Opinions on BMW X5 Smoker

Big Nasty

Thinking maybe of having a look at an X5 daysul for the woman. Would go for petrol but have two V8's in the house already!

Anyone have any experiences they would like to share or recommendations to offer? Have up to €6k to spend.

Many thanks.

MetzgerMeister

Please don't John

Big Nasty

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Please don't John

Why not? I like them!

There doesn't seem to be many bad reports about them either.

MetzgerMeister

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Why not? I like them!

There doesn't seem to be many bad reports about them either.

I'm talking about the fuel type, not the car!

166man

I like 'em tbh, the 3.0D is a decent engine with mix of power/economy. There are a few documented problems with that engine AFAIK on this site maybe give them a look if you search.


With road tax and fuel etc 4x4's are going cheap these days, you should hopefully bag yourself a bargain.

Big Nasty

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

I'm talking about the fuel type, not the car!

We've two petrol V8's already man - can't go a third!

Any opinions on this lads?

166man

Lovely exterior/interior colour combo but the wheels are a bit small and I always thought mudflaps looked sh1t on any car.

125k miles isn't high for ones of these, the 3.0D engine I always heard were seriously reliable, not sure about the auto box though, others would know more than me.

Put simply, if it's clean then it's an awful lot of car for the money.

the culture of deference

166man wrote: »

Lovely exterior/interior colour combo but the wheels are a bit small and I always thought mudflaps looked sh1t on any car.

125k miles isn't high for ones of these, the 3.0D engine I always heard were seriously reliable, not sure about the auto box though, others would know more than me.

Put simply, if it's clean then it's an awful lot of car for the money.

I'd say they are cheap as chips now. Mate had a commercial 3.0d for ages. Tyres were a killer though.

MetzgerMeister

Is she looking for something like this due to the room in it? The upkeep of these things can pile up considering they can be bought cheaply. If I were you, I might look into similar vehicles bt I know you like your Bimmers

eth0

Horrible yokes. Only redeeming feature is the 'bit of poke'...in the petrol ones

No need to join the diesel fad

Big Nasty

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Is she looking for something like this due to the room in it? The upkeep of these things can pile up considering they can be bought cheaply. If I were you, I might look into similar vehicles bt I know you like your Bimmers

She wants an SUV. I refuse to buy a girly one. Simple as that really.

eth0 wrote: »

Horrible yokes. Only redeeming feature is the 'bit of poke'...in the petrol ones

No need to join the diesel fad

Eh, thanks.

George Dalton

They are by far the nicest 4x4 in that age/price bracket IMO. I really like them.

History is everything with them. Especially recent history as in last 3 years/30k miles. They aren't a bad machine if properly maintained but unfortunately well maintained examples are the exception.

If you buy one that has had no maintenance or bare minimum maintenance then it will be a money pit.

Would you be able to do any work on it yourself or would you have to bring it to a garage for everything?

Big Nasty

George Dalton wrote: »

They are by far the nicest 4x4 in that age/price bracket IMO. I really like them.

History is everything with them. Especially recent history as in last 3 years/30k miles. They aren't a bad machine if properly maintained but unfortunately well maintained examples are the exception.

If you buy one that has had no maintenance or bare minimum maintenance then it will be a money pit.

Would you be able to do any work on it yourself or would you have to bring it to a garage for everything?

Thanks George.

Good friend of mine (ex-BMW Indy) will be looking at anything I'm interested in before purchase. He would be the one maintaining the vehicle going forward too.

George Dalton

Well he should be able to fill you in on the stuff to look out for with them then. The reason I asked you whether you could work on it yourself is that the parts for them (with a few exceptions) are surprisingly cheap from BMW so if you can work on one yourself then you can keep running costs down that way.

eth0

MCMLXXV wrote: »

She wants an SUV. I refuse to buy a girly one. Simple as that really.



Eh, thanks.

Plenty of beours driving X5's over here. They're not that ungirly after

Big Nasty

George Dalton wrote: »

Well he should be able to fill you in on the stuff to look out for with them then. The reason I asked you whether you could work on it yourself is that the parts for them (with a few exceptions) are surprisingly cheap from BMW so if you can work on one yourself then you can keep running costs down that way.

I can do the basics myself and he would usually do the heavier work. More, I was looking for peoples general experiences with them in terms of reliability and real world fuel consumption, etc.

Many thanks.

Copied and pasted from a post by a BMW mechanic in Swindon from another forum I post on.........

"I know its slightly off topic ...
But as said, all things are relative... i often cringe when a service adviser rings a customer when there BMW is in for service.. for example an e53 X5 3.0D... get nigh on to that magic 100k mark and most need alot of attention.

Common service items include,

Brakes, discs and pads often front and rear,
Front control arm bushes, split/perished.
Upon lowering the air suspension the rear lower balljoints and upper wishbone ball joints normally have exessive play...
A loud clonk from the back indicates the subframe bushes have fallen apart..

Ok so some small common issues... but at £100.00 an hour labour, price of parts is fairly high, all the suspension work requires a four wheel alignment at about £250.00 (can take a good 2hrs)..plus the already expensive service cost plus perhaps a coolant and brake fluid change...

Oh and the killer is if its worn the tyres to the cords on the inner edges due to the shot rear suspension...

