Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
You left out cv boots, front and rear control arms/bushings, intermediate levers on your model I believe, vacuum leaks, alternator and probably another half dozen that both of us missed. You are correct to assume that the longer you drive it the more of a chance something will go wrong. The X is an extremely problematic vehicle. Of course I base that opinion on my ownership of one and various readings on this forum. This forum had got more DIY posts than any forum I have ever seen and for good reason . . . which I might add is the only reason I still own the X. These good people have helped me through my struggles of ownership with their generosity on this forum.
As for the Lexus comparison, you are completely right. There is no comparison. Lexus/Toyota's priority is quality/reliability in addition to luxury. Of course I base that opinion on ownership as well. It seems to me that BMW's priority is strictly about how the vehicle looks and handles and not much of anything else.
I realize that lots of Toyotas are under recall but to me that only reinforces my opinion that they care about a quality vehicle, despite that others might disagree. Conversly, I believe that my X should have had several recalls for parts that have proven to be "prone to failure." But instead BMW just charges us more money to buy more of their unchanged "prone to failure" parts.
Of course my BMW looks good and handles well but it also rides rough and also goes through tires too. My Lexus looks good too and also handles well but it also rides well and I can get 40-50K miles out of a set of performance tires . . . and of course I don't have to work on it every other weekend like the X. Oh did I mention my Lexus has almost 3 times the mileage than my X has.
Lot's of people on this forum love the X despite all of it faults and I respect their opinions. However most of them might be in a different situation than you and I with no more warranty and don't feel the pain as much as we do.
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No...the 2002 4.4 does not have the intermediate lever problem.
While I admit, we strongly considered the Lexus RX330 as an alternative to our 2002 X5, I'm very glad we ended up with an X5. While these vehicle seem to have similar utility, the X5 is capable of towing a car on a trailer. The Lexus can tow a jet ski on a trailer. The Lexus is basically a reskinned Camry with AWD, (same platform). The driving feel is totally different. A V8 X5 is a couple of seconds faster to 60 than the Lexus. The Lexus is mushy and soft to drive. The X5 is the closest thing to a sports car you can get in an SUV. All the above are subjective factors of course.
Where the Lexus wins is reliablity and gas mileage...both by a long shot. I can't see how anyone could prefer the driving feel of the Lexus; but women and senior citizens seem to love them. And they purchase them in vast quantities. As I am very mechanically inclined, I can live with the issues of my pre-facelift X5, (had I chosen a post face lift car, I don't know how I'd deal with the major potential issues). After driving our X5 more than 5,000 miles in the last month, it is an amazing road trip car.