Hello X-Friends,
Let me apologize in advance for this long note.

Today, the 2011 X5 E70 with barely 70,000 miles was towed to a dismantler aka Auto Boneyard. Now technically it wasn’t MY SAV anymore. As I reported here about a year ago, when I bought my 2021 Tesla Model Y, rather than trade it or sell it, I gave it to my oldest son who has taken a financial beating as a result of Covid. He and a partner owned 4 high-end women’s fashion boutiques: 2 in North Carolina, Bethesda, MD, and in Atlanta, GA. He had been in that business since he graduated from the Univ of South Carolina. He’s been married for 16 years and they have 3 children. My daughter in law had been driving a LEASED 2017 Lexus GX 460 which was a 48 month/48,000 mile lease. But they put way too many miles on it, and my son was just beginning to generate income, so I guess offered them the X5 which was in great shape and I would look forward to coming up to do an oil and filter change and run my scan tool to see if we had any issues, which we didn’t. They sold the Lexus to CarMax and put that to bed. And thus giving him my X5 lowered his cost of auto ownership, and gave my 3 grandkids a safe ride.

The end of my E70 came unexpectedly about a month ago. There are 2 left turn lanes off a main road to get to my son’s home. On the first Friday in June, a college student was in the RIGHT left turn lane, and my D-I-L was in the LEFT left turn lane. From the photos, it appeared as if the student had tried to make a U Turn in front of my daughter-in-law as her Hyundai Elantra collided with the X5’s right corner and top of the PS Front Wheel. They were not going fast and the damage to an old shadetree mechanic like me seemed to be minimal. I drove the X5 after the accident , and my feeling was there was some suspension damage but there was no way to do a thorough inspection. The RH headlight lens was broken but the bulb was fine. There was some damage to the clips that keep the black plastic fender trim in place. Might need a bumper. Ok, here’s where I lost it

The collision center the X5 was towed to told my son that there was over $8,000 in repairs BECAUSE BMW requires the rack and pinion assembly be replaced. This represented 50% of the expected cost to repair and given that it was all of 11 years old (still with less than 75K on the odo), therefore it’s a total loss. I was livid. I looked everywhere for info corroborating this “required by BMW” expense. I called a good friend who runs a great body shop in NJ (We live in SC now.) but he was unable to communicate confirm or deny this requirement.

So I ask you, given the fact I was able to drive the car, and I’ll even state there was something to be repaired (probably control arms), has anyone ever heard that BMW REQUIRES a complete rack and pinion assembly ( and the hours to do it)?

Thank you,
EdinSC

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His - 2011 X5 3.5i
Hers -2004 325 CiC