joe public, that's who.

But then many want a car that's enjoyable to drive - not just reliable.

I never made any points about Japanese cars being more enjoyable to
drive.

All Japanese engines? Think that's rather a sweeping statement too. And
what do you mean by abuse? Letting them run out of oil? Water? Driving
them hard from cold?

Okay, maybe not every Japanese engine but I'll include Mazda, Toyota,
Nissan and Honda. Yes, abuse as in driving the engines hard and
neglect (low oil, overheated etc). Japanese engines, in my book, will
survive far more abuse. I NEVER said BMW engines were not well
designed or anything else you are placing in my mouth.


By the fact you'll not now find a machine shop that can do re-bores and
crank grinds in every town - most engines will last as long as the car,
unless as I said they get damaged.

That means absolutely nothing. The value of cars has dropped
tremendously and labour charges are higher than ever. If your engine
packs up then it is far cheaper to just buy another car or get an
engine from a breaker's yard. It's just not economical to have an
engine rebuilt these days.


My statistics aren't accurate, but based on the many posts you'll get on
the car groups - broken cam belts are one of the most common serious
engine problems - about the same as blown head gaskets. Ones about
excessive oil consumption etc denoting a worn engine are rare.

Oh, so you've now decided to mention head gaskets as well? Well, I
check the car groups as well and there are hardly any posts on
cambelts breaking - most are about electronic failures. Regardless,
people post on there to get advice on how to repair their vehicles or
how much it would cost, mainly. Those groups are not for people to
give an ongoing report on how their vehicles are performing. If
someone is burning oil on an old car and there is blue smoke pouring
out the back do you really think they are going to bother posting on a
NG about it? The car is most likely not worth squat or worth bothering
about. Anyhow this has nothing to with my original post.


If you don't like BMWs, you are perfectly entitled to your view. But if
you try and justify it by talking rubbish, be prepared to be argued with.

I never said I didn't like BMWs. You've provided no argument at all.
My original point was that, IME, Japanese engines can take far more
abuse than BMW engines. This has nothing to do with how long modern
engines last these days. All you've done is misinterpreted my post and
then argued against points that I didn't even make.