[Klayfish]

Hey gang! Wanted to get input from some 128i owners. In a nutshell, here's my rundown. I'm a car guy top to bottom...owned all kinds of cool stuff over the years, do amateur road racing, even work in auto insurance claims. I have an extremely busy life. My commute is 55 miles each way. In the morning, it's almost all 75-80mph highway cruising. Afternoon, it's 50% cruising, 50% bumper to bumper rush hour grind traffic. I also transport my kids too/from sports practices...football, lacrosse, cheer, etc... So I drive about 35k miles per year, maybe a bit more. With my life as crazy as it is here, I don't have time for a weekend toy, it would just sit. So I'm looking for the single car that can be both my daily commuter and something fun/engaging to drive.

I've always liked BMW, but never owned one. Have a lot of concerns with reliability. I just don't have the time to do a lot of work on cars and don't want to pay through the nose for repairs. But after doing the BMW High Performance Driving Experience at their Greer, SC plant, I'm hooked.

On those same lines of reliability, I'm trying to steer clear of turbo direct-injected motors. Hence why I'm not interested in the 135i, just the 128i.

So tell me a little about life with the 128i. Anyone use it for a high mileage commute? How has reliability been? That really concerns me.

My 3 kids are fairly young, ages 11 and 8 year old twins. My wife and I have a minivan, so I don't need the 128i to serve as daily kid hauler. But can it carry a few kids without much trouble? Anyone do it often?

How is the balance between ride and handling? Is it daily driver comfortable? I'd be looking for one with the Sport suspension, as I've heard the seats alone are worth the price.

The other car I'm considering is the '13 Honda Accord V6 6spd coupe. It's not as ridiculous of a comparison as it may seem. The Accord has 278hp, lots of luxury features, rock solid reliability, a big back seat and is very slick. But the one major downfall to me is that no matter how good it is, it's FWD and it can never match the feel and driving fun of a BMW. It's also a few grand more. If I had money and time for a toy, I'd probably go with the Honda. But since I don't, I'm very tempted to see how the 128i can serve as a high mileage daily commuter.