Check out
reliabilityindex.com. They have good comparisons available. They don't go into much detail on specific parts, but you get a general idea. I did a comparison of the 3-series, A3, Corolla, Civic, and Focus.
The 3-series overall reliability was lower, but its age/mileage were equally higher. I tend to think
those're more important as a general figure. Time spent off the road (=difficulty of repairs) was fairly low, but on par with everything but the Corolla (much lower) and A3 (much higher, it's total repair costs were also much higher).
The 3-series really suffers in suspension issues, which is likely where most of that unreliability is coming from. Those are typically moderately cheap parts and quick repairs, and are issues that will happen with higher mileage/older cars. This isn't apples-apples since the BMWs are significantly older/more used than the others, as I said before.
For engine, the A3 is much worse, the Corolla much better. They don't go into detail on this, so "engine" could mean something like a water pump (or do they count that in cooling? - cheap and easy fix) or one of those "tear apart half the engine to fix it" things that cost a ton (I don't think the BMWs suffer from those issues much). The BMW also has fuel system issues, but that probably just means a bad fuel pump. The one place is shines is transmission - basically no issues. Corolla suffers there, and the A3 has tons of problems.
From those stats, A3 seems like a really finicky car, Corolla seems the clear reliability champ (though this may be misleading), and the others are fairly close, though I think with the 3-series' considerably higher age/mileage, it's the clear second place. Ultimately, if a lot of people are keeping their BMWs longer and using them more before doing repairs, that's saying something in itself. That said, the Corolla has a slightly higher age with much lower mileage (it was the lowest mileage of the group, 43K, while BMW led at 59K).
So, the BMWs last longer on the road, but then you get a lot of suspension and other minor issues cropping up. Drivetrain is super-solid, engine I think it's mostly minor repairs there. Because suspension work isn't too hard with the right tools (the hard part really is getting the car high enough to work on it), the BMWs make for good choices for DIY types (especially because they're fairly ergonomically designed for repair, I think).
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Topic: Need a "new" car... (Read 3778 times)