Brocktoon
01-24-2008, 08:23 AM
Hi,
You guys have a great forum here, and as my current lease is soon to expire, I have been on the hunt for a replacement vehicle.
I have read with much interest the rant & rave threads, especially about auto tranny issuse. It seems to me that this is some history repeating... let me tell you why.
First, it may shock most of you to learn that the X3 is not BMW's first stab at a compact, luxury SUV. Back in the day, as you may recall, BMW was the proud owner of Rover Cars (the then parent of Land Rover), and while the body dimensions and basic layout were firmed up by Honda (ther previous owner), the mechanicals, of the Freelander were pretty much a BMW cross parts bin engineering job.
While not much loved in North America, the Freelander, mainly those powered by the BMW 2 litre deisel was highly regarded, and still command a premium on the used market elsewhere. As a matter of fact, the Freelander was the best selling truck in Europe for several years.
Now, when the Freelander finally made it to north america with Rover KV6 power, it came only with the 5 speed Jatco Steptronic from the then current x5. It was even branded as "Steptronic" for marketing purposes.
Guess what? Those cars were plagued with transmission issues, re-programming fixes, hesitation and tranny failures that were not found on the X5, spooky, eh?
For whatever reason, it seems that BMW has some sort of bias in either their approach to engine management/electronics or engineering that is just incompatable with an automatic, compact SUV. Apparently 10 years later, they still don't have it right.
BTW: I have seen some some complaints about slow upshifts when cold. This is "normal" and I'll tell you why. This is not actually a fault in the tranny, it is actually a "feature" of most engine management systems out of europe. The idea is that the gears hold longer when cold in order to "light off" the catalytic converters and reduce NOx emissions when cold. The obviously can't do this on a manual car, but hitting the automatics hard helps the fleet averages. Under attack from Greenies, Porsche actually advertises this as a green feature in europe on the Tiptronic. Some cars don't do this because they deal with the issue differently ie: cats closer to the head.
Anyway, I have owned two Freelanders and I have been happy with them as the price and rate are so heavily subsidised where I live, I was driving them for less than a CR-V, but now, it's time for something bigger, and the X3 looks like a good contender.
Sorry for the long post, I thought you guys might find this interesting.
You guys have a great forum here, and as my current lease is soon to expire, I have been on the hunt for a replacement vehicle.
I have read with much interest the rant & rave threads, especially about auto tranny issuse. It seems to me that this is some history repeating... let me tell you why.
First, it may shock most of you to learn that the X3 is not BMW's first stab at a compact, luxury SUV. Back in the day, as you may recall, BMW was the proud owner of Rover Cars (the then parent of Land Rover), and while the body dimensions and basic layout were firmed up by Honda (ther previous owner), the mechanicals, of the Freelander were pretty much a BMW cross parts bin engineering job.
While not much loved in North America, the Freelander, mainly those powered by the BMW 2 litre deisel was highly regarded, and still command a premium on the used market elsewhere. As a matter of fact, the Freelander was the best selling truck in Europe for several years.
Now, when the Freelander finally made it to north america with Rover KV6 power, it came only with the 5 speed Jatco Steptronic from the then current x5. It was even branded as "Steptronic" for marketing purposes.
Guess what? Those cars were plagued with transmission issues, re-programming fixes, hesitation and tranny failures that were not found on the X5, spooky, eh?
For whatever reason, it seems that BMW has some sort of bias in either their approach to engine management/electronics or engineering that is just incompatable with an automatic, compact SUV. Apparently 10 years later, they still don't have it right.
BTW: I have seen some some complaints about slow upshifts when cold. This is "normal" and I'll tell you why. This is not actually a fault in the tranny, it is actually a "feature" of most engine management systems out of europe. The idea is that the gears hold longer when cold in order to "light off" the catalytic converters and reduce NOx emissions when cold. The obviously can't do this on a manual car, but hitting the automatics hard helps the fleet averages. Under attack from Greenies, Porsche actually advertises this as a green feature in europe on the Tiptronic. Some cars don't do this because they deal with the issue differently ie: cats closer to the head.
Anyway, I have owned two Freelanders and I have been happy with them as the price and rate are so heavily subsidised where I live, I was driving them for less than a CR-V, but now, it's time for something bigger, and the X3 looks like a good contender.
Sorry for the long post, I thought you guys might find this interesting.