Cliffs at Bottom.


Alright here in the story, my family moved to San Diego back around 2000, my Dad wanted a new car since I was just getting my license back then, I inherited his Acura Vigor, and my Mom drives a Boxster. Dad has a pretty decent commute everyday about 40mins, all freeway, so we were leaning toward three cars, Lexus GS, Acura RL or BMW 530i.

We ended up at Cunningham BMW and my Dad noticed the X5's which at that time were essentially brand new. He liked it and figured we would need the extra room for doing random Home depot trips in our new place.

Get the X5 three months later, and well it has been downhill from there. The first two years weren't bad, occassional maintenance, nothing out of the ordinary, however in 04 my family and I were in Palm Springs, they were visiting friends and my brother and I were at Coachella music festival. Going home after seeing radiohead, it is pitch black, I notice a light come on in the gauge cluster the temp gauge is in the red.

I shut the vehicle off immediately within 3-4 seconds and pull over. I peak under the car and coolant is leaking everywhere. Get it towed and take a rental car back to San Diego. The dealer informs us the head is cracked and after some sort of pressure test determined the entire engine would need replacing. "gulp"

Okay, fine, my Dad is pissed coming from his Honda/Acura background (Mom and Dad met selling Honda's together) and I doubt my Dad ever even spent 10K on a new car in his life, let alone the $50K the X5 cost. Well the bill slighly eclipses $10K, the car was out of warranty at the time.

I don't know what happened but the replaced engine seemed to only cause a continuing myriad of problems, the past year the X5 has been at the dealer nearly 5 months total. I don't even know where to start, since ownership, we have replaced 12 window regulators/motors, another head, and my brother (who drives the X5 now, Dad has an M3) can't even leave the dealership without a CEL or Airbag light coming back on.

Two months after the engine was I was driving my Dad to the airport, on the way back the X5 begins to overheat and I turn it off as I'm pretty accustomed to at this point (4th time for me alone.) Coolant everywhere, turned out the head they installed was faulty and had to be replaced.

Within the past month my brother was left on the freeway due to a malfunctioning temp sensor, replaced for $300 and as soon as he leaves the window regulator fails once he gets back to school. He returns the next day to have it fixed, (they give him an X5 rental). He gets the X5 back with the window fixed and leaves and the CEL light comes on the next day.

At this point frustration in an understatement. He goes to drop the car off and they tell him they don't have a rental car to give him. This pretty much set him and my Dad off. The head service manager was out sick so my Dad spoke briefly with the General Manager about pending legal action.

The total amount spent fixing the X5 since 01 has been a little over $17K, more than I paid for the M3. :confused We are going to get a print out of all the dealer visits since 2001 this week, I'll fill you in on all the problems I didn't list, I know there is a lot more, just haven't pay attention to all the little details since it is my brother's car now.

Update to follow, Dad and I are meeting with the GM later this week or next week.

Cliffs.
Bought X5 in 01.
first 2-3 years, no major problems
4th year. Thermostat failed after having it recently replaced. Car overheats, cracks head, new engine installed, not under warranty $10K.
Past year the X5 has been at the dealer 5 months total out of the year.
Total cost since 2001 cost fixing > $17,000.
Brother goes to drop X5 off for the 3rd time in 3 weeks, dealer doesn't have a rental car for him, he is forced to leave. Dad flips out has had enough.
Meeting with General Manger this week to try and solve issues otherwise pending legal action.

If anyone has any knowledge regarding Lemon laws or a worthy lawyer to consult, provided we don't settle this with the GM, it would be appreciated.

Interesting link. Old, but interesting. http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=127715

Sorry to hear that man. Other than the GM of the dealership have you tried contacting someone at BMW NA? I know there is one person on this forum who chimes in on threads having to do with dealership/customer service problems etc... I believe the member name is BMW_NA (or something similar).

Yeah, when the engine was being replaced and the dealer refused to deal with us since the car was out of warranty we called BMW NA. They said they wouldn't do anything since the car was out of warranty.

Sorry to hear that man. Other than the GM of the dealership have you tried contacting someone at BMW NA? I know there is one person on this forum who chimes in on threads having to do with dealership/customer service problems etc... I believe the member name is BMW_NA (or something similar).
Couldn't find that username either, tried BMW_NA, BMWNA, NABMW, etc. Thanks though.

Here it is: http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/member.php?u=6291

Check the members' previous posts to find any useful numbers etc...
I know GA as a state has lemon laws which prevent things like this, perhaps something similar in Cali?

Sorry for all your troubles and thank you so much for posting this here since i am shopping around and was looking into the X5 myself, i guess i will end up with a Lexus instead. I hope BMW will get their act together and hopefully soon. People nowadays are looking for reliability when shopping for a car and i think BMW lacks in that dept. so much for the Ultimate Driving Machine.

John

Just joined this site and this is my first post. I have had a couple of friends that bought X5s and have similar problems (especially the electrical systems) and both have one thing in common. They are 2000 X5s. Don't forget not only this was a new car for BMW it was also a new factory that build them. Granted that is not an excuse for a company such as BMW to produce problematic cars but it may explain the drivetrain problems you have had.

I have a 03 X5 4.4i and are about to return it (my lease is up) and will be getting a 05 X5 4.4i. I did have problems with my 03 specifically my CD-changer never worked well (I have changed it THREE times) the GPS unit was changed, and the motor on the driver side outside mirror was changed. All under warrenty but anoying to be sure. Never an engine problem or anything else for that matter. Nothing compared to my two friends with their nightmare electrical problems.

