is the X5 bmw's worst car? service wise...
 

i've had two three series. great cars. great maintenance records. no problems. tons of fun.

bought a CPO'd x5 in november. a 2005 with 32k miles. since then the car has been in the shop about 5 or 6 times. at one point the car was in for 3 straight weeks. a total nightmare.

two days ago - "SERVICE ENGINE SOON".

i called the GM at my dealership and i'll be meeting with him today. at this point i just want out of this car. period. i sincerely hope they "make right" of the situation.

anyone else feel like the x5s are prone to the most issues? even american cars don't have this many problems.

Hey man,

I'm coming from 3 3-series (leased) vehicles and only had an issue with one of them, once. The rest of them were a tru headache-free experience.

So after leasing all my previous cars, i purchased my first X5. CPO 2006 3.0.

Within the first month i was back @ the dealership due to a crack somewhere on my sunroof. The car would leak inside whenever it rained.
That was 3 days of labor right there.. A few weeks later, my TSU stopped functioning and the phone system in the car wouldn't work.... . So here I am, fingers crossed hoping that I don't have to re-visit the service dept. any time soon...... The thought of returning my X5 back has crossed my mind... She's been running good since so let's see....

I def. understand your concern.

I admit my X5 seems to have an electrical Gremlin that gets cranky now and then. He seems to get his fill after about 15 or 20 mins and then goes away though.

So far I have had these messages:
service soon
Reverse camera malfunction
Stability inoperative
now and then you lose the radio, nav, sattelite, etc. nothing works until the gremlins gets tired.

Mechanically, the inside rear tire treads are nearly finished. These are wearing VERY uneven.

Dealer says "bring it in when you have the issue because we can't find anything wrong" when it goes back to normal. Oh, and the dealer is 1 hr drive away and you need an appointment 2 weeks in advance.


Still, I have only 12,000 miles on this truck and I do like it a lot. But I'm not totally sold on becoming a repeat buyer.

I have had my X5 for 6 months now and I love every seconed of it. it is a 2006 x5 3.0 I now have 50,000 and I have been into the shop twice one for a steering column issue (it was making a strange humming noise) and the other was for the 50,000 mile check up other than that I have not had a problem.... so idk may be its the last of the old body style so they managed to get all of the kinks out of the truck.

I agree to a point. I have had my fair share of issues with my 02 4.4 in my 1 1/2 years of ownership. I have also owned a few 3 series (2 e30's and an e36) and I will agree that the 3-series were more reliable, but that is mainly because the 3-series were stripped down compared to the X5. The X5 is a larger, heavier car with more electrical gizmos so there are many more parts to act up. I am not sure if it is BMW's most faulted car though. Talk to any current body style 7 series owners or any V-12 owners and they will probably say their cars are the worst.

JCN,

Here is the Consumer Reports reliability history for the E53. It looks like the V6 has fared better than the V8. You can see what were the strong areas, as well as the trouble spots.

And to make all of us feel better (including you), I've also included the Range Rover data!:D

I've had my 2004 X5 CPO since Jan of this year, that's roughly going on my 5 months now.

Trips to the dealer:
Jan - 1x
To take care of warranty work after purchasing the vehicle.
Replaced (2) front A Pillars (driver/passenger)
Replaced driver side bulb+socket
Replaced all 4 door rubber seals

Feb 1x
I can't remember what got done

Mar 1x
I can't remember what got done

Apri - 4x
Visit 1
Replaced A/C condenser - A/C not blowing cold air
Replaced A/C fan in dash - making metal clanking noise when on
Replaced passenger side window regulator

Visit 2
Replaced whole transfer case - Leaking

Visit 3 Next Day from visit 2
Replaced Disa Valve - making clanking sound on my way home from visit 2

Visit 4
Replaced Auxiliary Fan Resistor - internal failure
Performed Recall - Reprogram DME

Now, there's play/clicking noise when slightly turning steering wheel, metal/clanking noise whenever A/C is on and I step on accelerator, window regulator is going bad on the driver side front, hissing sound at low speeds inside parking garage whenever stepping on accelerator and i dont have a subwoofer hooked up so that can't be it...

Thanks for that hopefully that will alleviate some of the anger... :D

05 X5 43,000 miles a few glitches but doing fine.:thumbup:

service wise, the 2002 BMW 7-Series is probably the worst.

Stan: Did you just call it a V6? :rofl: :rofl: