2011 Bmw 535I - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2011 BMW 535I is an exceptionally safe car, achieving a top overall safety rating of 5 stars. It excelled in both front and side crash tests, with ratings of 4 and 5 stars respectively for the front crash and all 5 stars for the side crash. This model also received the highest rating for rollover protection and side pole crash protection. The car comes equipped with electronic stability control as a standard feature, which enhances its handling and prevents skidding. Additionally, it offers the option for forward collision warning and lane departure warning systems for added safety measures.

On the downside, there have been 250 complaints reported for this vehicle, indicating some issues that owners have experienced. Moreover, there have been 8 recalls issued for the BMW 535I, suggesting that there are specific components that may need attention for safety reasons. Overall, while the BMW 535I offers excellent safety features and ratings, potential buyers should be aware of the reported complaints and recalls to make an informed decision.

auto generated summary, may be inaccurate.

Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

250

Recall Count

8

Investigation Count

0

Safety Rating

5/5

Search Vehicle Details

Advanced Search

The advanced search lets you search by safety ratings and features. This will return a list of vehicles that match your search criteria.

Safety Features

2011 BMW 535 I 4 DR RWD Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2011 BMW 535 I 4 DR RWD

Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

ESC is an advanced safety feature in vehicles designed to help drivers maintain control during challenging driving conditions. By continuously monitoring various factors such as steering angle, vehicle speed, and individual wheel speeds, ESC can detect and reduce the risk of skidding or loss of control. It achieves this by automatically applying brakes to specific wheels to stabilize the vehicle.

Standard
Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

Forward Collision Warning (FCW) is a safety feature in vehicles that helps prevent frontal collisions by alerting the driver of an imminent collision with a vehicle or obstacle ahead. Using sensors such as radar or cameras, FCW monitors the distance and speed of vehicles in front, and if it detects a potential collision, it provides visual and/or auditory warnings to prompt the driver to take evasive action.

Optional
Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) is a safety feature in vehicles that alerts drivers when their vehicle unintentionally drifts out of its lane without signaling. Utilizing cameras or sensors to monitor lane markings on the road, LDW detects when the vehicle crosses these lines and triggers visual, auditory, or haptic alerts to notify the driver of potential lane departure.

Optional

2011 BMW 535 I 4 DR RWD Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2011 BMW 535 I 4 DR RWD Where possible we've included the ratings for the oldest and latest models of this car so you can compare how the safety ratings have changed over time.

Frontal Crash Ratings

Combines Driver and Passenger star ratings into a single frontal rating. The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles, each moving at 35 mph.

Test 2011 Score 2015 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating 4 4
Front Crash Driver Side Rating 4 4
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating 4 4

Side Crash Ratings

Combines Side Barrier and Side Pole Star Ratings into a single side rating.

Test 2011 Score 2015 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating 5 5
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating 5 5
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear 5 5
Overall Side Barrier Rating 5 5

Rollover Ratings

The Rollover Resistance test measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario.

Test 2011 Score 2015 Score
Rollover Rating 5 5
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result No Tip No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating 5 5

Complaints for the 2011 Bmw 535I

This chart show the number of complaints for each car component. A Higher number of complaints could indicate that this car might have a common fault. Something to look out for when purchasing one.

Component Complaints

Choose a component to see what complaints people have made about them.