My neighbor has a 2004 X5 3.0 fully loaded and has about 35,000 miles and not a single problem with his. I will post to tell you how my 05 will be doing. I am assuming the lease from this guy and he says not a single problem so far. We will see. Maybe they have gotten their act together down at the X5 factory.

Based on my experience, my 2001 X5 3.0 was trouble-free during its 5 years with me with the exception of the window regulators which easily break but covered by warranty. This is the most trouble-free vehicle I had among all the BMWs and Mercedes in my family all these years.

I have an 03 4.4 and Im now wondering if I should hold on to it or not, I bought it outright in 03 paid $60 and its now worth roughly $40 I was thinking at the time of purchase it would be a nice vehicle to own for 5 or 6 years but Im now starting to see more and more glitches pop up. nav screen has locked up a few times with no explanation from the dealer, it wont reset unless I restart the vehicle no biggie but an annoyance, the moonroof has a wind leak cant drive with the sun screen open unless you like the the wooshing noise of wind sneaking in, auto tilt down feature on passenger side mirror stays down looking at the curb unless I manually turn it up, hazzard lights come on automatically while driving will not shut off with switch the vehicle determines on its own when to turn them on & off, must hit key remote multiple times to have the vehicle react tried both keys just something odd since day one of the vehicle kind of intermittant.the first two years were trouble free except a leaking air bag that was replaced immediately after purchase but now these little elec. glitches have got me thinking. the moonroof is supposed to be solved by the dealer but all the elec. probs are nothing found by the dealer.
Im just concerned once the warranty is gone I may be paying some major money to the dealer to fix all these little things that seem to be popping up!!!
I love the truck otherwise very fun to drive and well designed other than the elec.

I guess some guys are just not that fortunate. Based on what I have seen, some people have extremely bad experience with BMWs, some have trouble-free units of the same model and year.

I have an 03 4.4 and Im now wondering if I should hold on to it or not, I bought it outright in 03 paid $60 and its now worth roughly $40 I was thinking at the time of purchase it would be a nice vehicle to own for 5 or 6 years but Im now starting to see more and more glitches pop up. nav screen has locked up a few times with no explanation from the dealer, it wont reset unless I restart the vehicle no biggie but an annoyance, the moonroof has a wind leak cant drive with the sun screen open unless you like the the wooshing noise of wind sneaking in, auto tilt down feature on passenger side mirror stays down looking at the curb unless I manually turn it up, hazzard lights come on automatically while driving will not shut off with switch the vehicle determines on its own when to turn them on & off, must hit key remote multiple times to have the vehicle react tried both keys just something odd since day one of the vehicle kind of intermittant.the first two years were trouble free except a leaking air bag that was replaced immediately after purchase but now these little elec. glitches have got me thinking. the moonroof is supposed to be solved by the dealer but all the elec. probs are nothing found by the dealer.
Im just concerned once the warranty is gone I may be paying some major money to the dealer to fix all these little things that seem to be popping up!!!
I love the truck otherwise very fun to drive and well designed other than the elec.
That is the unfortunate thing, due to the timeframe it looks like we don't have much of a case due to lemon laws only being applicable during the warranty period....:(

I should count my blessings. our 02 4.4 blew a radiator hose at 48k miles which was covered. luckily it did not overheat long enough to blow the HG or worst. Now at 80k miles a bunch of little problems have appeared. 1 window reg (so far), a front suspension clunk (replaced all tierods, balljoints, arms but still there), PS pump whines, possible water pump noise.....

I try to do all the maintainence repair myself and it's taking one weekend a month from me and $ for parts.

Hey Allen how are the tires treating you?
Bigfish,

PS as far as my post above states, dont get me wrong I love the x5 I just dont know if I want the expected repairs or not down the road. I think the more complicated a vehicle is the more problems it will have nature of the beast type thing!
at least we didnt buy mercedes, my parents just had their 2 yr old car purchased back from Merc. and my old neighbor went through two cars bought back from Mercedes in just under a year!!!

Hey Allen how are the tires treating you?
Bigfish,



they are working great still lots of thread left.:) my wife added a couple rash to the wheels though.:mad

Did you ever get the camber adjusted on yours? I put the H&R lowering springs on mine, now I have negative camber at one end and positive at the other Im going to get the camber adjusting bolts for the front from tire rack but Im hoping my shop can adjust the rear with the existing hardware provided by the factory. Well see.

i'll be honest..not to familiar with lemon law in different state and county but if ur out of existing warranty u are pretty much out of luck...you should have tried to return that vehicle to the dealer...depending on dealer policy they might have been able to exchange your vehicle...BMW NA will try and not get involved because most vehicle that are sold with BMW warranty have to be CPO and have a minimum of a few years left on warranty.

But again it really depends on dealership and how they treat customers..

IMO I have been lucky and unlucky with used BMW..i know someone who has a m3 very low mileage which he brought at a auction for very very cheap...never has had a problem and loves his car...but yet again I also know people who cant get a single day ride out of their vehicle....

I'm sorry to hear that and hope the Gm will do something for you guys...

Did you ever get the camber adjusted on yours? I put the H&R lowering springs on mine, now I have negative camber at one end and positive at the other Im going to get the camber adjusting bolts for the front from tire rack but Im hoping my shop can adjust the rear with the existing hardware provided by the factory. Well see.

I reduced the rear camber a little (more positive). there's an ecentric adjuster bolt. the front I left alone since it's wearing nice and even. you'll need camber plates or someother way of changing the top mount position to change camber up front.