my tranny since I bought it felt like it wanted to "work", for example, when Im pressing on the pedal it kicked down to a lower gear, I felt it was normal?

Sometimes, it feels its in a guessing game, like from 3 to 2 to 1 and then up.. I honestly felt it was ok?

I have experienced a bad transmission on another car, for example it slips on rpms, is it not the same symptoms for a BMW X5?

:(you said 2 times , trade it , pass the problem onto someone else , what misery are you knowingly passing on to an unsuspecting person , have you no conscience .
a lot of people buy these cars using as much funding as is available to them and you suggest crapping on them by knowingly selling a defective car .
a defective car should be sold as a defective car and priced according to condition .
to sell a defective car and not declare the defect is wrong .:stickpoke

Although the 04+ tranny is the 6-speed which is entirely different from the 5-speed in the 00-03 X5. Different MFG and everything.

I would do a partial fluid change. IE - just a drain and refill using the factory ESSO fluid. That will change about 50% of it and less likely to disturb any sludge or build up sitting around somewhere in there which is a big cause of failures post fluid change on a higher mileage trans.

Umm that kinda sucks, so I read somewhere before that the manufacturers are different for the 3.0 i6, than the 4.4 and 4.8.. (2004-2006)

remember I think the 3.0 is still a 5 speed? from 2004 to 2006?

So does BMW dealerships replace the transmission fluid doing the Inspection II?

Thank you..

In an ideal world I'd agree with you.
Unfortunately we don't live in that world and caveat emptor applies.
Note I said trade it, I didn't say sell it. I'm sorry I don't understand the NA consumer protection laws but in my market a dealer is responsible for providing a roadworthy vehicle that is fit for purpose and statutory warranty requirements apply that cover this sort of thing. It then becomes their problem to protect the next owner. If they are the ones telling you there is nothing wrong with it then serves them right, if they are smart enough to recognise the problem, the trade in price will reflect this.

That's why vehicles purchased from a dealer here are priced at a premium to private sales.
Anybody who spends this sort of money buying this sort of vehicle without understanding what can go wrong, being fully aware of the possible implications of what the potential costs involved were, and using every bit of funding available to them without a warranty is stupid.

I bought my vehicle with similar transmission problems, and have to date forced the dealer to spend nearly $10K fixing things. (I'm not at all popular with him and I'm not done yet).

If he didn't sell it to me, he would eventually have sold it to someone else who even if they knew nothing, would have been protected by the same consumer laws that protected me.

I guess that depends on where you live. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but here in the states, when you buy a vehicle that has No Warantee from a dealer they are only obligated to sell a vehicle that passes a safety inspection and will pass any required smog test. Beyond that, there is no warrantee expressed or implied and the buyer is not protected on something that fails the next day, a week later, 2 years later, etc. Of course there is some good-will if a trans went out on the way home from a purchase, but what if the buyer went out and did burn outs and donuts and neutral-drops to the car all day long the day after buying it and the trans failed. Is that the dealers responsibility? Not by law at least not that I am aware of.

Entirely different design, yes.

Different manufacturer, no.

oh, so the 6speed is also a ZF? for some reason I thought it was a GM. :dunno:

ZF 6HP26