Farewell
 

I wanted to say “farewell” to you all. Even though I wasn’t a heavy contributor to the forum due to me not being so mechanically inclined, I do want to say thank you to anyone & everyone that perhaps helped me during what I’ll call the WORST ownership experience of any vehicle I’ve ever owned.

I originally purchased my X5 in March 2005 (I’m the original owner) and in the roughly 15 years and only 97,000 miles, I cannot believe the amount of money I spent maintaining this P.O.S. I’ll summarize – Valve Stem Seal $2,500 (side job by a BMW Tech), DISA Valve Job - $2,000 at the dealer, FIVE door handle repairs – $1,700 (3 @ the dealer, 2 side jobs), changed the coolant reservoir tank 3 times, 4 window regulators, all the brake lines rusted and were changed, changed the Nav screen 3 times. Never mind the regular maintenance items because that comes w/ the territory.

The straw the finally broke the camel’s back – got a MAF sensor code & the truck shutting off. I changed the MAF, code went away & the truck still shutting off, no codes, no vacuum leaks. Took it to 3 different mechanics (1 of whom is a BMW tech at a local dealership here in NJ) and no one can figure it out. There was no way I was taking this issue to the dealer.

Upon trading in this P.O.S. in, the sunroof didn’t work, navigation/radio no longer working, retractable mirrors not working, SEVERE battery drain (2 days and battery completely dead) and, of course, truck shutting off. Lest anyone think I abused this truck. On the contrary, I babied it. Mobil 1 oil changes twice a year, coolant flushes, brake fluid flushes, did a tranny flush at 50k, 100k tune-up at 75k, etc.

So, it goes w/o saying had I been more mechanically inclined, I would’ve saved money; however, I shouldn’t have to live my life maintaining a car for the privilege of driving it. I have had many cars throughout the years, Ford, Mazda, Mercedes, Lexus, Mercury, Chevy, Porsche and none of them ever came close to costing me what this truck cost to own. I realize no car is perfect but those other cars never gave me PTSD every time I touched the door handle wondering if it was gonna break again, never had a car the radio/nav didn’t work, never had a battery drain issue, never had a sunroof that didn’t work, etc.

Fare thee well. I won’t be back here in the future b/c I wouldn’t drive any BMW product even if they gave it to me for free. To prove it, I have made friends w/ 2 service advisors in 2 different BMW dealerships and they both told me separately that the BMW product is garbage and they see the horror stories all day long once the car is out of warranty.


Best of luck to you all!

Good luck. May fairer seas be ahead of you.

Your story is not entirely unheard of as an ownership experience. Though, given the number of these things I still see on the road, yours can't be the "rule" when it comes to BMW ownership. I could give you my ownership experience here of ~15 BMW's but this is your catharsis, so again may better fortunes lie ahead in your automotive endeavors.

Thanks CW. I believe you may have helped me/responded to one of my threads in the past.

I would agree that perhaps my story might be the exception & not the rule; however, it's the service advisers that really make me believe the later. They both advised me to get the heck out of the truck years ago - both been at their respective dealerships for over 20 years so they've seen/heard it all.

Oh, and by the way, I forgot the alternator bracket gasket repair - $10 part - like 800 labor.

Like I said, I'm sure every car & car manufacturer has their horror stories. And, truth be told, out of every repair I did, I would say the only one that really pi$$ed me off is the 5 door handles. Really? Door handles????

No worries, and I understand the frustration. The alternator gasket is ridiculous to me...

But out of all the BMW's I've owned... lol, never had to replace a door handle. :D I think it's the weather here in south Texas. No major cold spells here. Lots of hot, but it doesn't seem to affect the pot metal as much as the cold.

Lol this was a good read. Best of luck.

I can imagine the frustration lol.

I think this kind of verifies what everyone says, that if out of warranty, prepare to do most jobs by yourself or shelf out some $$.

Still, you hung on to the car for 15 years -- I guess there was still some enjoyment in driving the truck over the years?

I'm feelin ya...

The wife and I are having this exact discussion at present. In the last 9 months, we've only been able to drive the 4.8is for a total of two weeks and even then it's only short trips because it has faults and can't go far.

Both it and the 4.4 are at the point where I am spending almost every weekend doing some sort of repair. I'm pretty handy and thanks to the folks on here have attempted a lot of things I wouldn't normally.

I'm getting sick of the fact though that every time I fix one thing, I literally get one day before something else appears and it's back off the road. I know they are all minor and known issues, but really, you just rebuild the suspension and then the radiator decides to sh$t itself?

The upside of doing the work yourself is that $330 for a radiator is cheaper than $1,000 at the local repairer (not BMW)... the downside is that it takes 1 -2 weeks for the part to come in and so it just has to sit there again...

The worst thing is that after all the work it's almost a well sorted and up to date maintained and low mileage car but over the last year I've hardly even driven it.

The problem is though is that BMW engineering really is garbage.

Buying new, in my opinion doesn't make any difference.

I remember back in 2006 when I bought my then brand new 4.8is and the rear suspension collapsed within 6 months of taking delivery and I had suspension inactive messages all the time.

Who woulda thought?

Also had automatic transmission issues with it slamming between gears, harsh down shifts, limp home, excessive oil consumption and many other issues.

The dealership were very unhelpful and I ended up on a first name basis with both the national service manager and BMW Australia customer service over 16 very frustrating months. After getting nowhere with them as they 'couldn't find anything wrong with it'... I went nuclear and sent a blow by blow account to the Directors of BMW in Germany.

Suddenly they were willing to trade my car in and I moved into an E70.

I look back at all the crap they gave me about there being no issues with E53 air suspension or gearboxes. They implied/said it was just me and I was the only one....

