just "got" a bmw x5 anybody like these? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

IVIuzzy · #1 09-24-2011, 04:30 PM

i recently bought a new home here in florida. it was a snowbirds house, when i looked at the home it was fully furnished and there was a car in the garage.
about a week before the closing the owner asked if id like to offer him money for the furniture in the home so he didnt have to sell it. i offered him 20,000 for the full house of furniture. he said for that price he'd give the 03 bm x5 in the garage to me as well.

i got the house, and the car, i dont need another car. it sure is nice. i dont know bmw too well but its an 03 x5 4.4i with 44k miles. are these cars trouble like i read? or should i keep it and enjoy a "new" bmw?

Brian Carlton · #2 09-24-2011, 04:32 PM

Virtually every single individual who owns one of them up here is a DB.

So, it's hard to provide positive feedback for such a vehicle.

Good luck with yours.

PaulC · #3 09-24-2011, 04:37 PM

TylerH860 had one.

C280 Sport · #4 09-24-2011, 04:54 PM

Only in Florida

I say that because it says Anna Marie Island. We looked at many homes before buying the one we have now in Venice, FL that alot of the times come with cars and well the home we settled on came with a new Ford Expedition(We sold it when we closed on it) I would personally have the car looked at first really good by a good indi shop and check the records and if it turns out to be bad I would post it up on a BMW forum or Craigslist.

Stoneseller · #5 09-24-2011, 04:55 PM

I had one.
Did a factory order summer of 2002, had it about 6 weeks later.
My first 'luxury car', I really liked it.
Held it's value very well, when I sold it in 2006 (just before end of warentee) I had had zero problems with it. IIRC I got 35k for it.

Drove like a sports car, fast, really an enjoyable vehicle.
I'd hate to pay repair bills on one out of warentee though.

davidmash · #6 09-24-2011, 07:10 PM

My sister has two. The are older (2001 I think). Drives them in Big Bear in the mountains and down to Las Vegas twice a month. Regular maintenance and she has had no issues with either.

layback40 · #7 09-24-2011, 08:10 PM

I hope you got a clear title with it!!!

Give it a good clean & see what you find.

elchivito · #8 09-24-2011, 08:34 PM

Is the furniture worth 20K? If it is you got the car free. If you don't need it, whatever you get for it is gravy. You'll only lose if you grossly overpaid for the chairs and tables and/or the car turns out to be a black hole. I'd drive the pee out of it for a few weeks and then sell it.

retmil46 · #9 09-24-2011, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoneseller

My first 'luxury car'

Heck, by my definition, any car you get for free is a luxury car!

IVIuzzy · #10 09-25-2011, 01:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elchivito

Is the furniture worth 20K? If it is you got the car free. If you don't need it, whatever you get for it is gravy. You'll only lose if you grossly overpaid for the chairs and tables and/or the car turns out to be a black hole. I'd drive the pee out of it for a few weeks and then sell it.

the furniture is worth way more than 20,000 its all robb and stucky and designer stuff. ive never had furniture so nice. i took an interior designer through the house, she told me to offer 30, i didnt have 30 to spend on it. i figured id do a little at a time.

as for the bmw. its perfect. PO got it detailed once a month, always serviced every 3 months at the dealer, regardless of miles. brand new tires last year, with only 900 miles on them. it had a new body control module put in it. i do not need the car, but my suburban just hit 310k miles. maybe id trade it out?

TylerH860 · #11 09-25-2011, 02:40 AM

Garbage, garbage, garbage. Sell it while you can. Had one for 3 years from 25k to 75k... another I bought at auction recently a dumped it. Same repeated problems with those and on the BMW forums.

Where shall we begin...

The tires are from the factory out of alignment and wear unevenly. This is a problem with all 4.4i sports that cannot be fixed since the wheels are so wide. $400 a tire every 15-20k miles.

Next we move to the suspension, which can't hold up well on regular city roads, let alone anything off road. Don't expect much past 75,000 miles on that.

If you turn the wheel to full lock very often it will tear the front axle boots.

Cooling system: All made of poor plastic and breaks. Intake gasket leaks and the engine starts drinking coolant with the 4.4i.

Transmission: "Lifetime" fluid kills them.

