[martin mustang]

The X3 is truly a complete waste of time and space full of crap, this car standard are worst then old Dacia, I lost count of the times the car returned to the dealer, just back from dealer after replacing the climate control unites and cables, while leaving a parking space with half the car parked on top of a pavement 2 inch high, all fault warning come up with stability malfunction ABS and tyre pressure and all, got everyone off kids and wife, tried the car drivable with all the warnings on and steering as heavy as hell, BMW service tell me we can drive moderately as per message, of course the journey at hand was 200 miles, when we give it another go with everyone on board the ABS comes back kicking again, hence somehow ever one on trigger for it to start giving us hard time.
To cut story short I borrowed my brother car as the insurance only had the Hotel option for Sunday evenings, drove family home and went back to get the crap home to our dealer to find out the ABS sensors for front are bust need replacement.

So conclusion if you half park your X drive on a pavement, watch out you may damage the ABS system, for god sake this is meant to be an off road car, not a Ferrari.

We are never going back to an X car again; they feel cheap in comparison to our previous non x cars and my current F10, badly assembled, frankly they are a rip off at the price they charge for them, feel like burning the car or push is down a cliff, I wish I can afford to that.

[clivem2]

I'm sorry to hear your X3 is giving you grief. Once a dealer starts to take the car apart it's possible they leave "time bombs" in there, even if only in the software.. Also once you start getting warning messages they can spiral out of the control suggesting the whole car is about to expire, generally there is a simple cause, often a restart or reboot will fix it.

[martin mustang]

Thanks clivem2, I agree with you on the old say once car in the garage, it is just a start of many visits, the recovery guys when as far as disconnecting the battery to see if the faults goes but it was negative, the dealer come back this morning the issue ABS sensors need replacement.

the X3 is my wife car every time the cars goes in I am passing my car to my wife while I take care of all going into the dealer, and frankly I am sick of hardly driving my own car and always going around on a loner, they being very nice in not charging for the work, very good dealer but we just cannot go on having to go back on a monthly basis back to them, we considering changing the car, shame as I find the space and practicality of the X3 fare better off if compared to my F10 specially with a 10, 7 and 1 year old in the back, but when stranded 200 miles away from home on Sunday evening, the space becomes irrelevant.

Originally Posted by clivem2

I'm sorry to hear your X3 is giving you grief. Once a dealer starts to take the car apart it's possible they leave "time bombs" in there, even if only in the software.. Also once you start getting warning messages they can spiral out of the control suggesting the whole car is about to expire, generally there is a simple cause, often a restart or reboot will fix it.

[Portimao318]

So next time a new Dacia than. Make sure you post some pictures.

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by Endre2

So next time a new Dacia than. Make sure you post some pictures.

Yeah, I love these rants. Talk about over-dramatizing.

[JSY]

Sorry to hear of your problems. I'm on my 4th X3 and luckily have never had such issues, certainly nothing with the ABS system.

[gIzzE]

I have to say mine has been spot on, had an F11 Touring before and then a 5GT for a bit (which is a step up from the 5 series, a 7 Series hatch) and the X3 doesn't feel considerably worse off than those build wise.

The only area that lets it down a bit is the plastic around the nav and climate and cup holders, everything else is fine.

Sounds like you got a Friday afternoon build, some cars are just crap from the get go and never get better.
Chop it in and start again with something else.

[martin mustang]

Totally agree it's Friday afternoon car, one of the 1st produced back in 2011 from new we had to deal with:
- 3 months on, transmission problems, it took couple of visits to the dealer with few software upgrades to resolve.
- Driver speaker started to play up, randomly stopping, resolved with 3 visits to the dealer by changing parts each time and cancelling the one at fault.
- Rubber seals around the windows, this down to quality assembly
- Car just out of warranty, corrosion around the BMW logo on the alloys developed on all 4 wheels, BMW changed all alloys for free of charge.
- Climate dual zone started to play up after 4 visits with a total of nearly 2 weeks of the car at the dealer they decided to change the lot motors and cables to fix the constant blowing of hot air on the passenger side even when having the temp down to 16c for 2 hours journey.
- Speaker issue after an absence of nearly a year decided to come back, both us and the dealer gob smacked.
Car just back after being a way for a week and half, front ABS sensors decide to quite on us.
Must admit we received top service from the dealer and BMW, always very helpful and made sure we looked after without having to go through the insurance, it is just the frustration of constantly in and out of the garage my wife get to use my car as the dealer is around the corner from my work, it felt like spent most of this year away from my own car.
The X3 is perfect family car and compromise on not losing to a lot of the drive feel for it's height, as you do with the X5 while getting the space cabin, hence perfect to do all family journeys on it instead of the F10, I hope this is the last visit to the dealer.

Originally Posted by gIzzE

I have to say mine has been spot on, had an F11 Touring before and then a 5GT for a bit (which is a step up from the 5 series, a 7 Series hatch) and the X3 doesn't feel considerably worse off than those build wise.

The only area that lets it down a bit is the plastic around the nav and climate and cup holders, everything else is fine.

