You are an interesting data point...

What you ultimately do to your BMW (selling vs. keeping; using it more for pleasure vs. more for A to B) will be your vote to how good BMW cars are.

Of course, yours is only one vote out of all BMW owners. In my book, if in aggregate all BMW owners are willing to use their BMW more for pleasure and paying more for maintenance DESPITE worse reliability, then that would actually make BMWs better cars. Why? Because people are willing to pay more for that enjoyment. When and if the reliability issue out-weighs the pleasure, then people will change their buying and usage patterns, and you will see a combination of (1) BMW sales declining and (2) BMW's reputation as driver's car declining.

As of 2008 in the US, BMW sales dropped 9.7%. In comparison, MB was -11% and Lexus was -24%. My guess is that BMWs continue to be used much more for pleasure than MB and Lexus. So whatever people's perceptions or experiences are as regards to reliability, so far in this recession BMW is proving to be a better car at the margin than its main competition.