Complaint:
"i purchased a 2011 bmw 535i xdrive vehicle with goodyear eagle ls runflats 245/40 r19. the car has only 19,000 miles and from the day that i purchased it (in feb 2011), i have had to replace the front tires 8 times and recently the rear tires 2 times. a total of 10 tire replacements. some replacements were due to bubbles on sidewalls. the others were due what appeared to be cuts on the inside/outside sidewalls. i have spoken to many bmw owners of similar vehicle and everyone is running into the same problem. goodyear initially was replacing my tires at no charge becasue they tire damage always was within tire warranty window until last year when they changed their road hazzard warranty policy and no longer cover the expense. these are very expensive tires. something has to be done about these tires..... *tr"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2015-06-01
Complaint:
"three goodyear excellence 245/40r19xl run-flat tires have failed with sidewall bubbles on my 2011 bmw 535i. the first was on 8-31-11 at 7,317 miles. the second on 1-15-13 at 20,158 miles and the most recent on 7-16-13 at 23,433 miles. the factory original right-front tire and its replacement tire both failed. the third failure (on 7-16-13) was on the left front. this is my wife's car and it is driven very conservatively. no wrecks, no hitting curbs, etc. never in my life have i had this type of tire failure. these run-flat tires are truly defective. in each case, i had to pay for a new replacement tire. old tires are not available unless i could reclaim the latest tire at my local tire shop before they discarded it. complained to goodyear the last time and they agreed to pay part of the cost of the replacement tire. these need to be taken off the road before someone gets killed. *tr"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2014-04-07
Complaint:
"i have a 2011 bmw 535i is purchase nov 2010 from bmw military sales, three weeks after receiving car, my right front tire form a bubble and was replaced by bmw of landstuhl, i shipped the car to the us may 2011. june 2011 my right front tire form a bubble; took car to dealer and was told tire was not cover in warranty; both new tire, aug 2011 front left tire form blister; took back to dealership and was told i need to contact goodyear; i email the manufacture no response; april 2013 i had curbside rear tire took to dealership and was told that el paso had rough roads and that the blisters form from wear and tear; so i replace all four run flat tires and no more bubbles forming on tires. not counting the tire replace by bmw landstuhl i have replaced 3 tires. *tr"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2012-03-08
Complaint:
"i have a 2011 bmw 535i with 16,300 miles which developed a bubble on the outside sidewall of the 19" goodyear excellence run flat tire. there was no pothole impact or other incident that i am aware of. the replacement cost at the bmw dealer was over $500. i have since learned that there are many instances of problems with these tires. why haven't they been recalled? *tr"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2013-03-07
Complaint:
"goodyear eagle ls tires sidewall bubbles after driving just a few thousand miles. this is the second tire with a defect that was not caused by any impact. *tr"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2013-02-06
Complaint:
"air bubbles in the side of 3 tires put out goodyear 2011 535i i only have 17000 miles on the car i had to purchase 3 new tires and was told if i hit a pot hole it will have to replace the tires again after spending over $1500 on tires for the bmw. *tr"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2014-01-04
Complaint:
"last april i purchased a bmw 550ix. in march of this year while on the freeway i developed a flat tire. i was able to run the vehicle 40 miles to my home with the tire flat but had to flatbed the vehicle to my car repair store to replace the tire. that tire had a bubbled sidewall at the time of the flat although i cannot say that the bubbled sidewall was where the tire failed. i had the tire replaced for around $500 and the mechanic made no mention to me about the bubbled sidewall issue with this tire although, as it turns out, he was aware of the problem. at the time of repair of the above flat, my mechanic informed me that the passenger-side front tire also had a bubbled sidewall necessitating replacement of that tire in order to pass my state vehicle inspection. since the repair in late march 2012, i noticed that the passenger-side front tire has a bubbled sidewall. i might add that no potholes have been hit, do road debris has been struck. so two and possibly three of four of the original tires on this vehicle, which is just now over 1 year old, have failed sidewalls necessitating replacement. the mileage on the vehicle is around 13,000 miles. *js"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2013-05-03
Complaint:
"at 6000 miles car displayed three tires with "sidewall bubbles" in them. dealer replaced three tires at cost to me. at <12,000 miles later one of those replaced had a "sidewall bubble" which again was replaced at my cost. i fear there is a dangerous situation with this car using these tires (goodyear rft) waiting to happen that will effect life or health and request action be taken before there is a tragedy. everyone is acting as if there is nothing wrong. does someone have to die before action is taken?"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2012-10-07
Complaint:
"goodyear eagle ls-2 tire failure- bubble in sidewall with less than 3,000 miles on it. *js"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2014-02-03
Complaint:
"tires are extremely susceptible to bubbles in the sidewall caused by routing driving. i've replaced two tires in less than 6 months on a new vehicle with less than 12,000 miles. (bmw 550i x-drive). *tr"
Components Involved: TIRES
Date of incident: 2011-09-12

Recalls for the 2011 Bmw 535I

Component Recalls

Choose a component to see what recalls people have made about them.

