A friend bought an BMW M series SUV

[RWebb]

He got it about 2 years ago. At the time he said it would probably be the last SUV he ever bought in his lifetime. I kept my mouth shut...

My question is: how long does he have before the electronics, cooling system, or other parts disintegrate and he regrets buying it.

[MBAtarga]

He's had it for 2 years already. He doesn't regret it yet?

[PorscheGAL]

Had an X3: 45,000 miles things started to turn

[fastfredracing]

An x5 M? they are beasts. I drove one and a cayenne turbo back to back one day, and I think the M is faster . .I would bet the ownership experience is similar to a turbo pig .
I only got to do a little bit of work on it , the guy moved out to Norcal to get involved in a legal grow op , when all that stuff was taking off a decade ago .
I had to repair the air suspension, same basic job as on a cayenne, or Mbz with air suspension .
It was really impressive to drive . Id be scared to own it out of warranty

[masraum]

Originally Posted by RWebb

He got it about 2 years ago. At the time he said it would probably be the last SUV he ever bought in his lifetime. I kept my mouth shut...

My question is: how long does he have before the electronics, cooling system, or other parts disintegrate and he regrets buying it.

I've not owned a BMW, but what I've seen here, is that folks either say that what they had was the worst ever or the best ever. My assumption is that there are good BMW, but that whether you got a good one or a lemon is a crap shoot.

Maybe he got a good one.

[LWJ]

a buddy has one for his wife to drive. He is a track guy and he took it out for some laps. Said it was a blast.

[nota]

Originally Posted by RWebb

He got it about 2 years ago. At the time he said it would probably be the last SUV he ever bought in his lifetime. I kept my mouth shut...

My question is: how long does he have before the electronics, cooling system, or other parts disintegrate and he regrets buying it.

how long is the warranty that is the basic answer

[hcoles]

The repair bills will cause suicide.. so yes it will be the last of his lifetime.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

He's had it for 2 years already. He doesn't regret it yet?

no - he's still in love with the damn thing

my guess he got an extended warranty but I dunno

He has a bunch of cars - Boxster, BMW series 3 wagon with the complete Dinanized experience, and this gigantic white whale van on steroids Overlander or some such

small town idaho so he has to travel a long way to get to a BMW or Porsche dealer - I'm waiting for him to tell me it had to be flatbedded 200 miles...

[908/930]

It will probably be fine if he keeps it away from a dealers service department. Sounds like he knew what he was getting into, any high performance SUV will be more to maintain, I would think the equivalent Porsche, Land Rover would be about the same, lots of crap to go wrong, but the 500+HP would be fun.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by RWebb

....small town idaho so he has to travel a long way to get to a BMW or Porsche dealer - ...

A friend of mine bought a Mini in Boise. No dealership there and he had to bring it to PDX for service and maintenance. I don't know if that's changed, but didn't take him long to flush that turd.

Isn't BMW generally the dealer for Mini? He might have to have that thing shipped to Seattle or Portland!

[Gogar]

Dump it around 75k. BTDT

[908/930]

Just the cost of new rubber would make most people complain. 285/35R21 325/30R21 $2k in rubber.

[gordner]

pretty hard to get a modern full size SUV new shoes these days for much less than 2k. My 2020 Grand Cherokee SRT is the same, and it is on 20's.

[sugarwood]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

An x5 M? they are beasts.

X5M is the holy grail 600hp SUV. One of the baddest SUV's I've ever seen. Sounds like a '68 Chevelle coming down the street.
Same engine as an M5. Similar repair bills as an M5.

[asphaltgambler]

Originally Posted by sugarwood

X5M is the holy grail 600hp SUV............ Sounds like a '68 Chevelle coming down the street........same engine as an M5............ Similar repair bills as an M5.

.....and that's the problem. I gotta say the last 2 iterations of the M5 - went from bad to worse-r. If you can't figure out how to make that much power w/o burning a qt. of oil every 500 miles, overheating or
replacing rod bearings at a 50k service interval. I think the MB / AMG seems to have it all over BMW in terms of reliability. I know that they have had their issues like head bolts but I dont think anywhere like their competitor.

[1990C4S]

Cue Sugar's reply in 5, 4, 5, 2, 1....

[onewhippedpuppy]

That’s why I have two AMGs. As someone who has owned three BMWs and two Minis I would give MB a huge edge over BMW in terms of build and material quality. As an engineer I tend to notice clever engineering vs stupid engineering, BMW (and Audi) have a lot of stupid engineering.

The M vehicles have a litany of problems. Every time I consider one I walk away scared. VANOS failures, rod bearings, carbon buildup, and probably more that I’ve forgotten. In addition to typical BMW stuff. I have two M156 equipped AMGs that are both in the potentially impacted pre-2011 range for head bolts. Neither has any symptoms but I’ll probably do it preventatively at some point. For about $1k in parts I can do head bolts and update the cam followers to the updated design that eliminates the “lifter tick” and basically bulletproof the engine.

[908/930]

MB are not perfect, a friends GL Bluetec that he purchased new had emission system failure soon after warranty was up, cost him about $4k.

[RWebb]

His is a BMW X3 M40i