A rant!!

[X5Dawg]

Originally Posted by retcav1sg

(except when they play Tech)

Oh man, that's like punching a bruise!!!!

That's OK, I pretty much wrote the season off after the FL game.

[X5Flyboy]

Hear, Hear! I concur. I have had to fix/replace a number of things, but I've never had to do the same thing twice. I get my X5 thoroughly looked at before each cross country trip, along with regular maintenance intervals. I LOVE driving it.

I've always maintained, it's less expensive to "fix" it in the shop than out on the road.

[FSETH]

Originally Posted by retcav1sg

Go Dawgs (except when they play Tech)...Sorry

Go Dawgs! Can't win them all, but 7 years straight isn't bad. Even a broken clock is right twice a day

I agree that simple preventative maintenance can help the reliability of the X in the long run, but I also think that some items on the X are prone to failure and shouldn't need to be replaced as early as a lot of people are having to do.

I personally love the X and all BMW's for that matter. I have never owned another brand of car in my life. I have owned 3 before this and all were long term cars 2 e30's and a current e36. I will say that the X has required by far the most repairs and was the lowest mileage car I had ever purchased with 60,000 miles at the time. Both e30's went over 300k and the e36 is approaching 290k. I have had about $7K+ (all under warranty thank God) of repairs done from 60k to 90k in about 2 years of ownership on the X5. That is a little too high, IMO. As much as I love BMW's and the X5, it sure seems fair to say the reliability of certain parts could be a little better.

I know all of my other cars are/were much more simple than an X5, but still, BMW has had issues for years with electrical gremlins, water pump and cheap plastic cooling system issues, window regulators, engine oil leaks (mostly V8's), transmission issues and so on. They could do better for sure and we should demand it of them.

[realchef]

Originally Posted by StanF18

Agreed with all.

But just to play Devil's advocate and make it interesting, how then to explain the Hondas and Toyotas that "take a lickin' and keep on tickin'"??
I'm not even talking about the well-maintained ones. I'm talking about multiple missed oil changes, 250,000 miles on the odometer, and clueless owners, and yet time and again: THEY are the ones enjoying their brand's reputation for durability and reliability, while us Bavario-philes keep running to our indies and dealers for stupid sh#$. Headlight condensation, hatch rattling, CV joints, water pump, A/C blower, squeaks, rattles, leaks, and so on and so forth. Most of the Honda owners don't even know who their service rep is, while we are ALL intimately acquainted with ours. As much as I love my X, I wouldn't fault anyone for "bitching and moaning" about their X. BMW needs to aspire to both the ultimate driving experience AND the ultimate reliability experience. I do not see why they cannot institute more stringent quality control on their assembly lines, especially after certain issues are identified as problem areas on specific models.

I have friends with a couple of these eternal cars, Volvo, Toyota and a Honda. Here's the rub. When you get next to them or drive them there are always things they neglect but ride 'em out. And the ride, one feels liek a death trap, "but it has 200k and I don't do anything." Well, IMHO it shows on those cars. I have never personally seen a high mileage Japanese car that wasn't clearly showing it's age.

I have an 01 with 45k and any non Bimmer person swears it's 2 years old or recently new. (they do not know the tell-tale minutia you guys do) I think this is where the difference lies, it's the cost of maintaining it to a higher standard. Besides the fact that we are talking apples and oranges engineering wise. I would like to see one of those other cars cover the speeds, corners and distance of a BMW as regularly, if at all.

Mechanical systems break, regardless. You bought a higher dollar car and you should expect to pay a higher dollar on the maintenance.

[Dannyell]

IMO Expensive car = higher end maintenance...as realchef put it just because higher $$ does not mean it will maintain itself ...

I have an 01 and its understandable for my model that little things break...but when I see the same problem happening to people with 04's and up then that is BMWs fault...

Maintenance or not...make sure you take a look at your X after every dealer/indy visit...u never know...