........ oh, AND the fact that first my rear and driver's left windows fell inside the door within a month of one another :D

AND that i basically had an electrical stroke on the left half of my car lol

I start to think germans drink lots of beer at work :tgif:

Sorry to hear about all of this. But as I'm sure you realize nothings perfect and that includes the people who put these trucks together.

I am sorry to hear that. I had a 2003 ML 350 before X5. I have to say X5 is way better than ML 350. I have never had a chance to drive new ML so I can't say about new model. I am also one of people who complained about X5. Yes people include myself think that X5 should be perfect since we paid good amount of money. But nothing is perfect. Good luck. I am sure you can find something will help you out.

Sorry to hear you had more than your fair share of problems. The used '01 I bought last June, I've come to love. Being used and over 4yrs old, I knew I would have to put something into it. As my father is fond of saying "buying used is just buying someone else's headache".

I had my dealer give it a good going over when I got it in town. That snipped off some problems before they bloomed, (replaced some hoses and a sway arm that was starting to loosen). The Dinan S2 mod then eliminated some other problems that may have cropped up. Replacing a 5yr old battery with winter coming up was a no-brainer. When I hit 60K, the water pump will be replaced. Everytime it goes in for an oil change (7500), I tell them to spend the time to look it over in an attempt to try to catch things before they go completely bad. BMW does not have a reputation of being perfect and my reasons for buying an X5 are different from yours, as well as our expectations are probably different. I hope your new ride. whatever it may be, is all you hope it to be.

My wife still loves the X5 and she doesn't really want to change. We went to look at a new ML last night - but haven't had a chance to drive it yet. It does look like a big improvement on the old one.
I maybe over reacted by saying it was the worst car I've ever had - I just expected more from BMW (considering how much it cost). My daily drive is a Z3 with 85,000 miles on the clock and that has never let me down!

no problems here with my 2002 x5

I have a MY02 and nothing major has gone wrong yet (knock on wood).

I think you over-reacted. I am on my second X5(4.8is). My first one was a 2001 4.4i and had no major issues and I put 43k miles on it when I sold. Keep in mind that ML has no free maintenence for 50k and it does have it own share of problems and issues. Not to mention the quality issues MB is having these days.

you want fun to drive get bmw you want reliability and old man luxury get lexus you want an american POS with a german sticker on it get MB, i used to be in love with MB until that is they merged with chrystler IMHO even with the issues bmw and X5s in particular have its still an awesome car puts a smile on my face every time i see it. btw i did have enough issues ie: had a major leak taken care of under factory warranty after 4 visits as well as some radio issues and then some but mechanically knock on wood its a joy