Sounds like you got a Friday afternoon build, some cars are just crap from the get go and never get better.
Chop it in and start again with something else.

[ba ba boosh]

To be fair the first year of every new model has alot of problems. So its good to wait a year or to two to buy a newer model. My 06 330i E90 had alot of iDrive quirks since it was the newest version out at the time. I drove that baby for 60k miles until someone rear ended the crap out of it. It had literally no mechanical problems. Perhaps I was one of the lucky ones.

[martin mustang]

I agree with you on this one we learned the hard way, I did make sure I ordered my F10 a year on, I guess my wife wanted an X car following a very bad winter, being in the country it made sense to make the jump, I find the X3 one of the best looking SUV, cars here cost on average 40% more due to the tax system in place, so mistakes are more on the painful side we tend to buy our cars cash so the option to trade in just after 3 years is not an easy one for 65k Euros, now only worth 30, it works out to over 10k a year, I wish I was in charge of Guinness.

Originally Posted by ba ba boosh

To be fair the first year of every new model has alot of problems. So its good to wait a year or to two to buy a newer model. My 06 330i E90 had alot of iDrive quirks since it was the newest version out at the time. I drove that baby for 60k miles until someone rear ended the crap out of it. It had literally no mechanical problems. Perhaps I was one of the lucky ones.

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by Petex3

It always amazes me that no matter what forum you're in there are always some t0ssers who come along and act like a 2yr old.

I bet if they had issues with their cars, they too would be on here complaining about them!

I hope you get your car sorted out Martin.

Some people tend to get very upset when anyone puts their car down, I don't see a car like that, if I had as many problems with my X3 I would slate it, but I would expect a torrent of abuse from people in regard to my views as so many seem to take it personally.

I bought the new E350 estate back in 2010 and didn't get on with it at all, after the previous E320 S211 and the E320 S210, and the fact I had swapped an F11 BMW for the E350 and had a 335i touring before that, which followed an S4 Avant and a 535d Touring I thought I was in a pretty good position to give an opinion.

There were some serious flaws on the E350 design wise, still are, and I pointed them out, and pointed out that because of them the car had to go as it was such a huge step behind the current 5er Touring that keeping it would just piss me off more and more.
My GOD!!! The abuse I got from people who told me "you don't know what you are talking about" and "surprised you can even a afford a Mercedes as you're so dumb" etc. etc. was hilarious.

But I sort of understood, I had gone onto the forum and slagged off their pride and joy, pointed out why it was crap. I wouldn't walk into a kids school show and say to one of the mothers "Christ your child fell out of the ugly tree" and expect her to reply "Yeah, we're always laughing about that at home, that is one fucked up looking kid we brought into the world!"


It is human nature to get protective over your choices, your property, I just don't when it comes to cars, but I get why people do.

Just some of the comments are hilarious.

[Peter_R]

Originally Posted by ba ba boosh

To be fair the first year of every new model has alot of problems. So its good to wait a year or to two to buy a newer model. My 06 330i E90 had alot of iDrive quirks since it was the newest version out at the time. I drove that baby for 60k miles until someone rear ended the crap out of it. It had literally no mechanical problems. Perhaps I was one of the lucky ones.

That is so untrue! I purchased one of the first 2012 F31 320d Sport's produced and kept it for 2 years. It never blinked once and only had to go into the garage to have a leaf removed from the vent system. I traded it in for the X3 xDrive30d M Sport because it had too low a seating position for my wife.

[PX3]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

Some people tend to get very upset when anyone puts their car down, I don't see a car like that, if I had as many problems with my X3 I would slate it, but I would expect a torrent of abuse from people in regard to my views as so many seem to take it personally.

I bought the new E350 estate back in 2010 and didn't get on with it at all, after the previous E320 S211 and the E320 S210, and the fact I had swapped an F11 BMW for the E350 and had a 335i touring before that, which followed an S4 Avant and a 535d Touring I thought I was in a pretty good position to give an opinion.

There were some serious flaws on the E350 design wise, still are, and I pointed them out, and pointed out that because of them the car had to go as it was such a huge step behind the current 5er Touring that keeping it would just piss me off more and more.
My GOD!!! The abuse I got from people who told me "you don't know what you are talking about" and "surprised you can even a afford a Mercedes as you're so dumb" etc. etc. was hilarious.

But I sort of understood, I had gone onto the forum and slagged off their pride and joy, pointed out why it was crap. I wouldn't walk into a kids school show and say to one of the mothers "Christ your child fell out of the ugly tree" and expect her to reply "Yeah, we're always laughing about that at home, that is one fucked up looking kid we brought into the world!"


It is human nature to get protective over your choices, your property, I just don't when it comes to cars, but I get why people do.

Just some of the comments are hilarious.

Haha, so true.

[kevink1]

A person can get a lemon, unrepresentative of the model.

For things other than cars, I generally don't get extended warranties. If it turns out to be bad, I'll just get another brand next time.

