10 used car clunkers to avoid/By Forbes.com
 

Well look who they mentioned first...lol!!:rofl::rofl:

10 used car clunkers to avoid - Yahoo! Autos

Geez, number one on the list. I am definitely going to have to think longer about buying a used e70, probably about an extra 15 minutes and then will eventually get an e70... :P

I would think hard regarless of the report. E70 isn't DIY friendly, but what can I learn if it's too easy.

makes sense... the list is a mile long of problems and fixes on these things.

I really like the way the e70 looks and was actually considering getting rid of the Vdub and getting the e70 for the wife and I take the e53.. Perhaps i need to visit the E70 forum more often and see what people say about it. But then again where is the fun in an easy to fix car... :-)

Okay just in case some people missed it, they are only talking about years 2008-2009 not any of the E53 models.

That kind of seems strange to me as I would have thought they worked out most of the kinks of the E70 by then.

good ill pick one up cheaper due to these "reviews". my x5 is a champ by the way

My '03 4.4 sport with 155k miles has only needed a waterpump, belts, upper hose ass'y, FSR and coolant tank along with regular maintenance items.

Your X is hardly average, seeing as you bought "the cheapest X5 ever" that was not treated well at all. It was also pre-douche owned, as evident by the massive "tapout" sticker that was on the rear window.

It would be interesting to get an answer from Forbes as to why the '02 4.6 is so radically different then other year 4.6 Xs.


OTHER FACTORS ARE AT WORK HERE TOO
The massive gas price increase in the mid-2000s wreaked havok with SUV/SAV values, causing many first owners (owner demographic is upper middle class (read non-DIYers) with children), to keep their "old" SUVs (not worth a warm bucket of piss at trade in) and give it to Jr because he just got his permit. I'm sure most everyone on the forum can agree they drove the snot out of their first vehicle and Jr has spent the last decade playing GranTurismo/Grand Theft Auto and has ZERO DIY skills, causing EVERY problem is fixed by a BMW dealer (MASSIVE REPAIR COSTS).
I would bet Forbes obtained their info EXCLUSIVLY from first owner surveys, the vast majority of first owners of 10 yr old Xs have bought a new vehicle for themselves and left the old X behind to receive Jrs daily a$$ reamings.

When I found my one owner X I inspected the rear seating area closely for "teenager wear" (knee wear on front seat backs, door liner kick scuffs, rear seatbelt wear/staining) because I did not want to be the 2nd owner of Jrs 1st car.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but what do you mean exactly by "It would be interesting to get an answer from Forbes as to why the '02 4.6 is so radically different then other year 4.6 Xs."? What other year 4.6 are you talking about?

Forbes is only talking about years 2008-2009 X5s (e70).

Mis-read the OPs post, saw his owned vehicles list with the '02 4.6 X on top. Have not had my coffee yet this morning.

I have a friend with a civic with 180k and it's had brake pads, tires, and oil.

so I'm sure you can see how such an owner would look at an X5 like your one and think that's extreme.

Big heavy luxury automobiles will always be high maintenance. I still love the X5, but for the person who's going to the repair shop for everything it's going to be a nightmare.

No, prob. I totally understand since sometimes the E53 gets a bad rap. Just wanted to clarify things. :thumbup:

Those E53s that became 1st cars for new drivers especially. Having my coffee now.

I had a new, unmodded Civic CRX in the mid-80s that would pop main fuses and leave me strranded in the winter (over a dozen times), usually at the Whitestone Bridge toll on my way to work in College Pt, Queens. My GFs '05 Accord (purchased new) with 65k miles has already needed 3 sets of tires, rear wheel bearings, 3 batteries, belts, 2 sets of brakes and alternator (NIGHTMARE!!! Went to Honda for the part, got one that had a bad internal regulator that would cut off output when up to summer underhood temp. Honda would check the part cool and tell me it operates fine, causing me to do the job 3 times and troubleshooting the entire system for days!!!!!! Finally wore down the parts manager and got it swapped, problem solved!) Bad OE parts in a sealed box from a dealer is total BS in my book. Needs R134a topped off each summer too.

NONE of my BMWs (four to date, with around 3/4 of a million miles) have EVER left me stranded!!! Just the 2 Hondas above have had me roadside over 15 times.

There's also the fact that Jap cars are made with machined parts and sheet metal stampings that are not deburred (razor sharp edges) and plastic molded parts with sharp edges and mold flashings. BMW deburrs machined parts and molds radiuses on all plastic parts, also molds that flash are removed from production and repaired. My hands and arms look like I was attacked by a pack of wild ferrets after DIYing on Jap crap!

