BMW X5 Problems

Ten grand is very cheap for an X5 and the lack of history rings alarm bells. Even a single major problem could double your spending. Steer clear unless it gets a massive tick from a motor club pre-purchase report.

What a mess! It really began when you signed the so-called 'contract' and paid a deposit before you saw the car. You should never do that, they had you over a barrel the moment you put pen to paper and made off with your money. You need to go back to that contract, read it and understand what it is you signed. Look for an out clause that gives you an excuse to get out of the contract. I think you're being optimistic to hang your hopes on the dealer's description of the car as a demonstrator when perhaps it wasn't its prime purpose. You need to call in the legal eagles to sort this problem out, and it is a problem between you and the dealer. While it might embarrass BMW that one of their dealers has treated you in such an unprofessional manner it's not their responsibility to sort it out for you.

Generally it was always felt that the air-conditioning of European cars wasn’t up to the task for Australia; that was because there wasn’t the demand for powerful A/C in Europe where the climate is generally milder. But when the European carmakers began to move on to the world market and export their cars to places like America where the demand for good A/C is very high they have improved the performance of the A/C systems in their cars. The cars you say have had good air are cars that are typically built for the US market, those you say don’t have good performance are not. A/C systems soak up quite a bit of engine power in driving the compressor and that has a greater impact on smaller engines than big ones, and again the cars you are critical of have smaller engines, so they will also probably run smaller compressors.

The BMW dealer is the best placed to work out what’s causing your problem. If you’re concerned about the potential cost of his work ask for a quote and make a decision based on that. You could place a time limit, of say, three hours on him and ask for a report at the end of that time so you can decide on what you then want to do. Without knowing the cause of the problem before you start it’s hard to say how long the investigation might take.

BMW has told us they believe those rims cracked because the tyres were underinflated. Large alloy wheels with low-profile tyres are also more prone to being damaged by hitting kerbs. Perhaps other readers can tell us about their experiences with the X5 wheels.