UPDATE to those interested:

Day-33, still no vehicle. To those who have mentioned there is no sign of a fire, that is incorrect, and I was incorrect in stating that (if I insinuated that), it was based on early verbal information I received during phone calls, only.

There is sign of a fire on the diesel's particulate regeneration unit, as to why the fire did not spread, most likely had to do with the fact that we shut the vehicle off the moment we saw smoke.

My dealer had this to say about the regeneration unit yesterday (9/16/10) (copied and pasted from an e-mail they sent) "spoke with ________ the shop foreman on this, and he told me that there are sensors that measure the back pressure, and determine the regeneration time from this. He said that it happens approximately every 400 miles."

During the regeneration phase the unit reaches a temperature of approx. 700+/- F, burning off large diesel particulates, which are further filtered by the cat. and then expelled.

My vehicle suffered an incident at 390 miles- so this is in-line with what would be expected, at least according to the snippet from the e-mail above. What is unusual is for a fire or smoke to accompany this regeneration. The working hypothesis the dealer is moving forward with now, in writing, is that there was something in contact with the regeneration unit, that should not have been there. This is a factory caused error.

As to whether or not there is evidence of charring, etc., there certainly is. Of note, BMW has a stack of papers 3" to 4" thick on the vehicle. They've refused to hand over what they've found, claiming it is proprietary information.

The service advisor who is very graciously helping me, has indicated BMW NA won't even tell him what they've found. He is quite upset about this as well, as they've taken over his shop, and he has no idea as to what actual repairs were made to the vehicle.

To those of you who think there's some sort of nefarious goal here: that's your opinion.

The only goal is obtaining our vehicle back, pure and simple, and finding out why there was a fire, preventing it from taking place again, and enjoying our vehicle.

The FIRST snippet of paperwork we received was on 9/15/2010. Prior to that we had received nothing. When we demanded paperwork, BMW NA refused indicating that they could not give us paperwork on an "open" repair order.

That concludes the update. BMW NA did replace one of the wheels (20" 214 style rear), the fender trim of that wheel, and they attempted to repair damaged portion of the paint. In doing so, they increased the damage. The vehicle is now back at the body shop.

It is difficult to accept the conclusion of the SPI report, when BMW NA has refused to give myself or my dealership anything in writing. It's also difficult to comprehend that my dealership has found evidence of a fire throughout, while the SPI report has claimed there was nothing of the sort.

Lastly, if there is nothing to hide, why hold back the stack of paperwork indicating what tests and repairs were made to the vehicle?

That's the latest. Again, this model X5 35D was terrific for the first few weeks. It was by far the best vehicle I've ever owned, and if it's fixed, that's fantastic. But, continuing to pay for a vehicle that is on indefinite vacation at the shop is ridiculous.

Lastly, we were also told, if we simply pick the vehicle up and deny BMW's inspection protocol, despite it's very long length, we're waiving our rights to having this issue repaired in the future, should it act up again or should the vehicle actually burn down. So, again, we're accepting their protocol out of logic, despite how angry we may be at the time delay.

Nonetheless, there's an obvious limit. Once we have the car back and this is settled, and we have a complete repair report, I'll be happy to post any and all repair notes I have.

Of note: BMW did not volunteer to repurchase our 2010 model out of the goodness of their heart for the FULL value after 2 main computer failures in a row and a main relay, nor are they keeping our 2011 BMW for over 30+ days, because they want to play games. BMW has spent thousands on both of these vehicles, not at my request, but by their own decision.

There are obvious defects with both, the facts speak for themselves. I'm not dissing the brand, the vehicle, or the design, only my personal bad luck at receiving two vehicles that have suffered extraordinary failures.