Recall:
"bmw of north america, llc (bmw) is recalling certain 2011-2012 135i coupe, 1 series m coupe and 135i convertible vehicles, 2011 z4 sdrive 35i, 335i, 335d, 335i coupe, 335is coupe, 335i convertible, 335is convertible, 535i, 535i xdrive, 535i gran turismo and 550i xdrive gran turismo vehicles and 2012 740i and 740li vehicles. the rear driveshaft constant velocity (cv) joint on the affected vehicles may fatigue and break."
Consequence:
If the CV joint breaks, the vehicle may have a loss of propulsion, increasing the risk of a crash.
Remedy:

BMW will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the rear driveshaft CV joint and, based on its production date, will replace it, free of charge. The recall began April 21, 2017. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.

Component(s) Involved: POWER TRAIN > DRIVELINE > CONSTANT VELOCITY JOINT
Date of incident: 2017-02-02

BMW Overall Complaint Ranking

This table shows the ranking of car manufacturers when it comes to most complaints and recalls. The manufacturer with the most complaints is at the top. However this doesn't necassarily mean they should be avoided. Some manufacturers might just have more popular or affordable cars which a lot of people have bought. Which means there's more scope for a complaint to be made. Use the ranking table below as a part your wider research into buying a car.

BMW ranks 12 out of 44 in the complaints ranking table.

Manufacturer Complaint Count Recall Count Ranking
FORD 208,358 3,259 1
CHEVROLET 111,306 2,082 2
TOYOTA 81,019 1,852 3
HONDA 61,937 1,268 4
NISSAN 56,226 930 5
DODGE 45,756 827 6
HYUNDAI 44,150 649 7
GMC 34,441 1,410 8
KIA 29,832 501 9
CHRYSLER 27,698 254 10
TESLA 26,230 730 11
BMW 24,890 1,877 12
VOLKSWAGEN 23,125 829 13
MERCEDES-BENZ 19,066 2,925 14
SUBARU 18,513 703 15
MAZDA 10,599 364 16
PONTIAC 10,430 138 17
CADILLAC 9,434 444 18
AUDI 7,865 1,093 19
BUICK 7,851 279 20
SATURN 7,672 84 21
MERCURY 7,374 135 22
LEXUS 6,373 408 23
LINCOLN 5,897 423 24
ACURA 5,722 382 25
MINI 5,585 366 26
INFINITI 4,000 187 27
MITSUBISHI 3,912 397 28
VOLVO 3,875 727 29
PORSCHE 2,646 1,231 30
SUZUKI 2,272 123 31
FIAT 2,205 80 32
SAAB 1,536 76 33
JAGUAR 1,195 198 34
SMART 528 17 35
GENESIS 436 42 36
ISUZU 249 37 37
ALFA ROMEO 161 37 38
MASERATI 76 46 39
BENTLEY 46 159 40
POLESTAR 42 2 41
LUCID 14 6 42
CODA 4 2 43
MAYBACH 0 0 44

Related Vehicles

Why not check out other BMW vehicles?

2019 Z4
BMW
  • Overall Safety Rating: Not Rated
  • Complaints Count: 2
  • Recall Count: 5
View Car
2019 ALPINA B6
BMW
  • Overall Safety Rating: Not Rated
  • Complaints Count: 0
  • Recall Count: 0
View Car
2008 7 SERIES
BMW
  • Overall Safety Rating: Not Rated
  • Complaints Count: 91
  • Recall Count: 3
View Car
2017 X4
BMW
  • Overall Safety Rating: Not Rated
  • Complaints Count: 2
  • Recall Count: 1
View Car