Yeah, I think this study, if it's the Consumer Reports one, is at least a year old...it inspired several pretty spirited discussions over on the Stromtroopers forum some time ago. BMW lovers and haters can inspire as much vitriol as the Harley fans and foes.
My experience with Harley didn't mirror the survey. I had a very pleasant decade of ownership of an '04 Road King, with the only hiccup in that decade being the replacement of their spring actuated cam chain tensioner with a semi hydraulic one. This was in a Twin Cam 88, and HD eventually replaced all the cam chain units in their later 88's with the semi hydraulic one. In 50,000 miles it never let me down. I've been really fortunate with bikes; I've never owned one that made me reflect back and say "I wish I'd never bought that piece of crap".