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I kinda am considering it because of the technical highlights.
The electric water pump may be one of the reasons I'll consider purchasing a turbo again. They can run the water pump after shutdown to force coolant through the turbos, hopefully reducing the chance of 'coking' the bearings (which I've done before - talk about Minnesota Mosquito Abatement control - it'll put out more smoke than a Weber grill and 20 pounds of soggy charcoal ; -).
The electric steering rack is something that I was initially leary of, I have not had good experiences with electrically assisted steering racks. But after driving a Z4 Saturday (with an electric rack) I came away feeling OK about it. And BMW has said they are working to provide enhanced steering feel with the rack on the 1er coupe. Actually there is less to fail on the electric rack than on a hydraulic rack.
The alternator really doesn't scare me all that much - it would appear to be just an alternator that is 'clutched' with a few lines of code in the ECU software telling the clutch when to engage. The alternator's a part that may fail over time and it probably will cost more to replace than a regular alternator - but then replacement parts on a BMW were never Toyota/Honda cheap to begin with. ; -)
The direct injection is another incredibly innovative feature that allows some really neat tricks with valve timing. The torque curve on the N54 engine is outstanding.
The cost of this complexity may be in higher replacement parts prices - but with this complexity we'll have a ~3200 lb car with a 3.0L engine that produces a ~5.0 sec 0-60 time and it will still deliver about 30 MPG on the highway and in the 20s in town (as long as I'm not driving it ; -).
Your concerns are valid - fortunately there is a record of these systems use in the existing BMW fleet - we just need to do a little digging to see if any of them are failing at rates higher than normal.
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