X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

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32wildbilly
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X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by 32wildbilly » Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:35 pm

For some time the wife sees an SUV she's like "I like that what is it?". Her latest is the BMW X5. Did a little research and like the idea of 455hp. Reliability sketchy. Better than the LR or Merc she has fixated on in the near past! I think she is tired of our Rav4.

Any observations comments on the X5? Not necessarily the big V-8 as I probably won't be able to convince her of that...
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Kalashnikov
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Re: X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by Kalashnikov » Sun Mar 04, 2018 12:40 am

As long as you get one with the warranty, it is fine. I believe all BMW motors are now DI and have a turbo. The 3.0 turbo engines had a lot of trouble with HPFP and turbos, not sure if that got resolved.

My coworkers turbo went out on 5 series, extended warranty covered the repair of almost $5k.

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32wildbilly
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Re: X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by 32wildbilly » Sun Mar 04, 2018 5:58 pm

Thanks, Kalash. Guess I'll take her for to test drive and see what she thinks.
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Re: X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by Dr_Strangelove » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:37 pm

I was waiting for better posts than this but I have two coworkers with X5's. One has a '14 and one has a '16 and they both talk about them like they're the best truck to ever grace asphalt - because let's get real - neither of them venture into the Mojave with a beeeeeeeemer.
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32wildbilly
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Re: X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by 32wildbilly » Mon Mar 05, 2018 7:49 pm

Dr: We call em O street four wheelers in Lincoln. O street being the main drag in town! If we get one we will probably have one kid disown us. Beemer owners get a worse rep than Porsche owners.
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Re: X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by 5chn3ll » Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:32 pm

I bought a diesel X5 in 2010. The 425ish lb-ft of torque was fairly adept at moving 2.5 tons of SUV around, but it was a BIG car. I was actually uncomfortable driving it on the freeway for the first couple of weeks. It was a good-looking car, even in base trim, but there were some issues with exhaust leaks, the run-flats were horrible, and the "infotainment" system was very difficult to use (I assume that modern touchscreens and better speech recognition have helped with the latter point).

I chose to get rid of it because I wasn't willing to pay for the upkeep once the warranty expired...I don't remember the cost of the exhaust cooler that was replaced to address the exhaust leak, but it was in the thousands. If it ran out of diesel exhaust juice, it would refuse to start after some number of warnings; while I never had this issue, one of my friends who had the same vehicle got stranded because he ignored the warning once too often. Diesel was surprisingly hard to find in some parts of San Diego back then. The biggest "against" for us was the offroad performance; my wife and I are among those strange people who actually use their SUV off-road. Even with new snow tires and chains, the weight made it impossible to get up snowy/icy inclines; on unpaved roads in winter conditions, even relatively mild hills were insurmountable.

We replaced the X5 with an AWD Nissan Murano - it seems that we bought the only "bad" Nissan ever made. In 4 years, it ate a transmission, half shafts, a valve train, and an infotainment system. Not the Murano's fault, but we had lousy luck with the car being damaged nearly every time it went in for service (paint, bumper damage, etc.).

My buddy who also had the 35D traded his in for a Discovery - glad I didn't make that mistake. The thing was ALWAYS in the shop; at one point LR somehow botched a software update and bricked his transmission, requiring a replacement.

When we were evaluating replacements for the Murano, we test drove at least a dozen different midsize and full-size SUVs - Chevrolet, Mazda, Lincoln, Toyota, Honda, Subaru - and finally decided on the Cherokee. My only complaint about that car is the 4-banger Multiair engine...an extra 50HP would be really nice. The 8-speed automatic helps compensate for the power. Even my non-Trailhawk-edition has some fairly decent off-road chops; I've had it balanced on two wheels more than a couple of times going up and down some especially hairy trails, but the engine has really struggled getting up some rockier trails. I've been able to use the brakes to make up for the lack of a locking diff, but it definitely struggles climbing up steep grades with larger rocks. It's more than adequate on "normal" trails, unmaintained dirt roads, and fire roads, and it was inexpensive enough that I don't butt-clench every time I get too close to some brush or smack a rock with some part of the undercarriage.

If you're looking for a luxurious ride and you don't need to worry about a lot of ice, the X5 would probably be a great car. Turbos are always nice if you're going high altitude; the power loss above 5000-6000 ft is much more evident with N/A engines. If you go with an X5, don't cheap out on the leather - I went with the base-level seating surfaces, which tended to get ...uncomfortably moist...on hot days.

The Mazda CX-5 and CX-9 were really nicely appointed for the money - I have no idea how they would fare offroad, but for a "Chelsea tractor," the CX-9 would probably be more than adequate.
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Understeer: You will hit the wall with the front end.
Oversteer: You will hit the wall with the rear end.
Horsepower: How hard you will hit the wall.
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Re: X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by trailbrake996 » Thu Mar 08, 2018 2:08 pm

My better half got a CPO 2014 Range Rover Sport. Tows 7700 lbs - good gas mileage for a big tub - doesn't handle too shabby either. I would not get one out of warranty. Overall after a few months of ownership I'm very impressed and sorry for the sucker who got hit with $40K of depreciation in a little over 30,000 miles.

The test will be towing the track car up to Road America later this year.
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32wildbilly
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Re: X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by 32wildbilly » Thu Mar 08, 2018 6:09 pm

Appreciate all the replies. She's still leaning to the X5. We'll see. So far I've talked her out of about 15 various "junk" SUV's. It is getting tiring and I'll have to buy her something soon.
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5chn3ll
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Re: X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by 5chn3ll » Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:06 pm

I'd drive a non-Turbo X5 around town - it was a very nice car, and the stock sound system was impressive.

Understeer: You will hit the wall with the front end.
Oversteer: You will hit the wall with the rear end.
Horsepower: How hard you will hit the wall.
Torque: How far you will move the wall.

Gone hunting with Alec Baldwin and Dick Cheney. Back soon.

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32wildbilly
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Re: X5's, Land Rovers and various assorted SUV's

Post by 32wildbilly » Tue Mar 13, 2018 1:48 pm

So pre-2011 unless the V-8? Are turbo engines on these problematic?
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