For some models that shitty stick might apply for year 2 and 3
5 new BMW bikes later and apart from the 1st 2, pre 2016, there have been niggles usually appearing into 2nd year of ownership
BMW have slid down in terms of quality...plummeted in terms of value for money
Premium prices but not really as premium a product as they were for me
I very much agree with the sentiment, and this has always been my own personal view and action - buy mk2 models or well after they are proven. My rule is year 5 onwards.
However, with my engineering hat on and knowing the "lifing" and "design to cost" processes of today, I can state the following:
- Any machine (cars, bikes, dishwashers) today is limited by its tech and the speed of obsoleteness of that. This was always true for computers, now/since the early 2000s it is increasingly true for vehicles, household machines etc etc.
- For "durable goods", which cars and motorcycles qualify as, this has resulted in a general relaxing of the material quality in terms of expected durability, thus has reduced cost to the manufactures (and increased "shareholder value"), as there are many more options (in design as well as material choice) to the maker to make product X.
" We don't need a 30year lifing cycle for our new S class Mercedes, we need a 12year one, as its computers will go by then anyway".
- This has resulted in apparent quality going up (unit price of every part is cheaper to make/source), durability/aging going down.
Look at my favourite car product: An 1980s R107 SL or a 90s R129 SL. These were designed to last 30 years. Thus most of them have lasted 30 years. Subsequent models haven't been designed to last as long, and they won't. Look at all car headlamps and dashboards. Lexan/plastics replaced glass (no it's not upping pedestrian/crash safety, its cost stupid) - plastics perish and go milky in 12 years in Germany or England, 6 years in the south. TFT dashboards have replaced mechanical physical instruments, as more "efficient info per sq inch". They are also 4x cheaper to design and make.
I think premium bikes, have been very much suffering the same "by design" fate.
Saying all the above, again with my "lifing" hat on, I do genuinely believe and have observed close apparent details on the new 1300GS to be much better than any model since the 1150. I am still sticking to my thesis of not buying new designs first hand/early, and also the fact that I find the current model too expensive and too sporty (as explained elsewhere), but these are personal factors. I strongly believe by my personal observations that the 1300 and hopefully the rest of the series sharing the engine to come, are better built bikes, designed for longer.
Possibly because of all the quality flak BMW has faced here and everywhere for its bikes since 2004.
