I feel your pain, as the Werken makes pets that are damned expensive beasts to feed(improving) and care for, always will be. BMW diesel-equipped Torque-converter fails and eats transmissions? and NO relief from BMW after the fact? that is utter shyte and what steers the reasonable away from the brand..

but I highly recommend that you -do- jump back into an owdi, preferably one the age of your X, or older.

MAJOR Bias here, I discovered BMW at the ripe-old-age of 23, so I was spoiled in the glory-days of e9-e28, I am an UNreasonable fan, lol..
the Audi of the time was very respected in the press and in Europe (the 100? not certain, but the aero-look, 23-valve V-5 cylinder model) but I don't see any of them any more.. I drove a rental for a couple-hunnert km..

so I guess That is my definition of BMW.. the nth-nth detail that, when all maintenance is damned-near-religiously performed, makes a transportation appliance that exceeds its equation.. and keeps on being that car.. then came the //M's that narrowed variance even further..

I'd prefer a used //M to a new 525.. nothing inherently 'wrong' with the plain-jane fiver.. just not -there- yet. The //M is there in spades.. but jesus-gawd-it'll-cost-what? hella maintenance costs.

know I'll get (and probably deserve) flames, but in MY opinion: every audi I have layed hands upon feels like that plain 525 to me.. good enough (for the press salivations) but not quite.. the e-53 X isn't quite there yet, either, but it is still well worth the expense as it competes on a plain which I have had no experiences (gerlunder-wagon and BL-era Lucas-Rover set aside, heheh).. and it does have personality and a bit of the soul..

5K of my anticipated 130K mi total ownership, 122k, yesterday..
$3.2k so far.. mods, prior-owner-tabled maintenance and a RearWinReg to bring her back to near-correct + $700 for snows. Those, combined with the electronics that I have grinned and sneared at in the past, probably just saved my keister a couple of hours ago as the lion-share of the populace learns, yet again, that snow is slick.. and insist upon an anti-darwin-ian approach throughout re-education (aka take someone with them).

apologies.. I do go on, mining for chuckles..

__________________
carpe` cevesi
knf

01 topaz e53 3i 5m 120k mi =
$9.7K + $2.4K when seller says "needs nothing" (131K)

Drew Cary: I love driving stewpid in hella thunderstorms.. I roll stop-signs.. get pulled over, the high-school cop says, "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
I say, "Sure.. do you know why I did it?"

2012 Election: Congress has determined that government beatings of all taxpayers must continue until morale has improved

Gone: '67 Galaxie LTD 2D aqua, 72 Pinto, 76 Elite, e12 track.. long road