Ok, I spoke again with the BMW REP about my "lemon" He was sympathetic and told me that my service records have been forwared to the BMW Service Center HQ in Munich for further evaluation. He expressed that a possibility might be for BMW to take mine back as a trade in toward the PURCHASE of a new BMW. This sounds kin of odd but I have over 15k miles so I have driven it and I can live with a trade in. Now I am scared of iDrive and I think I may be more inclined to get a 2005 X5 instead of a new 530i.

What are y'all thoughts. Have you heard of any major issue in regards to the X5

 

I guess no real issues with an X5, IMO this car is still one of the plain old good generation of BMW's, no I-Drive and no MOST data bus present yet. The trade-off will be that you will have an old car in something like 2 years, which is when they will introduce the new model. I only wished they would propose me a similar deal...

 

You think that they will mess up the X5...it looks pretty nice now as is. Maybe they will just simply fix my car and I go about my life as a happy, satisfied BMW owner. All my friends call my baby a BMTROUBLE U. It hurts, but its true.

 

You think that they will mess up the X5...it looks pretty nice now as is. Maybe they will just simply fix my car and I go about my life as a happy, satisfied BMW owner. All my friends call my baby a BMTROUBLE U. It hurts, but its true.
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lol, I have to remember this one, maybe you can change your license plate and request a custom one (hint hint)...

 

i think i'd go for a '05 530 or 545 instead .

 

As I said I am not to fond of having to deal with iDrive issues..again. I don't think that this is going to be a quik fix with the iDrive. Look at the 7 series iDrive...been out for almost 5 years and they STILL have issues. No, I think if I can get out of that car and away from the iDrive I will stay away from it. The new 5er E60 is the perfect car...without iDrive.

 

They are allready working on the new X5 (E70), so the X5 will become an old model very soon.
I would trade it in for a new E60, maybe upgrade it.

 

Toolfan, I know you've had a terrible experience w/ the iDrive, but there are lots of us out here that have had no problems with it. Makes me wonder if it is really an iDrive issue, or more of a lemon issue. The X5 is a great vehicle, though as others point out, is do for an upgrade (needed is another debate). We're thinking of one as a replacement for my wife's MDX. I'm just not sure I would let the presence of iDrive or not in a vehicle determine whether I bought it or not. But, I've not had the experience you've had. Either way, best of luck.

 

I totally agree and the I Drive that you might be afraid of maybe 150% better than the 04 models.......so this means that the IDrive is 5% fixed

 

Are you all using the term "i-drive issues" as a generic term to refer to the car's electronics or do you truly have issues with the i-drive? My car has a couple of software issues (e.g. window doesn't close sometimes) but I wouldn't use the term "i-drive issue" to describe these.