I have heard service adviser giving the custermer the bad news... "after a 10% discount sir that comes to £3548.96"

The worrying thing is sometimes they just go "ok, get it done"

Relative indeed, i could not afford to run a car at all let alone two if i couldnt do all the work on it myself ......"

Big Nasty

RoverJames wrote: »

Copied and pasted from a post by a BMW mechanic in Swindon from another forum I post on.........

"I know its slightly off topic ...
But as said, all things are relative... i often cringe when a service adviser rings a customer when there BMW is in for service.. for example an e53 X5 3.0D... get nigh on to that magic 100k mark and most need alot of attention.

Common service items include,

Brakes, discs and pads often front and rear,
Front control arm bushes, split/perished.
Upon lowering the air suspension the rear lower balljoints and upper wishbone ball joints normally have exessive play...
A loud clonk from the back indicates the subframe bushes have fallen apart..

Ok so some small common issues... but at £100.00 an hour labour, price of parts is fairly high, all the suspension work requires a four wheel alignment at about £250.00 (can take a good 2hrs)..plus the already expensive service cost plus perhaps a coolant and brake fluid change...

Oh and the killer is if its worn the tyres to the cords on the inner edges due to the shot rear suspension...

I have heard service adviser giving the custermer the bad news... "after a 10% discount sir that comes to £3548.96"

The worrying thing is sometimes they just go "ok, get it done"

Relative indeed, i could not afford to run a car at all let alone two if i couldnt do all the work on it myself ......"

Thanks James,

Having owned Bimmers for years I am used to suspension issues and I wouldn't be paying anything close to £100 / hr labour so that doesn't scare me all that much - bar the cost of rubber maybe!

166man

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Thanks James,

Having owned Bimmers for years I am used to suspension issues and I wouldn't be paying anything close to £100 / hr labour so that doesn't scare me all that much - bar the cost of rubber maybe!

If your wife wasn't doing the mileage would a petrol straight six be better to avoid the potential for diesel problems. As in if you were doing 5k a year tyres wouldn't be that bad I'd imagine.


I'd say the fellas that used these as commercials doing 30k miles a year felt that cost of tyres alright but a lower annual mileage mighn't be too bad.

Big Nasty

166man wrote: »

If your wife wasn't doing the mileage would a petrol straight six be better to avoid the potential for diesel problems.

Urban Fuel Consump:

E53 3.0D 12.0l/100km
E53 3.0i 17.8l/100km
E38 735 17.2l/100km

The 3.0i X5 urban fuel consump is worse than the 735 - and they're factory figures!

goochy

Would. Be weary of. Buying the blue one in picture know someone who paid top whack for discovery there a few years ago been a lot of trouble - turns out it had its engine replaced but dealer never told him ! His mechanic has said he should get rid of it asap . Whatever about the fancy. Cars and showrooms dealers in this area have a. Bad rep . For a reason !

Big Nasty

So anyone got any real world consump figures on urban driving for me on the X5 smoker? Manufac figures are 12l/100km urban but I'm expecting closer to 15. That about right?

Pottler

Anyone I know with one wants shut of it. Never heard a good reason why, but it seems to be universal. Discussing their X5 with them is like poking a raw boil.

pred racer

MCMLXXV wrote: »

So anyone got any real world consump figures on urban driving for me on the X5 smoker? Manufac figures are 12l/100km urban but I'm expecting closer to 15. That about right?

I drive my bosses one quite a bit, its nice enough to drive, manual gearbox is very woolly, to get any decent poke outta it you have to cane it and then the diesel gauge drops like a stone(it does sound quite good when you give it a bootfull though) I drove it for nearly a week when my kids were over in paris. I did 300km approx, half just tipping around town and half going to parc asterix which is 160km on the motorway at 110km/hr (french speed cops are everywhere) that 300km cost me over €50 in juice @1.40

On the plus side, this thing gets no maintenance except oil/filter and air filter changes, and the only thing Ive seen him have to get done on it was the brakes (disks and pads all round, the handbrake is a bit dodgy too) and a dicky starter motor we cleaned up, and it seems to go ok. Dunno if that helps.

George Dalton

I drove one for a week a few months ago. On a 200km motorway commute it was doing about 29mpg. A Range Rover Sport 2.7tdv6 would only do 26mpg on the same run. I can't comment on urban consumption.

pred racer

pred racer wrote: »

........... I did 300km approx, half just tipping around town and half going to parc asterix which is 160km on the motorway at 110km/hr (french speed cops are everywhere) that 300km cost me over €50 in juice @1.40..............

24mpg ish.

Just under 12 litres/100km

Going off that urban only could well be the 15 that MCMLXXV expects.

Supergurrier

Land Rover discovery would be a better optioni imo

Supergurrier

Supergurrier wrote: »

Land Rover discovery would be a better optioni imo

6k disco would be the older type though.

Supergurrier

RoverJames wrote: »

6k disco would be the older type though.

Ahh didn't notice that, fack that for a backpack full of ducks then

Yakuza

I'd no idea you could get something like that for 6-7K these days, I should have gotten one of those instead of a Micra for the wife!

maidhc

Know a guy who had one. Stared to rob him in repairs in latter years, I know the turbo and a host of injectors went. Had eletrical issues too. It was sold for a finish.