Agree with you completely about BMW, they are ok but wildly overpriced and totally unreliable. My mate services them for the local police and they have more problems than any other marque, spares cost an arm and a leg and of course when the coppers fall off then you usually need a new cylinder head at least.

BMW also had a major quality problem with their new scooters, here in Italy they were launched and then withdrawn and then relaunched again after about 12 months. Any other manufacturer would be slaughtered by the press, but BMW are SUCH excellent marketers they get away with murder!!!!

i think BMW become an unreliable bike because of the poor electrical systems, only just this year i had seen 2 1200gs failed and needed servicing...
but i also did ride a r80gs older than me, which was like a dream.. also seen a r26 from 1952 getting restored and get back to roads... older bikes withuot much complex systems, bmws best..
But still bmws are the first choice of most riders that i met, so there must be something that i dont get, i really dont like them (the new f and gs) at least not with that price tag.. i am a new tenere rider, so i cant really say something about reliability but i can say that so far so good, the Z did all i asked for and i really like to ride it..