Bad assumption. Price doesn't correlate to reliability.

You might get a more reliable car but no Toyota SUV/4WD, or even sedan for matter, drives like an X5.

I think price does correlate to quality across most products, including cars, most of the time. But it certainly doesn't always correlate and is certainly not a sure-fire guide.

Take a look at the 25000+ members of this site then try to
add up how many of them are complaints about constantly
needing repairs, always costly and not reliable. What you will
find is that there are few complaints that fit your description.......

:iagree:

BMW has sold more than a million X5s world wide. If the X was an inherent failure, then the world would know about it. The fact that the E53 has a better resale value (at least here) than just about anything in its class (especially first-generation MLs) is testament to its integrity. It may not be as well built as other BMWs (even those built in South Africa) but it is not a dud. Simple as that. As they say, "you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts".

Agreed again. I think that the X5 is a great car. With some simple preventative maintenance and knowledge (provided by us) you will be great.

Agreed, price doesn't correlate to reliability, but it should however correlate to major mechanical parts functioning as they should, at the very least beyond 50k miles. A transmission failing is unacceptable and this is not an isolated case. This is something BMW should have addressed.

If an automatic transmission failing was so exceptional, the entire business model of Aamco, Mister Transmission, ATRA, etc, would be invalid. For some reason these shops have been around since the 1950s. Maybe transmissions do fail. It isn't at all nice to have it happen to you, but it certainly isn't unusual.

BMW is an engine company, not a transmission company. I agree with your point to the extent that it applies to engines, but not third party components. ZF are very good transmissions. They can fail, just like all other transmissions can fail. We wish they didn't. But they do.

Quality is not the same as reliability IMO. Reliability is one narrow aspect of quality.

I think price can relate to exclusivity much more than quality. Just ask all those people who bought self-winding automatic Rolex or Omega watches, and then screamed loudly when they found out that their new toys weren't as accurate as a $10 quartz Timex. (And I say that as someone who loves my Rolex GMT Master II.)

It depends how you define quality. A Ferrari has very high quality in terms of performance, but I am not sure I would want one for a daily driver. That is back to reliability.

I think we just got into apples and oranges here. A ferrari as a daily driver is a far cry from a four door, family carrying BMW SUV(SAV). I guess having owned mercedes most of my life I hold these high end german vehicles to a higher standard.