X5 won't got straight

[timcoupe]

Hi All,

I purchased an '04 X5 3.0D around a month ago. As usual, it ends up going back to the dealers to sort out niggles which they convenently 'miss' before putting them up for sale. Whilst most of these issues have been sorted, I do have an ongoing concern over which I thought i'd share with you guys for your feedback / comments.

As I'm based in the UK, mine is naturally RHD, and the problem is that it just won't drive straight and pulls to the left. Intially, to drive straight, you had to hold the steering wheel at say '12:01' on a clock, slightly off centre to the right. The car went back to the dealers for a 4-wheel-drive aligment check, and they reported that they had made 'tweaks' and that all was well. On picking the car up, it had made no difference whatsoever and was promptly booked back in for re-alignment. I picked it up again yesterday after it's 2nd aligment check, and whilst the steering wheel has straightened out, the car still pulls to the left. The service engineer also told me that they had to replace the right hand front suspension strut due to the aligment adjustments being right 'on the limit' with the old one... eh??? The service 'manager' then went on to tell me to expect some 'pulling' as the car was 2.2 tonnes and that it was natural and to be expected...well, I don't expect to pay £33k for a car that won't drive straight and now I'm now very concerned that either (a) the dealers have not got a clue what they are on about and I should probably take the car to an alignment specialist for a second opinion, or (b), my car may have been involved in a collision that has bent something (triggered by the fact they ahd to replace a strut!)....the car did come with a HPI check which was clean, so apparently it has not had any 'major' damage.

What are your thoughts on this? should I continue to complain or is it normal for the car to pull?

Thanks!

Tim