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Originally Posted by prl67
I know someone who's good with cars and I know someone who owns a shop, but I always thought you should only go to BMW dealerships to get it done right.
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There has been some great advice so far. I will add that ANYTHING with a motor and electronics can break/fail/need maintenance. All can cost you a bunch of money. Europeans will cost more to maintain but you can't look just at that and compare to what it would cost to fix a Toyota. If the A/C goes out in a Camry it's still going to cost a lot; maybe less than BMW but still, it ain't like it's free.
You do not have to go to the dealership for service. It's fine when you're under warranty or you want the peace of mind that you went to the dealer but the general advice is to find a good independent BMW mechanic. By having a knowledgeable and skilled friend with lots of tools or a friend who is a professional mechanic, you can save a lot of money having brakes, oil changes, coolant flushes, suspension work, etc, done much cheaper. For example, a BMW dealer will probably charge $1100 or more for pads and rotors all around. You can buy excellent parts for the job for about $400. Figure in some labor, maybe $200 or $300. You can see how you could save some money.
The one that scares me is the transmission. I've got 104,000 miles on mine and I always have that fear in the back of my mind that the transmission will go. Oh well. You can't live like that. Just driving it and hoping for the best.
Quote:
Originally Posted by prl67
This is somewhat of a random question, but why is there too different color taillights? Does it depend on if it's 3.0 & 4.4? If I got one with the orange (which I HATE!) could I buy the clear/white?
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Please check out the home page and articles. You will find much helpful information about the X5.
08-08-2011, 03:01 AM
Hybrid Mode
