[aaccon]

Hi

I have a 2012 X3 F25 2.0d MSport...

Great car, enough performance for me and I love the ride height and coming from an Msport LCI E90, which was also a great car don't have to worry about scraping the bottom of the car...BUT

Since purchase I have had paint defects, trim defects and now the high gloss window trims are coming apart from the door and the chrome is peeling off from circles around the Tachometer and Speedo under the clear cover on the Instrument Cluster.

I'm beginning to think the build and parts quality of these F25's is poor and for an 80K vehicle I would expect better..

Have any other F25 drivers had similar issues ?? .... I have emailed dealer with pictures and am awaiting a response. I find the dealer is never able to approve any repairs, they always seem to have to wait until the BMW rep comes to the dealership before any Warranty problems are looked into.

Cheers..

[Booty]

Did you buy new? Could you possibly reject the car? Sorry to hear your news.

[RSchneider]

Quality management is questionable; no news here. In the BMW lineup the X3 is a USD40k+ car, even if in a lot of countries it's sold for more than twice that. What we see is a race to the price-bottom at the third tier subsuppliers and it's very clear that quality is the factor that suffers.

[twerle]

I have a 2007 335xi with all the options...
Every time that I drive a X3 I cannot stop notice how the X3 build quality is inferior to my car
Beginning with the doors, the sound on the X3 is bahhh, on my car look like u just close a big vault, nice and strong.
Smells different as well, when u enter on a X3 that was built in the us then a 5 series that was built in Germany.

Americans are good on making money and fast!

Germans they are proud of what they do and they want to get it right on every single detail.

That is my personal opinion

[gareth3685]

Originally Posted by twerle

I have a 2007 335xi with all the options...
Every time that I drive a X3 I cannot stop notice how the X3 build quality is inferior to my car
Beginning with the doors, the sound on the X3 is bahhh, on my car look like u just close a big vault, nice and strong.
Smells different as well, when u enter on a X3 that was built in the us then a 5 series that was built in Germany.

Americans are good on making money and fast!

Germans they are proud of what they do and they want to get it right on every single detail.

That is my personal opinion

I'm not sure you can blame the American's for the X3, after all they are just bolting the thing together.

With sub-standard parts it doesn't really matter who or where its put together, the end product will still suffer as a result.

[halfalife]

Mines great. 😃

[xDrive35i]

Originally Posted by halfalife

Mines great. 😃

So is mine. Doesn't mean it's not built like shit.

[philtrick123]

I'm generally happy with my build quality. There are some cost savings- the most noticable being the boot (trunk) door trim- cheap plastic and it sounds it as you close it.
I recently had a quick drive in my father-in-laws Jaguar XF (similar price to the X3 30d). The leather dash top on the XF speaks quality, along with the pop up gear selector and air vents.

I don't expect any great changes in quality. BMW have to keep the X3 sandwiched between the poor quality X1 and the upcoming X5.

[Jiyar]

Keep in mind the whole quality is the engine

[gareth3685]

Originally Posted by Jiyar

Keep in mind the whole quality is the engine

And what about the other 80% of the car?

[Humbug]

I have to say that I'm not overly impressed by my X3 compared to my Skoda Octavia which was not much more than half the price.

I have the car booked to go in to the dealers next week for the following.

Corroded earth strap on rear tailgate



Squeak coming from behind steering wheel - sounds like trim rubbing.

Corrosion on most of the badges including the rear BMW roundel (on the "W")



On all four wheel centres (around the edge)



And both X-Drive badges (on the "R" and the "E")



I also have a fault with the i-drive giving me a warning about the window anti-trap when there is nothing wrong with the anti-trap (confirmed by dealer).

And the drivers seat leather on my 24,000 mile car looks to be in the same condition as the seat in my Skoda was after 135,000! So I don't want to think about what the X3 seat will look like if it gets to that milage.

OK, rant over!

[buze]

Could it be the lurvely sea air around your island causing all that corrosion?

[kozzi]

Originally Posted by twerle

I have a 2007 335xi with all the options...
Every time that I drive a X3 I cannot stop notice how the X3 build quality is inferior to my car
Beginning with the doors, the sound on the X3 is bahhh, on my car look like u just close a big vault, nice and strong.
Smells different as well, when u enter on a X3 that was built in the us then a 5 series that was built in Germany.

Americans are good on making money and fast!

Germans they are proud of what they do and they want to get it right on every single detail.

That is my personal opinion

Are you confusing the F25 with the E83?
Are you comparing the interior build quality of a 5 series to an X3?
Did you have a control for the "smell test"?
Did you forget to shower before entering the X3?

