I guess confidence levels in an M3W will be a reflection of how long you have owned one, how many miles you have travelled and what issues you have had. The tolerance of issues with the car is then presumably influenced by the types of adventures you have enjoyed and what it has added to your life as a result.
For anyone who doesn't own one and is looking at the situation from the outside, the idea of having to check a 5 year old car for major structural defects that could easily cause a catastrophic failure before every reasonable length journey must look like complete madness.
As a very recent M3W owner I do not have the confidence as a result of having covered many miles (although this confidence could prove to be mis-guided with long term owners), nor do I have the back catalogue of adventures to think ******** to this, I am going to just carry on enjoying myself.
I only recently came into M3W ownership expecting some reliability and noise issues but my ownership experience has been influenced by reading about a fatal accident, several other cars crashing in the wet, fracturing chassis and broken wishbones.
My intention is that my car is a keeper because I really like it and I would therefore like to think that MMC will do the right thing and replace/repair chassis in at risk vehicles with a solution that has been properly designed and tested using well established procedures that exist in the industry.
I think it is important for anyone running a business to reflect on the power of communication and awareness provided by the internet that just didn't exist that many years ago. The ability to claim that issues are one off isolated failures has well and truly gone so ignorance of an issue can no longer be a defence.
In the mean time I admire the loyalty shown to MMC by many owners, I hope that they do not abuse that loyalty and I look forward to making journeys without checks when an appropriate solution to cracking chassis is introduced.
