My wife's girlfriend and her husband just got rid of their 3.0 X5 last weekend, traded it in on a new Nissan Armada, they'd had enough. The damn thing broke down on them two weekends ago on the Bay Bridge while traveling to San Francisco to meet up with some other friends for the day.

Picked up the new voltage regulator from BMW saturday and installed it on the alternator. Alternator is putting out almost 15 volts. Did not know these had 14 volt alternators on them. Drove it around all day today with no problems transmission is working like when it was new. Next is the stereo. After it is turned on the whole right side shuts off after about 20 seconds. Not sure whats going on there or if i should fix it or rip it all out and go aftermarket. Getting it looked at this week I hope.