The CRX even left me stranded 2 miles from the Honda dealer because they "forgot" to fill the tank with fuel after charging me on the purchase aggreement. You can keep their sales/service experience too, it SUCKS!

OUCH - and its cold up there on that bridge in the WINTER!!! LOL

:bustingup:bustingup:bustingup:iagree:

I concur with TiAg. I did the same thing with my 01 and the new 4.8is. Thankfully the back seats were new, hell, the front seats looked new too. But what I have come to realize, and this is only me, is this. Most new BMW drivers have money, don't care about maintenance, and normally lease. Now this is good and bad. Good because BMW calls them and says they need to bring it in for service, bad because... BMW calls them to bring it in for service. So by the time their lease is over, they flip the car over to the dealer and get into another lease. The car is then CPO'd and then sold to people like me. Don't make crazy, make you wanna puke so much money, but enough to have toys. Then ANAL people like me tear it down and start fixing all the stuff after it is out of CPO. Hell, during CPO, if there is a tiny problem, I'm on the phone with the dealer and trying to make an appointment. I'll take every full advantage of the CPO before it wears out. lol. But I'd like to think I keep on top of everything on the X just like ALL of the the enthusiasts on here. But sometimes it goes on to people who have not a clue. They take it to Jiffy Lube every now and again and get the oil changed, throw some Prestone in when the coolant light comes on, and dump Bar's Radiator Stop Leak when the $5 for coolant becomes too costly. Now it's those cars that are going to see the most problems because of the lack of care. So I completely agree with the earlier statement about Pop's giving Jr the keys to the whip and wish him the best of luck.

So the way the article was written, I am assuming it is talking about once it comes off of warranty and maintenance and now the owner is on the hook for repairs. I am sure most of the complaints come from Maintenance stuff. Like when they have to take it in for a brake service and they have to pay for it, they get surprised when they look at the bill and it is $2K to do 4 brakes. Or when a CV boot tears and grease is going everywhere and they are presented with a bill for $800.00. But I bet these numbers are based at the dealership and not an Indy. Hell even with my 4.8is, when I looked at the repair history, in March of 2012, the last owner spent $6700 for misc stuff. Both rear suspension air bags, brake rotors and pads on all corners, oil service, coolant service, water pump etc... I'm sure she wasn't happy and I am sure that is why she decided to get rid of it. (I found out my 4.8is was traded in for a 2013 X5M BTW! lol. Gonna be looking for that when she comes time to dump it. But not looking forward to the turbos) Now I know it talked about fit and finish as one of the complaints, but I have owned 2 and I haven't had a single problem with fit and finish. Only mishap I had was I cracked the lower plastic portion of my seat and my pant leg ripped the damn thing off. Otherwise all the seams are still true, fit fine and finish awesome.

Again, only my opinion and not saying that some people on here haven't been fed the short end of the stick. There are some mishaps that happen, but that is with all cars. Someone mentioned a Honda with high miles but only maintenance was tires, oil, and brakes. I have a friend who had a Honda Civic, every problem you can imagine for a little 4 banger and only 67K miles. No accident, dealer maintained. I had 2 Nissan Z32 Twin Turbo's, Those were a nightmare! So now I am being biased, lol.

In any case it is an anomaly. Some X's run forever and some just die a painful death. Whenever I look for a new car, I always try to get a one owner and get the records on everything. This way I know what had been done and what needs to be addressed and I won;t have any surprises. Knock on wood, but my 4.8is, no problems. Some funny things going on, but as far a massive problems, I got nothing.

Ok, BTW I am tired, I didn't have coffee for the day, I ran out and I just read the above and some things are hard to follow. Sorry in advance, but... yeah you all can get the picture. lol

I had a beat 91 CRX Si that I got for a $1000 as my winter beater when I have my Lancer Evolution. It had 140k on it and ran great for the couple years I had it. I replaced the shocks because they were so cheap and easy to do.

Loved that car, wish I never sold it. what a go cart.

I currently have 3 BMWs and while non have stranded me on the side of the road, they all are always need something no matter how much I do. It's just comes with owning expensive cars as they get old.

What's with all the people not getting their coffee today?! Its Friday. Did everyone start the weekend early?! :D :rofl:

I can't recall Senator!:D GFs B'day yesterday, Rangers game, beer, Capital Grille for dinner and drinks, Omni Hotel for more drinks..........kind of fuzzy after the Omni.

