2018 BMW 3 Series
This year drew an ordinary 177 complaints for a BMW 3 Series — the model's median is 279. What they were about is the unusual part: 23.7% of them mention fuel, against 8.9% across the other years of this generation.
Last year of its generation. This BMW 3 Series ran from 2012 to 2018, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 177 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 279 |
| Involving a crash | 15 |
| Involving a fire | 12 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 27 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fuel — 23.7% of this year's complaints, against 8.9% across the other years of this generation (2.7×).
- far — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the other years of this generation (4.6×). Owners wrote it as: far, december.
- manual — 6.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.2% across the other years of this generation (3×). Owners wrote it as: manual, felt.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
THIS CAR DOESN'T HAVE A WAY FOR DRIVERS TO PUT THE GEAR IN NEUTRAL IF THE ELECTRICAL PANEL AND THE ENGINE IS DEAD. I WAS IN THE FLOODED AREA IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD AND FELT SCARED WHEN BIG TRUCKS PASSED ME SIDE BY SIDE. EVEN THE SHERIFF WHO HELPED ME COULDN…
Car just shut off when driving at 65mph and never started back up, took it in and repair was a bad fuel pump and fuel rail line causing metal shards to go through fuel tank and injectors.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the BMW 3 Series was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2018 BMW 3 Series? What happened to yours?
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