2009 BMW 3 Series
This year drew 388 complaints against a median of 227 across the BMW 3 Series's other years, 1.7× that median. No single fault was reported unusually often, and it did not reach the 2.5× threshold this site flags at. It has 2 recalls, listed below.
Generation 1 of the BMW 3 Series, which began in 2006 and ran to 2011. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 388 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 227 |
| Involving a crash | 15 |
| Involving a fire | 19 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 20 mpg |
Recalls for this year
- 12E029000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 22V119000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
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 2009 BMW 3 Series? What happened to yours?
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