We Americans suck at everything we do...old news

BTW...your post gave me a chuckle...I read it in my best thick German accent. Nice and strong. I encourage everyone to do the same! Thanks for the entertainment

[Humbug]

Originally Posted by buze

Could it be the lurvely sea air around your island causing all that corrosion?

Well, I'll admit that the car lives outside and there can be a lot of salt in the air but on the other hand we don't get the roads salted in winter. leo, strange that the bonnet roundel is fine as is the "X3" on the tailgate but all of the others have suffered. If it was just the salt air I would expect them all to be the same.

[terrytnt]

I've had my 2012 X3 MSport for just over 1 year and it's beautiful. Of course I wash it weekly and keep it polished

[ianfp]

I am not happy with the general fit and finish of paint and panels. Quite disappointing on my most expensive BMW so far.

[cohwang]

Sometimes buying a car is like gambling. The chance of having a lemon mostly depends on the reliability of the cars made by certain manufacturers and also by your luck. German made car doesn't guarantee you have a bullet proof solid car most of time. However German car can guarantee you the high standard of craftmanship, compare with American made car. American made cars are well known on the poor craftmanship due to poor QC and QA. You can tell by the numerous recalls in the history. Same car made by the Japanese and the American have very different reliability records and different resale values. I made a decision on my X3 because I knew my car was made mostly made by the robot, especially some important assembly sections and components. That eliminated lots of human errors that led to the overall quality issues. So far my car is doing great except some cosmetic issues that obviously caused by the poor craftmanship and poor parts. I have also compared my car with the other BMWs which are German made, like 3 series. The interior design for both cars are very similar but I can easily tell the interior of my X3 is more "loose". Some fellows who have been complaining about the excessive noise, including myself, found the noise were coming from the misalignment of the weather strips and sealings. This involves lots of things here, for instance, QC management, worker's training, worker's quality and accountability.

Many manufacturers had gone through years of transition period to catch up the quality of their products after they switch their plant to US. I hope BMW could go through this as quick as possible.

[rmeir]

I keep seeing problems people have and I have 2012, bought in 11/2011, I have 18k miles on it and have never had even a slight issue

[plymjack]

Originally Posted by buze

Could it be the lurvely sea air around your island causing all that corrosion?

+1 sounds most likely.

The only issue we have is due to the eco-friendly paint system seems a bit thin so we have a few dots - but easy to sort out with the touch up kit...otherwise all seems well put together.

[Spinoni]

My better half is looking at the X3. In looking through this forum in general and this thread in particular, I'm trying to determine if there are any significant flaws with the car that are common place. Now, I will admit to not reading through all the threads; however, in my experience with forums, if there is a common problem, that thread tends to stay on page one or two. While I see a number of complaints and issues, they appear to be sporadic and isolated. No 5000 post threads on fueling or suspension issues for example. The fact that this thread seems to be limited to a corrosion issue with a car left outside in a seaside location makes me think the overall build quality is pretty good. But I may be missing something (yes I'm prepared for the dreaded icon)

[ponti33609]

Originally Posted by Spinoni

My better half is looking at the X3. In looking through this forum in general and this thread in particular, I'm trying to determine if there are any significant flaws with the car that are common place. Now, I will admit to not reading through all the threads; however, in my experience with forums, if there is a common problem, that thread tends to stay on page one or two. While I see a number of complaints and issues, they appear to be sporadic and isolated. No 5000 post threads on fueling or suspension issues for example. The fact that this thread seems to be limited to a corrosion issue with a car left outside in a seaside location makes me think the overall build quality is pretty good. But I may be missing something (yes I'm prepared for the dreaded icon)

This is our first BMW after 30 years of Honda, Toyota and Acura. Hated Toyota by the way. FWIW we find out X3 to be every bit as quality as any of our Acura/Honda products and better than our Toyotas. It is not a fair comparison of cars painted in the US to those elsewhere with strict EPA requirements. I do not see a difference in paint quality to other new American built cars. So far we are quite happy and I was convinced my wife would get an MDX or RX350. She drove the X3 and had to have it.

[The X Men]

We all know the old saying, "they dont build them like they use to". That is somewhat true with almost every make of cars now a days. A good example is Mercedes, compare to the junk they put out today to the tanks they produce 20 or 30 years ago. How about Toyota? Sheet metal is paper thin and cheap plastic everywhere. With that said, the quality of the X3 is relative to its competitors, the Q5, ML350, RX350 etc. Quality wise, I feel the X3 is right up there with those SUVs. The X3 feels much more solid than the RX350 and most Japanese SUVs. Material wise, the only SUV that might be superior is the RX350, but the sportiness of the X3 more than make up for that. There are some pretty obvoius cost cutting in all the new BMW models, but not half as obvious as the cost cutting going on with the recent Mercedes and Toyota models.