For cars, it has been different. I don't really have strong brand loyalty I keep then longer, then I get fickle and want something different. This time, the BMW X3 interested me. I'll see how things go, if it starts to give me issues that seem excessive enough, get rid of it early. If things seem reasonable or better than expected, see what looks good in 7-8 years. Have to ignore expected wear items.

[flavius]

Originally Posted by Lotus99

Yeah, I love these rants. Talk about over-dramatizing.

Well, having serious car trouble with a bunch of little kids and far away from home - you'll never forget that - and won't forgive it either.

Any car that does that to you, doesn't matter what it is, will have to go. Having said that, I'm probably going to buy my X3 next year.

[Lotus99]

Originally Posted by flavius

Well, having serious car trouble with a bunch of little kids and far away from home - you'll never forget that - and won't forgive it either.

Any car that does that to you, doesn't matter what it is, will have to go. Having said that, I'm probably going to buy my X3 next year.

When I said that, I was referring to this comment of his, which is a bit of a generalization:

Originally Posted by martin mustang

So conclusion if you half park your X drive on a pavement, watch out you may damage the ABS system, for god sake this is meant to be an off road car, not a Ferrari.

And that "he's never going to buy an X car again".

He's been having issues with his car for a long time, as he brought it up at the beginning of the year that he had totally lost his faith in his car (in X cars, actually):

http://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1100133

If he truly feels he has a lemon of a car (and we all have said sadly it happens once in a while - that's how probabilities work - there's just a certain percentage of cars that will always be a lemon), and is so completely frustrated with it, I don't understand why he doesn't just bite the bullet and move on to whatever other car he wants to get. Is his time and frustration and the safety of his family not worth it?

We had a fully loaded, $60,000 Volvo XC70 T6 five years ago, and I bought it brand-new. It was in the shop every other month for something. Thank goodness the dealership is within walking distance of my office, and I could just drop it off in the mornings. After three years I got rid of it because there was no way I wanted to own it once the warranty ran out, and I also just got fed up of having to constantly take it in for one thing or another.

[n55x3]

It's just luck of the draw, simple as that. You can get a lemon in the first year cycle or later as the line matures.

Our 2011 X3 35i, the first one in Ohio actually, has been absolutely bullet proof. 70k miles and not a single issue to date. It did have to go in once for VANOS recall but bolts were still tight so no worries.

[bbbuzzy]

I agree with all the "luck of the draw" comments. Some are good, some are not. For example, we bought a new 2005 XC70 10.5 yrs ago. What do you think it's reliability has been?...............It's been amazing. I expected some issues over time but it has been the most reliable vehicle I've owned, ever. We have only done maintenance. One repair under warranty to reseal the leaking bevel gear housing. That's it!

My new to me '11 X3 35i has been fine, but I've only owned it for two months, too early to know much about this particular vehicle.

Just perform a lot of preventive maintenance (all fluids and filters on regular intervals) and you should be ok.

[Lotus99]

Wonder where @martin mustang went... Did he sell his car after all this?

[Pyewacket69]

If anyone wants to talk about vehicle lemons, I'm your go-to guy.

I had a Pontiac Astre (Pontiac version of the Chevrolet Vega) back in the 70's.... Called the worst US car of all time, by many in the car review business...

[martin mustang]

Still around Lotus 99, the X3 is my wife’s car and she is keen to move back to RWD cars, she though the fun of driving was lost when she moved to the X3 from her ex 2010 3 series touring with a manual gear box.
We paid cash for the X3, the trade in value now 35% of what we paid for it, hence hard to justify changing the car now, here in Ireland a second tax is applied to cars, this adds another 25 to 30% on top of the normal tax depending on CO2 emissions, so the X3 cost the same price as an X5 cross the boarder in the UK.

One option for us, is to wait for the new 5 series touring due late 2016/17, but she is not a fun of the 5 series, hence more likely going back to a 3 series, she is a bit disappointed as I am with the current 3 interior, feels on the cheap side compare to the E90, but the driving is spot on, we had the pleasure of the current 3 a number of times when the X3 was booked in.

The 3 series segment, specially the RWD one is certainly changing with the arrival of the new Jag and Alfa, so worth checking the new options.

As for our X3 I agree with many here it is a lemon but when you buy it cash at around 70k Euros, same what I paid for my F10 5 series also a 2011 car, you look at the quality difference between the F10 and the F25 is quite massive, it is simply hard to accept.

So our frustration is more of disappointment as we both believe The X3 is better looking car than the current 3, very good car when down to Interior Space, with the arrival of our 3rd kid last year, all family journeys are now done with the X3, but every journey I am holding my breath that we don’t end up stranded miles away from home, we recently added the BMW Road assistance package, hope fully a peace of mind for the next few months of owner ship.

Originally Posted by Lotus99

Wonder where @martin mustang went... Did he sell his car after all this?

[plymjack]

Well we have certainly enjoyed our X3 - but understand its always possible to have a friday afternoon one. Its the BEST car we have ever had, ok we dont have a great history of cars but this one stands out by a mile or more.

So much so that we dont want to change it, so it looks like we will keep it and replace our 2nd car with an i3.....