A BMW car repair facility that I trust and is known to be honest tells me that my front rotors will need to be replaced in about 5,000 miles. The car currently has 55,000 miles on it. It is not a daily driver. Previous owner used it in mixed driving - no racing. My question is why are the rotors replaced with such little mileage? Wash my mouth out with soap but my Chevy and Ford rotors lasted much longer. Is it common to replace Bimmer rotors with such low mileage? The OEM rotors are on the car now. Any recommendations for after market rotors such as Brembo? (or other makes).
BMW rotors are rarely meant to be turned/resurfaced. They keep them thin and light. 55K is not unusual. You'll be fine with Brembo, Balo or Ate rotors.
60K is good. But I understand. My rotors on my 1990 Mazda MX6 lasted +150K miles. Of course my Mazda did not brake as well as my BMW.
BMW brakes are performance brakes, so they will dust more, be more expensive to replace, and will WORK BETTER. I'd rather have excellent brakes than to have to worry about replacing them every 2 years. Most people take a lot longer to reach about 60k miles, so you shouldn't have to worry about it for quite a while.
If you're hoping to get better mileage out of aftermarket rotors, I think you'll likely be disappointed. The aformentioned brands or oem - I doubt there would be much, if any difference, in service life, so they'll all work fine. You could try cryogenically treated rotors, but in non-track usage, I don't know how much difference you'd see.
