e30Cabrio,
Yes I did escalate it.

My career includes a stint heading up the CEO's escalation group for a global transport firm twenty years ago, and fifteen years ago I consulted directly with the CEO of a Japanese auto firm here in the US, so I know the ropes pretty well.

The feedback I received was that due to the X5 being ten years old, it clearly was a case of "buyer beware." But we all know (I didn't before buying it for our son) that the X5 had a bad regulator design. So BMW is telling me that though I've bought many times from them (nearly $1M in BMW revenue) they won't do anything for this 2003 X5. Their decision. My decision is to forever turn my back on the brand.