Engine: 15,000 miles or 1 year oil changes sludges them up. the 4.4i can take the abuse but the 3.0 will start sludging up and using oil.

Accessories: Suspension air pump will fail early. Power steering pump will fail early. window motors will fail early.

Electronics: Let's see how long it takes for you to break the electronic latch for the rear hatch. Are their more dead pixels in the dash and stereo than living? It also always thinks that one of the tail lights is out when they aren't. I even had a tail light socket short out and melt on me.

What else? Inside door latch quality is worse than a 10 year old Kia and will break off in your hand at some point. The leather is not close quality wise to anything MB has done. Enjoy random rattles and noises, and the constant dread.

Also, people will assume you are an a-hole for driving one.

It makes the first generation ML seem like a tank in comparison.

Jim B. · #12 09-25-2011, 03:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerH860

Garbage, garbage, garbage. Sell it while you can. Had one for 3 years from 25k to 75k... another I bought at auction recently a dumped it. Same repeated problems with those and on the BMW forums.

Where shall we begin...

The tires are from the factory out of alignment and wear unevenly. This is a problem with all 4.4i sports that cannot be fixed since the wheels are so wide. $400 a tire every 15-20k miles.

Next we move to the suspension, which can't hold up well on regular city roads, let alone anything off road. Don't expect much past 75,000 miles on that.

If you turn the wheel to full lock very often it will tear the front axle boots.

Cooling system: All made of poor plastic and breaks. Intake gasket leaks and the engine starts drinking coolant with the 4.4i.

Transmission: "Lifetime" fluid kills them.

Engine: 15,000 miles or 1 year oil changes sludges them up. the 4.4i can take the abuse but the 3.0 will start sludging up and using oil.

Accessories: Suspension air pump will fail early. Power steering pump will fail early. window motors will fail early.

Electronics: Let's see how long it takes for you to break the electronic latch for the rear hatch. Are their more dead pixels in the dash and stereo than living? It also always thinks that one of the tail lights is out when they aren't. I even had a tail light socket short out and melt on me.

What else? Inside door latch quality is worse than a 10 year old Kia and will break off in your hand at some point. The leather is not close quality wise to anything MB has done. Enjoy random rattles and noises, and the constant dread.

Also, people will assume you are an a-hole for driving one.

It makes the first generation ML seem like a tank in comparison.

Other than all THAT, did you like it?

How many CUPHOLDERS do they have? Nothing is more important to most american drivers than cup holders.

And to call them worse than the 1st gen ML is a pretty big slam on those "Alabama Trash Cans"

IVIuzzy · #13 09-25-2011, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TylerH860

Garbage, garbage, garbage. Sell it while you can. Had one for 3 years from 25k to 75k... another I bought at auction recently a dumped it. Same repeated problems with those and on the BMW forums.

Where shall we begin...

The tires are from the factory out of alignment and wear unevenly. This is a problem with all 4.4i sports that cannot be fixed since the wheels are so wide. $400 a tire every 15-20k miles.

Next we move to the suspension, which can't hold up well on regular city roads, let alone anything off road. Don't expect much past 75,000 miles on that.

If you turn the wheel to full lock very often it will tear the front axle boots.

Cooling system: All made of poor plastic and breaks. Intake gasket leaks and the engine starts drinking coolant with the 4.4i.

Transmission: "Lifetime" fluid kills them.

Engine: 15,000 miles or 1 year oil changes sludges them up. the 4.4i can take the abuse but the 3.0 will start sludging up and using oil.

Accessories: Suspension air pump will fail early. Power steering pump will fail early. window motors will fail early.

Electronics: Let's see how long it takes for you to break the electronic latch for the rear hatch. Are their more dead pixels in the dash and stereo than living? It also always thinks that one of the tail lights is out when they aren't. I even had a tail light socket short out and melt on me.

What else? Inside door latch quality is worse than a 10 year old Kia and will break off in your hand at some point. The leather is not close quality wise to anything MB has done. Enjoy random rattles and noises, and the constant dread.

Also, people will assume you are an a-hole for driving one.

