Originally Posted by Repoman

I have to agree with you JBF, though my road hasn't been near as bumpy as yours mine has been bumpy enough to promote buyer's remorse and I only just turned 56K miles. I love the look and drivability of it but the amount of breakdowns on these cars that are labeled "common", "usual" or "frequent" in this forum is rediculous. I would be downright emarrassed about this vehicle if I were a BMW exec. It kind of makes me wonder about the customer service policies of the company or if there are any. For example, some of the "reoccuring" items that break like window actuators . . . shouldn't those be reengineered to be more dependable and be recalled so that when they break the reengineered ones could be installed at no charge? I'm not saying that everybody with currently working actuators should bring in their vehicles to get them all replaced but I am saying that proven defective parts should be replaced as a gesture of goodwill from the company to the customer instead of making more money from us paying to repair their poorly engineered parts. I have always worked for companies that were big on customer service to the point where it cost the company money directly to promote that culture and those companies profit margins weren't as high as BMW's. Those companies continue to flourish today staking their reputations on standing behind their product. I see nothing at BMW that shows me any kind of company culture that comes anywhere close to this. Is this why I see the word "stealership" so many times?

I have 4 other vehicles in my family fleet that are/have been way more dependable than my X5 and one of them is my repo truck which has over 180K miles and gets abused on a daily basis. My Lexus is extremely solid mechanically (with 140K+ miles) and matches the driveability of the X5. My son's Scion is bulletproof with almost 40K miles on it and it gets driven by a teenager who doesn't even know how to change the oil (knows nothing about vehicle maintenance or how to drive the vehicle in a way that promotes dependability). And my X5 is driven 3-4 times a week by me and is always driven with the utmost care to prevent any maintenance issues, and ALWAYS has a maintenance issue. Right now my ac is not working, pixels on dash are disappearing, one key fob does not work (popped it open, has correct voltage, tried reprogamming it, still nothing), have already replaced one cv boot up front, waiting for the other one to crack (should be any day now since these things are "labeled" to go out at around 60K), one power window not working, have a distinct whistling sound from under the hood, engine has a skip/miss at idle and I want to replace the tranny oil but am told that it is lifetime fluid (who has ever heard of lifetime fluid, is this a magical fluid, no transmission fluid will last forever in any car/truck).

Any negative comments are not directed toward any BMW owners, forum participants or employees of BMW, only towards the leadership visions of BMW. The ultimate exception to the customer service comments made above are the people who are employees of BMW that take their spare time to assist X5 owners on this forum with their technical advice and help. You people are customer service Gods/Goddesses in my opinion and are the sole reason that I still own this vehicle. If the rest of BMW adopted your customer service traits, I would have 3 of them sitting in my driveway. You people have saved me hundreds if not thousands of dollars with your generosity and I thank you! Additionally, I have a great opinion of the forum and all of the participants as you all have assisted me greatly as well.

I will miss all you good people as I am going to get rid of my X5 as soon as I fix the half dozen issues I currently have. Unfortunately, I will not be able to purchase another BMW ever based on my experience with this X5. I will find it morally challenging to sell it as I'm sure I will be asked reliability/dependability related questions and I don't know how I would respond to those.

Thank you all again!