Then I read about issues with current twin turbo V8's and excessive oil consumption/$20k full engine rebuilds and think.... mmmmm

So we are having to move countries for work soon which means we need new cars....and the wife is adamant she doesn't want a BMW.... AT ALL....

I have had the exact opposite experience. I currently have 2 BMW cars, 1 E53 and 1 E46. The E46 has 205,000 miles and the E53 is closing on 175,000 miles. Both are immaculate but I do most of my maintenance myself to avoid the labor costs you have paid. As I look around, I just don't see many 16 and 18 year old cars running around looking and running like my BMW's with so many miles.

I understand your frustration and wish you well in your future transportation selection.

Just sold my BMW E53 X5 to a new buyer that had never owned a BMW before. Warn HER about the cost of repairs if she or HER son wasn't a DIYer. Warn Her about using premium gas for the X5. Told her the BMW was too OLD to be use as a ride sharing vehicle. Told her that she would be better off buying a car that was 10 year younger than the BMW, but that BMW with it nice shiny paint, powerful throttle response, and immaculate interior just won her over.

I'm happy driving the soccer mom Toyota Sienna. I would buy another Toyota in a heartbeat. It may not be the Ultimate Driving experience, but that is What the G35, PORSCHE and Lotus are for.

Two of my favorite car sayings are:

1) friends don't let friends buy a BMW V8
and
2) there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Porsche

Anyway, sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience with the brand, and, yes, they tend to be a bit over-engineered (I'm dreading the long-term reliability of our E70 and probably won't buy anything newer). Just rest assured knowing that you drove 'peak BMW' for 15 years!

Bought my 4.6 new. I have replaced the normal wear items but little else. It's been a great vehicle. Same goes for two other sedans we had and the X5M we have. I wouldn't purchase a used vehicle of any kind without a complete history and wouldn't at all if couldn't DIY. Better to pay payments on something newer than the cost of having repairs and maintenance done by a shop. Sorry to hear of bad experience.

Good luck with whatever you choose next. I've heard the same stories for other makes, but their brand perception outweights the stories. As far as cautionary "avoid these cars" tales from service managers, it's all too common everywhere, after all thats why they end up at service shops. Tales from Honda, Hyundai and Nissan come to mind.

Owning an E53 truly is a labor of love. I bought my 04 6MT used with about 130K on it.

"Oh, but this is the "reliable" E53!"

I have somewhere over $15K in parts into it over the course of 4 years. That's just parts, most labor and diag has been done by me. With labor, I would probably be pushing well over 30K.

Does everything work? Today, yes.

For how long? Probably a month.

I would not do it again, but I have learned a great deal about BMW's and cars in general.

Farewell, and good luck on your next car!

Farewell, I will say my farewells soon too. I thought Jeeps would nickel and dime you to death but BMW's are the worst. Bad ass cars when they work right though. The pickiest cars I've ever worked on or owned... Going to try a couple more things to make mine happy and if that doesn't work... Selling it for 1/3 of what I spent buying it and investing into it. Good luck to you!

Here, I know car maintenance is horrible after manufacturer warranty. It seems no one services properly, I see fancy Ferrari/Lambos in the worst looking garages... there's no way they could have the diagnostic tools from manufacturers to properly do a service.

So when I was looking at my E53 3.0i and also test driving a E53 4.8i, they felt exactly the same. I figured the 4.8i was so poorly serviced that it just drove like it had half the hp. As tempting as it was, I played it 'safe' and went for the 3.0i.

I spent money after money for the first 12 moths on the 3.0i after I bought it (11 years old and 60,000 miles) but put it down to less-than-stellar servicing despite very good looking logbooks. Now in its 3rd year in my hands it seems mechanically stable. Reading this thread maybe I'm only half right... maybe BMW engineering isn't all it's cracked up to be (at least, to not-so-handy car owners like me).

Anyway hope your move overseas goes well and whatever your vehicle of choice is makes up for the dramas you've had with the E53.

As a former X5 owner I can relate to your frustration. I bought my wife a 2013 Lexus GX460 and she had never been happier with a vehicle. I thought buying her a BMW X5 10 year ago would be easy because I knew BMWs for over 20 years and could manage most issues but this thing broke seemingly ever other week! Live and learn.

This is the crux of the problem with buying a used BMW. When i go look at one, if they don't have complete service records, I typically knock their asking price down at least a few thousand bucks. They get offended because they are already "priced under KBB", I just tell them the offer is there if you change your mind and leave.

Someone else can pay full pop for something they are going to have to drop $$$ on immediately. :thumbup:

This is incredible. I’ve owned my 3.0 for 6 years and am in about $2000, excluding oil tires etc. I can’t imagine what part hasn’t been replaced for 15k


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I agree. A lot of the ownership experience with these vehicles, I think, relates to expectations and due diligence of the buyer. I've had my 2004 3.0 for 8yrs and outside of the trans oil line popping off and costing me $3,000...it has mostly been brakes and tires. Upon purchase of my 2006 4.8is from a forum member, with history...I had timing cover gaskets, valve stem seals, valve cover gaskets, coils, and coolant pipe replaced. IF I hadn't been patient waiting for just the right truck - that money would not have been worth sacrificing. Here I am two years later without a single hiccup. If my priority was care-free driving, they do make Toyotas.

Wait, $2000 for a dis valve and $1700 for door handles? You got scammed.

Farewell
 

Not sure if you were referring to my post...
New coolant lines/ thermostat
Front wheel bearings
AC fan
Brakes
Door handle
CCV kit
Battery
Belts + tensioner


Edit: saw you referenced the OP; agree, the prices listed are incredible vs the job, with the exception of the VSS.