It makes the first generation ML seem like a tank in comparison.

i did do some research on the bmw forums. ive seen some of these issues. the tires on there are Nexen's so the set was $530, reciept is in glove box.
the only thing i noticed with the car wrong so far is the cv boots are cracked as you mentioned. and the pixels in the radio are all burned out. there are some cool features in the car. but my current family car is my 01 suburban 1500. it is wonderful, ive had no problems except the A/C and auto ride. My original AC compressor went at 299k, and the auto ride started acting up at 250k. ive recently redone everything in my suburban. My brake lines blew about 2k miles ago. so i re undercoated, changed all lines. did all brakes. changed windshield and grill(they were just pitted) i bought new upholstery and re did everything. the suburban is great. i dont think the x5 will compare to it. however the bmw has some nice power when needed.

Edward Wyatt · #14 09-25-2011, 11:05 AM

I have to chuckle when I read the negative comments about the early W163 series. I own a 2000 ML320 that we bought new, and it has been one of the most reliable "cars" I have ever owned. It was built to a price point, so I don't expect the quality of the W126 era models, but it has been a pretty good value for the money.

I think the key to owning the W163 is to stay on top of service and repair needs. The same could probably be said of the BMW X5.

Having owned several BMW models, starting with a E21 320IS many years ago, I agree that they have numerous issues as Tyler states. I just replaced the entire cooling system in my 1999 323IS when the belt idler pulley started to make some noise. I spent over $600 in parts, but I won't have to worry about it for another 100k miles. I'm probably going to rebuild the suspension next in the same fashion. Every car is like a credit card, in the sense that sooner or later you have to pay the car back for the miles you have driven it. It really bites when you buy a used model that needs a bunch of catch up repairs to make it whole. Once the car is brought back up to specs, then one can enjoy the investment of money and time. I know it's frustrating, my BMW was pretty neglected when I bought it, and most people wouldn't have wanted to deal with the issues it had. These are just the nature of these cars. Not unlike the multitude of issues that old MB cars(i.e. W123/W124/W126) have that many of us forgive and forget because we like them so much.

The real economic killer is when someone finances a used luxury car that also needs work. Paying high interest to the bank/car lot on a car note and also paying for expensive repairs is not a sound economic choice.

The OP ended up with a well maintained X5 for short money, I would keep it and enjoy it. Trading it in means that he will pay retail for the car he buys and get wholesale for the nice BMW he trades in. Sounds to me like the dealer would be making the profit on that deal not the OP.

Speaking of trades, my neighbors can tell you horror stories about GM suv products that make the X5 look like a 240D in terms of reliability. For example, replacing entire gauge clusters at a tune of $600 each every few years, tailight printed circuit board shorts, air suspension problems, trans. problems ad nauseum.

TylerH860 · #15 09-26-2011, 03:13 AM

The BMW I had was nearly new and still on warranty. Its almost like it was on a timer; the moment it hit 50k, things went horribly wrong. The last year of ownership I only put 5000 miles on the car and it needed 3k to keep it going. The year before that I put about 20k on it and it needed about the same amount. This was from 50-75k miles. Low miles by most people's definition. I was using an independent mechanic during this time. I shudder to think how bad it would have been if I took it to the dealer. It became overwhelming to keep up with the last year and found myself not driving it because of the constant breakage. The second one I purchased had under 100k and probably 10k worth of work to get it 100% again if I took it to the stealership. I could have got it all done for about 2-3k but lost interest. The multitude of design flaws with this platform is just staggering.

I do not think the Gen I MLs are close to as bad as these. I would not call them robust by any stretch, but not to a criminal point like the BMW.

That x5 could bring 10k on its worst day wholesale. For that money he could get a 2001-2003 top of the line Denali with around 100k. It would be a pretty much worry free car for another 100k sort of like his current suburban, and any repairs can be done cheaply. There's someone I know with 230k on their Tahoe. At 200k the engine was replaced with a 50k used one for under $2000. About 15k after that the original transmission quit, but that was only $1200 to rebuild. To go through the suspension was $600, fuel pump $400, new AC compressor and full service for $500. Plenty of other to cheap to mention odds and ends. Transfer case and differentials still great. New truck out the other side of 200k for around 5k.

It won't have the handling and will look cheaper, but you want an SUV for the utility, not a lifted, fragile car platform.