There has been some great advice so far. I will add that ANYTHING with a motor and electronics can break/fail/need maintenance. All can cost you a bunch of money. Europeans will cost more to maintain but you can't look just at that and compare to what it would cost to fix a Toyota. If the A/C goes out in a Camry it's still going to cost a lot; maybe less than BMW but still, it ain't like it's free.

You do not have to go to the dealership for service. It's fine when you're under warranty or you want the peace of mind that you went to the dealer but the general advice is to find a good independent BMW mechanic. By having a knowledgeable and skilled friend with lots of tools or a friend who is a professional mechanic, you can save a lot of money having brakes, oil changes, coolant flushes, suspension work, etc, done much cheaper. For example, a BMW dealer will probably charge $1100 or more for pads and rotors all around. You can buy excellent parts for the job for about $400. Figure in some labor, maybe $200 or $300. You can see how you could save some money.

The one that scares me is the transmission. I've got 104,000 miles on mine and I always have that fear in the back of my mind that the transmission will go. Oh well. You can't live like that. Just driving it and hoping for the best.


Please check out the home page and articles. You will find much helpful information about the X5.

Regardless of mfr. the most important thing in buying a 9+ year old car will be previous history - is a service history available? was maintenance performed/on time? were most common high mileage issues fixed? ...better again if you know the owner and can get an honest answer.

...to answer your other question about dealership, either be willing/able to do the work yourself or find a good Indy........do not go to the dealership for out of warranty repairs unless you have deep pockets.

I think an 04/05 XC90 would require maintenance less often, but I still don't know. I don't want to give up on the X5 dream quite yet.

04+ MDX is something to consider.

Have you driven the XC90? I was not impressed at all. I am no big fan of the MDX, but I would take one over a XC90 and for sure it would be less trouble.

but the MDX is so nice..im personaly going with the ZDX.kids=never so i dont give a f*** about the rear passengers.they seem to be rare in my area,only seen one compared to the hundreds of MDX's and the increasing numbers of E53s

do you even need a SUV? 3 series or Audi A4 wagon is a better option, IMHO.

Ive always hated wagons with a passion.as for the suv,here in new york if it snows and your behind the wheel of a real wheel drive sedan your getting no where.some people just say get X drive or quatro but sedans dont have the same clearence levels as SUVs, making SUVs better for me.i also like the feeling of knowing that i get into an accident,if the other person is in a sedan,chances are im not the one with a totaled car

You would be amazed what an Audi Quattro with all of 4" of ground clearance and dedicated snows can get through...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2497/...190_z.jpg?zz=1
I do miss that car... S4 - 340hp V8 w/ 6spd...
But if ya hate wagons, no sense pushing those on ya!!

Check out the Infiniti FX35 too - I really like those, and should be way more reliable than anything from Germany.

Infiniti knows to make a car and i deff agree on the reliability part.as for the fx theres something about that face and hood that i dont like.qx is nice but waaaay too pricey.quatro is deff one of the up scale AWD systems out there but acuras SHAWD did out perform it when it came to slippery surfaces and hill tests.i always did question the reliabilty of an audi q5.the gas mileage is amazing and you cant hate those led drls.i think there is this one member on here that has one but didnt have it long enough to know how it compares to the X5 in term of reliability

Q5 will be expensive, hasn't been out long. I would bet it is pretty reliable tho.