[FlyingT]

I hate to say this, but my 04 X3 is the biggest piece of crap I have ever owned. I ordered mine in Feb of 2004 and got one of the first ones in the US. BIG MISTAKE!

Problems:
1. At approx 5K miles with my wife driving, X3 died on the highway. X3 eventually restarted. No codes were thrown and BMW could not find out what was wrong.

2. Again, at approx 8K miles with my wife driving, X3 died on the highway. X3 restarted. No codes were thrown and BMW could not find out what was wrong.

3. Again at approx 11K miles, with me driving this time, X3 died on the highway. It would idle, but that was about it. It had no power at all. X3 restarted properly after 10 minutes. No codes were thrown and BMW could not find out what was wrong. This time, I remembered which idiot lights came on, 4X4, ABS, and traction control. After BMW emailed Germany, they determined the DSC computer was bad. It thought I was spinning my tires and retarded the timing so bad the car would not move.

4. At 26k miles, went through my first clutch.

5. Since mile 1, the moon roof rattled so bad that I could not open it above 45 MPH. I brought it back 4 times over 80K miles and each time, they made it worse. The 5th time they redid all the weather stripping, causing it to leak so bad that I had to bail out the wells in the far back every time it rained. At 80K miles (off warranty) I demanded a new moon roof and they put in a new one. However the air leaks are now so bad I have to close the sun shade to quiet it. BMW will not do anything to fix this issue.

6. At 45K miles, I noticed the drivers seat (leatherette) was stretching on the drivers side seat bolster. When I complained to BMW, they said there was nothing wrong and did nothing. At 52K miles (off warranty) the fake leather delaminated from the cloth under it and 1/2 of the side bolster lost its fake leather. Since I was 2K miles off warranty, BMW would do nothing other than quote $1800 for a new drivers side vinyl seat cover.

7. At 66K miles, the air bag computer went bad costing me $1300.

8. At 70K, first battery gone bad costing me almost $300.

9. At 80K miles, second battery went bad. costing me $225.

10. At 90K miles, DSC computer gone bad again costing me $1700.

11. At 100K miles, another clutch gone, all 4 brakes also gone costing me almost $7000

12. At 105K miles, AC stopped working and had to recharge at $300. BMW could not find any leaks.

13. At 105K miles, car appears to be skipping badly. Got a tune up and did not fix the problem, cost me $800. Turned out to be old oil in the differential causing a slip. Cost me $400.

13. At 110K miles, broke left back spring costing me $600.

14. At 110K miles, AC stopped working again. cost me $450 for a new seal and $300 to recharge. They also found a leak under the dash and quoted a price of $2900 to fix the AC properly.

15. At 112K miles (yesterday), left side back drivers window won't go up or down but vibrates its way all the way down after 10 miles of driving. Seems to me that the motor is no longer connected to the window. I had to tape the window up.

16. At 112K miles, had to replace the valve cover gasket, $400

I will never own any BMW again. Once it got off warranty, I have spent approx $12300 on repairs and another estimated $4700 in quotes to fix the drivers seat and AC. Right now I have no idea how much the window will cost me. So if I wanted to fix everything, I will have spent $17000 in repairs over 7 years and 112K miles.

Ironically, I also own a 93 Nissan 300ZX and it has a reputation of being a money pit. In 16 years and 150K miles I have put on it, I have replaced front brakes 3 times, clutch once, no rear brakes, 1 O2 sensor, 1 alternator, and fuel injectors, 2 batteries, for a combined cost of approx $3900 and there is absolutely nothing now wrong that still needs to be fixed.

I love driving my X3, it handles great and sounds like a sports car. But once you get off warranty, you are opening your wallet to the service department.