Hi Britrc. Sorry hear about all your problems. My dad bought a 52 plate x5 3.0d sport about 3 years ago and at the time it had over 200k on the clock. But this car was mint. The only problem it had were the rear bushes. I'm really surprised at all the problems you have had but hope you get them sorted.
As for the Jap cars being better. I've always had a Toyota Yaris as a runner or an auris in the house and they are fantastic cars. But overall you can't compare Japanese build quality to German (my opinion). But as mentioned before you have bought a car that hasn't been cared for at all.
Best of luck getting her sorted mate
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New owner in Cornwall
Re: New owner in Cornwall
2010 X5 xdrive40d in Bronze
Re: New owner in Cornwall
[quote="shadrack"]
i have to say tou have been unlucky but things like suspension bushes etc dont go overnight so you are partly to blame for not looking when buying, other than that quite what you expect buying a 12/13 year old car i dont know as its not, new and never will be so when buying older cars i always bargain hard and dont mind doing bits to them, i cant see how you can say bmw are a rubbish brand just because youve bought a lemon
[/quote]
Any wear and tear issues I fully accept and expect on a car of this age/mileage, it's irrelavent of make. My issue is how poorly everything is made on the car; not what I would expect of a premium brand, and certainly not what I am used to on other cars.
Common faults dealt with so far:
LCM fault
FSR fault
Dash pixels
MID pixels
Rear light connections
Headlight lacquer fading/discolouring
Front radius arm void bushes
Seatbelt seat sensor failure
Buttons falling out of AC control
Gearbox replaced (could have been avoided if BMW had put sensible service intervals on the box)
These aren't wear and tear, these are all common faults from poor design/quality. It's clear this car had been built down to a price, not up to a quality. Apart from the common faults the car is in very good condition, and well looked after.
I've been working on cars for thirty years, I know the difference between a neglected, bodged or abused car and a badly made one; which makes this so infuriating I thought I was getting a premium brand car and expected far more.
I appreciate this opinion will not be well received on a BMW forum, but I as I find.
i have to say tou have been unlucky but things like suspension bushes etc dont go overnight so you are partly to blame for not looking when buying, other than that quite what you expect buying a 12/13 year old car i dont know as its not, new and never will be so when buying older cars i always bargain hard and dont mind doing bits to them, i cant see how you can say bmw are a rubbish brand just because youve bought a lemon
[/quote]
Any wear and tear issues I fully accept and expect on a car of this age/mileage, it's irrelavent of make. My issue is how poorly everything is made on the car; not what I would expect of a premium brand, and certainly not what I am used to on other cars.
Common faults dealt with so far:
LCM fault
FSR fault
Dash pixels
MID pixels
Rear light connections
Headlight lacquer fading/discolouring
Front radius arm void bushes
Seatbelt seat sensor failure
Buttons falling out of AC control
Gearbox replaced (could have been avoided if BMW had put sensible service intervals on the box)
These aren't wear and tear, these are all common faults from poor design/quality. It's clear this car had been built down to a price, not up to a quality. Apart from the common faults the car is in very good condition, and well looked after.
I've been working on cars for thirty years, I know the difference between a neglected, bodged or abused car and a badly made one; which makes this so infuriating I thought I was getting a premium brand car and expected far more.
I appreciate this opinion will not be well received on a BMW forum, but I as I find.
Re: New owner in Cornwall
Well my honest advice as I always do as I like to buy older cars and tinker and you know if you've been working on cars for 30 yrs you can never see all the faults till you get out there and drive it properly spend time researching and joining sites like this or stick to buying fiesta 950 pop that you can rebuild for £1.50 and a few nuts and bolts from the garage but good look I hope you get half the pleasure I get from mine which is an ongoing project every week lol
X5 e53 3.0d 53 plate and Honda vtr1000 fun time
Re: New owner in Cornwall
Fully appreciate what you say, but you are missing my point.
Like you I love working on cars; restoring, modifying and improving them. My issue is; I bought a supposed premium brand, and I have found the quality to be worse than a cheap brand. So when I buy a car fully expecting to put a lot of money into it to get it how I like it, I like to know the end result is worth the cost and time. This X5 is a big disappointment, not because it has lots wrong with it; because it's cheaply made with poor design and cheap components that fall prematurely.
