Not going to rant. Want an honest answer
 

Qualifier: I love all the good stuff about my 2002 3.0 manual 5 speed, 123K.
Reality: I'm in the car repair business. We are a moderately high end, high quality indie. That being said, I've seen it all, and the X5 is a POS not worthy of the BMW marque. I don't need to explain why. Anyone who can't admit this is going through mental masturbation. Sure, there a few trouble fee vehicles requiring only "normal" maintenance but very few indeed. That's it for the rant. Question: What would you replace this car with?

Want a reliable, very little maintenance car. Lexus. Pick any. You will never have to worry about anything.

I think the car is decent, but honestly, mine at 77k is surprising on how many things are wrong with it. I don't mind it yet, but still amazed at the amount of things I have had to fix already.

What do you need in a car? FWD, AWD, four wheel drive? SUV, sedan, hatchback, sports car, etc?

Do you want new or used? What kind of budget?

Fwiw, our '01 at ~80k miles, has required less than a handful of non-maintenance repairs, in and out of warranty, over the past 10 1/2 yrs. But, I hear you. We've been lucky so far, but...
GL, mD

Will probably replace with something similar. AWD, SUV, SAV? (still don't get that one) Used (car repair business really helps with that one) $8 to $12K.

Here were my other options when looking:

BMW X3
Toyota Highlander
Lexus RX300
Honda CR-V
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Land Rover Freelander

I spent A LOT of time looking at cars before getting the X5 (it's kind of ridiculous really but my countless hours of due diligence got me a great deal). I would have liked to go with the toyota, lexus or honda for reliability/affordability reasons but when looking for those makes I realized that to get anything that looks nearly as good as the 9300$ x5 I would need to spend 15,000+ for a car with similar functionality.

I know the purchase price doesn't take into account the cost of ownership/maintenance but DIY and a trusted friend who owns an indy bmw shop have helped that out.

AWD, as in all wheel drive, eg some BMWs, Audis, many other brands, et al.
SUV, as in SUV...
SAV was simply BMW's nomenclature for an SUV.

$8-$12Gs is simply inheriting someone else's problem car, they either tossed due to repairs or, tossed before the crap hit the fan, imo.
GL, mD

PS...if I recall my MI geography correctly, Beulah is in the little finger of the mitten, and probably calls for AWD or four wheel drive, in winter, with dedicated snow tires. Many to pick from, but that budget is the hurdle, imo.

Just for interest's sake, what was it that busted your chops on yours? 3.0 MT being one o' the more reliable..
I know cars can get kinda' commodity when you're in the business, but I missed mine all the while I drove my sensible and reliable japanese metal. (fanboi sez, see ya in a few years, you'll be back ;) ).

"I useta' track a mildly trick e12.. now I drive a minivan.. it may not be the end o' the road, but it's within a few tankfuls.."

First off, I had the PO's service records when I bought the car. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Rear window regulators, (come on, how many cycles on the REAR WINDOWS?) CV boots, axles, batteries, trailing arm bushings, sway bar links, dash pixels, mid pixels, front window regulators, CCV service, fuel injection service, brake fluid flushes, coolant expansion tank, door lock actuator(s) , etc, etc. Thousands and thousands of dollars, as many of you have mentioned. (Actually, I would love a bunch of X5 owners for my business) . I lost another expansion tank a few weeks after I bought the car. The passenger door lock will not always work with the remote even though it was replaced once. So far, so good. Mental masturbation. Then, as soon as it got cold, I found myself driving to work holding on the driver's door because it froze up. Couple that with the horror stories related to the CCV freezing up with a hydraulic lock up and the mayonnaise on my oil filler cap and dipstick and quite frankly, I've had it. complete cooling system replacement on the way? No thanks. Hydraulic lock up due to frozen CCV? No way. Window stuck down in Northern Michigan winter? No way. Carry enough tools to pull a door panel, replace a battery , thaw out a frozen door, on every trip? No way. Can't read the radio display, waiting for the fan sensor to quit, etc etc etc. This is total BS. I've had two Z3s and currently have an M Roadster so It's not a BMW thing. It's an X5 thing.

And you still bought the X, with that many problems!? If you aren't ranting, what do you call it? I see two problems. First, you ARE ranting. Second, if you are in the repair business, you should know which cars are the most reliable...the ones you don't see many of. And the ones you do see only come in of a routine service. Sell your "POS" and just go high end Japanese and forget about the satisfaction you get from driving German.

Not fair Dragon. I was asked to tell what drove me over the line. Secondly, I was fortunate to have service records. Everything repaired by the PO is common to the X as is well documented here, and all the other X related forums. I suppose you think I should have been the one to spend the thousands on these repairs? That wouldn't have been too smart on my part, would it? I thought I chose a car where most of the aggravating and expensive repairs had already been performed, but as my SA reminds me, it's something new every week. BTW, how much have you spent?