Car Wouldn't start...easy fix luckily!
 

So my wife goes out this morning and she says X5 won't start, she needs to get to work and so do I, So I take her down the street to her parents and she borrows her dad 530i for the day, she calls to tell me how much nicer a ride it is! Anyways off to work I go thinking crap what could this be now. I just changed the starter a few months ago, battery is 2 years old, gas tank is half full, it was 0 degrees out but its in the garage. I did some research and people says it could be the key is faulty, ignition switch, or trans not in gear. So I come home from work put it in neutral and starts right up! put it back in park and start again no problem! I hope thats all it is that my wife didn't engage it fully into P the nite before...anyways it was an easy fix luckily! If for some reason this repeats again I heard it could be the Neutral SW going bad?

haha, mine does the same thing. In the morning, before first start up, for most of the time It doesn't engage Parking gear. Only starts in neutral. Unless I play with it enough to make it engage it.

my 545 smg does it when its really cold....like it doesnt know its in neutral..but once its started and doesnt do it again.

I cant take my key out of my '01 4.4 euro without it being in P. Is it not the same for your models or did she leave the key in the iginition overnight? IOW I find it hard to see how your good lady managed to leave it out of P if she took the key out of the ignition. Not being a negatvie nancy here but maybe there's more to your non-starting problems than first thought...

No, it has to be put in P, to take out the key. howerver when you put it back in, it doesn't know where it is. It cant see its in P gear.

Crappy contact(s) on the P switch then... or is it the N switch that has the crappy contact(s) and is connected to the P switch somehow-as described by the OP's last bit?

Start on "Neutral" gear instead of "Park" gear
 

""""""haha, mine does the same thing. In the morning, before first start up, for most of the time It doesn't engage Parking gear. Only starts in neutral. Unless I play with it enough to make it engage it."""""""

My X5 4.4i did the same thing. It works fine except it is annoying to start from a "Neutral" gear.

Anyone finds a fix?