I did lots of research on this and other forms, but as most trust their cars to garages and rarely get under the skin of cars like this, the information is often biased to the ride/drive of the car and not construction. The buyers guide spends a lot of time comparing the different models and specs, but has little in the way of information about the quality/reliability of components and build quality.
Maybe mine is a Friday car, but so far I have got right into the nuts and bolts, and coated to cars I have owned before, this falls far sort on build quality, and desparately short of what I would expect a premium brand.
Yesterday the blower fan failed, tested right through and sure enough fan had failed, so had to strip the entire dash out to replace it. Only once in thirty years has a blower motor gone on me, and that was a 92 Honda civic with170k miles. 20 mins to change on the Civic, 4.5hrs on the BMW; still, got to know the inner workings behind the dash and protect some wires that would have chafed through if left any longer.
I do appreciate all the help and advise, and I am going to stick with this for the time being, as I have seen improvements that I can make, and it is a well maintained clean example. And yes it does drive very nicely.
Like you I love working on cars; restoring, modifying and improving them. My issue is; I bought a supposed premium brand, and I have found the quality to be worse than a cheap brand. So when I buy a car fully expecting to put a lot of money into it to get it how I like it, I like to know the end result is worth the cost and time. This X5 is a big disappointment, not because it has lots wrong with it; because it's cheaply made with poor design and cheap components that fall prematurely.
I did lots of research on this and other forms, but as most trust their cars to garages and rarely get under the skin of cars like this, the information is often biased to the ride/drive of the car and not construction. The buyers guide spends a lot of time comparing the different models and specs, but has little in the way of information about the quality/reliability of components and build quality.
Maybe mine is a Friday car, but so far I have got right into the nuts and bolts, and coated to cars I have owned before, this falls far sort on build quality, and desparately short of what I would expect a premium brand.
Yesterday the blower fan failed, tested right through and sure enough fan had failed, so had to strip the entire dash out to replace it. Only once in thirty years has a blower motor gone on me, and that was a 92 Honda civic with170k miles. 20 mins to change on the Civic, 4.5hrs on the BMW; still, got to know the inner workings behind the dash and protect some wires that would have chafed through if left any longer.
I do appreciate all the help and advise, and I am going to stick with this for the time being, as I have seen improvements that I can make, and it is a well maintained clean example. And yes it does drive very nicely.
Re: New owner in Cornwall
I had a Friday car too. My E53 was built between Xmas and New Year 2004 and had all sorts of problems - mainly fixed under warranty.
None of our other 4 BMWs have been anything but good though.
I didn't buy another BMW this time around though.
None of our other 4 BMWs have been anything but good though.
I didn't buy another BMW this time around though.
Never anthropomorphise computers. They hate that.Re: New owner in Cornwall
Well will look forward to the day you say it was all worth it and you will no doubt be an amazing fountain of knowledge the amount of jobs your doing please show lots of pics and I wasn't being sarcastic it can be frustrating so recent after buying good luck and keep posting with pics we all love to learn cheers
X5 e53 3.0d 53 plate and Honda vtr1000 fun time
Re: New owner in Cornwall
[quote="toonarmy"]
Well will look forward to the day you say it was all worth it and you will no doubt be an amazing fountain of knowledge the amount of jobs your doing please show lots of pics and I wasn't being sarcastic it can be frustrating so recent after buying good luck and keep posting with pics we all love to learn cheers
[/quote]
Will happily share knowledge, but when I'm working on my car, I'm working on it, not taking pictures of it; sorry, but no picture write ups from me.
If you want to see some of the work I have done previously on Jap metal, check out my old Flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sumiyaka_limited
Well will look forward to the day you say it was all worth it and you will no doubt be an amazing fountain of knowledge the amount of jobs your doing please show lots of pics and I wasn't being sarcastic it can be frustrating so recent after buying good luck and keep posting with pics we all love to learn cheers
[/quote]
Will happily share knowledge, but when I'm working on my car, I'm working on it, not taking pictures of it; sorry, but no picture write ups from me.
If you want to see some of the work I have done previously on Jap metal, check out my old Flickr page
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sumiyaka_limited
Re: New owner in Cornwall
[quote="BritRC"]
[quote="shadrack"]
i have to say tou have been unlucky but things like suspension bushes etc dont go overnight so you are partly to blame for not looking when buying, other than that quite what you expect buying a 12/13 year old car i dont know as its not, new and never will be so when buying older cars i always bargain hard and dont mind doing bits to them, i cant see how you can say bmw are a rubbish brand just because youve bought a lemon
[/quote]
Any wear and tear issues I fully accept and expect on a car of this age/mileage, it's irrelavent of make. My issue is how poorly everything is made on the car; not what I would expect of a premium brand, and certainly not what I am used to on other cars.
