I'm as DIY as DIY'ers comes

If I were you I would look at buying a new as possible E70 X5, keep in mind the E53 last rolled off the production line August 2006, most of them have had 2 or 3 owners by now and have high miles. Not to mention they are maintenance intensive and prone to be troublesome.

This is the part I don't understand. Doesn't that translate to---all of us E53 owners are either stupid or fools? :dunno:

Or both !!!! :rofl:

Anecdotal, and buy what you like/are comfortable with...

If a one owner, decent mileage, E53 popped up on the radar, I would think it is a good buy if one likes the look, and isn't chasing some of the gizmos and 'refinement' that came on later MYs of the E70.

My '01 3.0, with ~88k miles, has had less than a handful of non-maintenance repairs in its nearly 12 years, and I would get in it and drive it to the left coast, tomorrow, if I had to.

But, all anecdotal...
GL, mD

I feel better, I have company.

So some people on the thread say there as bad as the Internet makes them out to be and some say not to believe the Internet. Haha who to believe? I do need to disclaim my previous post- my 3 series trans did not give it was my fault in not installing a cv properly which cause it to pop out. That was a real scare.

Thinking out loud here, to maybe give you guys some useful perspective. Basically the only two midsize suv's that I will consider buying are the x5 or a wk grand cherokee limited. Basically the grand cherokee will have grey leather interior (which I am not a fan of), heated seats, and performance more similar to the 3.0 (unless I get a hemi). Those would be its only real options and it will not drive near as good as an x5. The jeep is not really known for its reliability either and while parts will most likely be cheaper I would rather work on a bimmer than a jeep (plenty of time on both). Price is going to be fairly similar for both with the wk being slightly less.

I guess the point is I will be way happier with a 3.0 x5 with the winter package and a panaromic than I would the jeep limited. I'm talking myself out of all the x5 options as it sounds like that would sya me a lot of hassle and downtime.

It may help if you follow three steps:

1) Separate the concepts of reliability, and durability. Different animals. How often it breaks, vs how long it lasts. Something can have only one failure, but not last very long. Something can also have terrible reliability, with many nuisance failures, but go on like that for a long time without ever wearing out.

2) Separate the concepts of risk of failure, from actually failure. An older vehicle has more risk of failure, but that doesn't mean that every one will fail. You are asking about transmission life as if it is a calculation. It isn't, the failures that have been seen are scattered over a wide range of mileages, from 30,000 to 300,000. There is no 'average failure point' that can be calculated or supported with data. My 3.0 didn't have any significant failures in the 4 years I had it. But I sold it due to the risk of problems, I just didn't want to deal with them. I kept my X3 longer, without the same concern, because it is a simpler platform.

3) Consider that everything you hear here is anecdotal, and so is subject to the biases that all of of have. Consider the base rate fallacy, confirmation bias, negativity bias, and illusory correlations. All ways of saying that we report data that supports our beliefs. Look at posters and decide if they are reporting their own experience as if it is valid for all samples, or whether there is some balance. Then make up your own mind.

Good luck.

There are pros and cons to every vehicle. I was simply stating that their reputation of needing a lot of maintenance is 100% true. I wanted an E53 so bad for the past 3+ years but I just kept talking myself out of it every time because of reading the posts on here. For me, it's the perfect blend of everything I want from a vehicle... and I'm okay with the cons because of the joy I get out of it. Foolish? Maybe, but having a car that I absolutely love is an important thing in my life.

I was in the same situation, it was between an X5 or settle for a WK (preferably an Overland at the time)... I've been in BMW's since my first car, branching off to a Lexus RX300 for a couple years and honestly something always felt missing during that time - although that car didn't need a single thing replaced on it, I'll give it that.

Get an X5, just expect the repairs to be much more than the E46. I've easily spent $2,000 in the first year of owning mine. I never had as many small, stupid issues with my E30/36/46. There's always something breaking, you learn to live with it.

I'd have to personally suggest sticking to a 3.0... their problems will be the most similar to the E46.

well, a Jeep and a BMW - they are in different leagues altogether, are they not? even though, granted, i had my 4.6iS go through places that are not car friendly (driving on volcano roads in Nicaragua, or Cierra de la Muerte in Costa Rica, or on a couple feet of snow in Moscow), i still would say that a Jeep would have been better in those environments...

However, if your riding stays on the parket dance floor... err... on the normally paved roads in the US, an X5 will give you more safety - my cousin managed to flip a Grand Cherokee in Brooklyn making a right turn at 15 MPH and hitting a side curb with the rear wheels... that thing went upside down for no apparent reason... well, he says it was 15 MPH, I'd suspect it was more like 25 MPH...


I'd go with proven safety of volvo, MB or BMW as opposed to kia, hyunday or, as in this example, a jeep...


just my $0.02