I'd better explain how these star ratings work. In the first instance, cars are rated as to how they work on test: how well they fulfil their design brief in comparison to other cars, how well they drive, how efficient they appear to be from the EC ratings, and what can be gleaned from a few hours driving on a car launch. But those star ratings can be later downgraded as faults are reported to us. 3 Series on UK roads outnumber 6-Series by at least fifty-to-one, so there are far fewer reports of 6 Series faults. So far we still think the E92 3-Series still rates five stars, particularly the 335i manual, despite the problem areas. We simply don’t rate the E63 6-Series as highly, either as a driver’s car or on the basis of reader reports.