Common faults dealt with so far:
LCM fault
FSR fault
Dash pixels
MID pixels
Rear light connections
Headlight lacquer fading/discolouring
Front radius arm void bushes
Seatbelt seat sensor failure
Buttons falling out of AC control
Gearbox replaced (could have been avoided if BMW had put sensible service intervals on the box)
These aren't wear and tear, these are all common faults from poor design/quality. It's clear this car had been built down to a price, not up to a quality. Apart from the common faults the car is in very good condition, and well looked after.
I've been working on cars for thirty years, I know the difference between a neglected, bodged or abused car and a badly made one; which makes this so infuriating I thought I was getting a premium brand car and expected far more.
I appreciate this opinion will not be well received on a BMW forum, but I as I find.
[/quote]
still disagree there you've got bushes in the list, headlights etc, if you want a new car dont buy a 12/13 year old one, also alot of that could of been picked up when viewing so you either offer low and fix or walk away surely?
[quote="shadrack"]
i have to say tou have been unlucky but things like suspension bushes etc dont go overnight so you are partly to blame for not looking when buying, other than that quite what you expect buying a 12/13 year old car i dont know as its not, new and never will be so when buying older cars i always bargain hard and dont mind doing bits to them, i cant see how you can say bmw are a rubbish brand just because youve bought a lemon
[/quote]
Any wear and tear issues I fully accept and expect on a car of this age/mileage, it's irrelavent of make. My issue is how poorly everything is made on the car; not what I would expect of a premium brand, and certainly not what I am used to on other cars.
Common faults dealt with so far:
LCM fault
FSR fault
Dash pixels
MID pixels
Rear light connections
Headlight lacquer fading/discolouring
Front radius arm void bushes
Seatbelt seat sensor failure
Buttons falling out of AC control
Gearbox replaced (could have been avoided if BMW had put sensible service intervals on the box)
These aren't wear and tear, these are all common faults from poor design/quality. It's clear this car had been built down to a price, not up to a quality. Apart from the common faults the car is in very good condition, and well looked after.
I've been working on cars for thirty years, I know the difference between a neglected, bodged or abused car and a badly made one; which makes this so infuriating I thought I was getting a premium brand car and expected far more.
I appreciate this opinion will not be well received on a BMW forum, but I as I find.
[/quote]
still disagree there you've got bushes in the list, headlights etc, if you want a new car dont buy a 12/13 year old one, also alot of that could of been picked up when viewing so you either offer low and fix or walk away surely?
current: 2016 Vw Crafter
2007 318d touring
2008 Transit sport van
1964 vw beach buggy
1988 e30 325i convertible
2007 318d touring
2008 Transit sport van
1964 vw beach buggy
1988 e30 325i convertible
Re: New owner in Cornwall
[quote="shadrack"]
still disagree there you've got bushes in the list, headlights etc, if you want a new car dont buy a 12/13 year old one, also alot of that could of been picked up when viewing so you either offer low and fix or walk away surely?
[/quote]
Bushes are on the list because they are a poor design for the application, headlights I wouldn't expect lacquer peel on a BMW with 100k, even after 13 years. I've had cars with far higher mileage without peel.
And yes I got the price because of the faults found, that still doesn't change the poor build quality of a premium brand.
Again you're missing my point; it's not where and tear I have issue with, that's a fact of buying second hand, it's the poor build quality and design that's frustrating me.
still disagree there you've got bushes in the list, headlights etc, if you want a new car dont buy a 12/13 year old one, also alot of that could of been picked up when viewing so you either offer low and fix or walk away surely?
[/quote]
Bushes are on the list because they are a poor design for the application, headlights I wouldn't expect lacquer peel on a BMW with 100k, even after 13 years. I've had cars with far higher mileage without peel.
And yes I got the price because of the faults found, that still doesn't change the poor build quality of a premium brand.
Again you're missing my point; it's not where and tear I have issue with, that's a fact of buying second hand, it's the poor build quality and design that's frustrating me.