I was helping the CEO grade tests and inputing grades in. Woke up at 430 to discover, no coffee. We dont have a D&D open 24 hours. They open at 7. By the time it was & I was half away and didn't feel like getting coffee lol

Did they fix the 2nd gear synchro issue by the '91 model year? After proper break in the 1-2 shift would grind if done swiftly on mine, hated that. I've driven dozens of 3 pedal BMW and never beat the synchro while going into 2nd gear.

I ordered my 1.5 5 spd in red with black interior before Honda had even produced the first one for the US, paid sticker for the car and options without a test drive or even seeing it in person. Dealers put $2000 markups on the 1.5 manuals once they realized the massive demand here, the dealer proceeded to deliver cars to those who paid the markup while I had a signed purchase aggreement that predated the markup buyers contracts and I called them on it. I was told my car was ready for delivery and went to the dealer only to be handed the key to a blue on powder blue 1.3 auto CRX, told them that is not my car and was told the salesperson that did my contract made a mistake and I needed to give them another $2000 if I wanted my contract car. A call to Manmouth Honda from my lawyer finally got me the car I signed the contract for, after almost 2 months of later buyers receiving their cars. I will NEVER set foot in another Honda Showroom after the BS they put me through!

that sounds like a proper nightmare, but I'd blame the dealer and not honda on that one.

no gearbox pop out issues on mine.

Ok back to X5's--- i am a little surprise that BMW has not cleared up the problems of the earlier X'es. I will have to admit that an expensive luxury car will be expensive to maintain but to be classed as one of the worst in quality, and reliability in the same sentense is a bit daunting. I still love my X and it has been (fairly) good to me so far. I would still buy another one (E53 my preference) over a expedition, navigator, tahoe, cherokee, armada, Qx56, ect., which are not mentioned in the top 10 but some are 10 times worst than the X'es. --- just my 2cents

a lot of the issue just come from normal wear. Things like all the bushings going can't really be fixed.

I blame Honda because Manmouth Honda was a 5 star rated dealer for Honda sales and service from Honda North America, they obviously had no oversight of dealers to give that place a 5 star rating. I also hold them responsible for manufacturing/build details that leave DIYers and service techs bloody and scratched up due to all the sharp edges.

well i agree with normal wear on certain things but consider this -- door handle carrier, window regulator, expansion tank, oil seperator, pano-roof, when you compare the BMW to other expensive and lesser automobiles, this is a disgrace. I still love my X. My sister has a 2001 Lexus RX300 -NO problems except for normal wear. she will not sell it. she loves my X and I still love my X.:)

i love my X5, during all my years of ownership, only had to replace one door carrier. 3 window regs, and expansion tank. Everything else is maintenance stuff, so really the stuff that failed that really shouldn't has been minimal.

Couldn't agree more, and I love my X to death. Nothing else I've driven compares, except a Cayenne. But by most people's standards the X5 a POS in terms of reliability. The items you mentioned above are considered common and routine for most of us on this forum (not to mention valve cover gaskets, valley pan gaskets, TRANSMISSIONS, etc).

Many of you have mentioned anecdotal evidence of Hondas, Toyotas etc. that have crapped out on you. But truth be told, the quality reports speak for themselves. And even when those cars did have problems I assure you the cost was nowhere near that of an X5 transmission replacement or valley pan gasket that occurs routinely by 150k miles. You absolutely cannot compare X5 reliability to Highlander or 4Runner reliability, the same way you would not compare their powertrains. But even if you compare the X5 to, say, an ML500 or Range Rover Sport, the long-term reliability falls short. As evidenced by this article.

Okay, we know where this thread is going.

However, I feel the need to point out certain things.

1) Someone mentioned the BMW X5 being 1st on the list. Yes but that does NOT mean they are the WORST of all on the list. They just happen to be mentioned first. Those vehicles are not listed in any order. I think people read the OPs statement and assumed the rest.

2) They are only talking about 2008-2009 vehicles including the X5s - not E53s.

Facts are facts. Even though there were many variables taken into account, not just reliability, the 2008-2009 X5s made their list of ten in that article. It did NOT state they were the TOP TEN WORST of all vehicles.

Let's just not paint ALL X5s with the same brush.

The article states "While we’ve included used cars to avoid in most market segments, we came down especially hard this year on under-performing luxury vehicles. Not only have used luxury-car prices skyrocketed by about 22 percent from 2009-2011 according to the NADA Used Car Guide, but the cost of replacement parts and labor tend to be considerably higher than with similar models from mainstream brands (after all, there’s a reason that BMW and Mercedes-Benz dealers can treat their customers to posh service-department waiting rooms and the latest models as loaner cars).