BMW Z3 — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 584 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Air bags (restraint system)118 (20.2%)
• Seat belts70 (12.0%)
• Seats68 (11.6%)
• Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)54 (9.2%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 1999.
• Body & structure50 (8.6%)
• Electrical system34 (5.8%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 1999.

Other / uncategorized: 22 classifications (3.8%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (410 records, model years 1996–2002) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), seat belts and seats.
• Manufacturer communications (128 records, model years 1996–2002) are most frequently classified under: engine, fuel system and electrical system.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 166reports included a mileage
• 83,302average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 1996 45 records for 1996 45
2. 1997 63 records for 1997 63
3. 1998 52 records for 1998 52
4. 1999 53 records for 1999 53
5. 2000 47 records for 2000 47
6. 2001 26 records for 2001 26
7. 2002 11 records for 2002 11

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 32mention a crash
• 10mention a fire
• 44mention an injury
• 2mention a fatality

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 15
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 128
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 3
• Owner complaints NHTSA 410

Explore the underlying evidence records