It is not just the trips to the dealer. Sometimes there just isn't a fix available and you have to live with the problem. I had a 1985 325e (eta engine, for those who were around at that time). This thing would not idle correctly (surging 1,000 rpm at idle). It was back to the delaer 10 times trying to fix the problem, to no avail. The dealer eventually improved the condition but it was never really solved. After 2 years of this, I sold it and got a 325i sport. The higher revving engine was more fun to drive and it worked perfectly.

In 1999 I bought a 540iA. This was the best BMW I had owned at that point. It had very few problems although it had a bit of a surging problem as you came to a stop that the dealer couldn't seem to fix but I got used to it.

I guess it depends on how many bugs a vehicle has and how serious thay are. If I am going to send $90,000CAD on an optioned X5, I'll want to be sure it is working properly without serious problems (for which there may never be a fix). I'm too busy to keep running back to the dealership to have things fixed and don't feel it is right to have a car company do their research and development in the field at my expense. In Canada we don't have lemon laws so you're basically stuck with a problem vehicle if you get one (unless you want to hire a lawyer and spend time and money in court).

Having said all of this, I haven't heard of too many problems with the new X5's (other than availablilty) so I'm eagerly awaiting some 4.8L units when they finally arrive at my dealer so I can test drive one with and without the sport package and make a purchase decision.