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2012 X5d running costs

16K views 89 replies 26 participants last post by  FredoinSF 
#1 · (Edited)
There have been quite a few posts about E70 unhappiness lately. Not too surprising given the latest airbag stop sale / trade in fiasco, steep depreciation curve, and some folks who are experiencing some inexcusable reliability issues.

Mine just hit the 50k mile milestone a couple of days ago. It is now out of warranty so I am entering a new phase of E70 ownership. I thought I would reflect on the warranty era, as well as share my running costs since I log everything I spend on all the cars in a spreadsheet (a little OCD...)


I bought it in May 2013. It was BMW owned (supposedly exec car) with 11,151 miles. I traded a 2012 MINI Countryman All4S which I had ordered new but was a disastrous experience due to reliability issues as well as being the wrong fit for my needs. Before the X5, I had a long list of older BMW's (2002tii, E24, 2 E30's, E36, E46, R53, E63, E90), several of which went past 250k miles. The X5 was my first automatic transmission BMW, the heaviest, the least sporty, and I had some anxiety about dropping that much cash on a used car, particularly on the heels of the bad experience with the Countryman. I really wanted a Jeep GC diesel but the launch kept being delayed so when this X5 came up with miles / engine / interior color / equipment that met all my requirements plus more, I bought it.





Fast forward 34 months and 39k miles later and I love the X5. Despite being purchased primarily to drive up to Reno / Tahoe in the snow it quickly became the hauling and towing beast of burden out of our five cars. I tend to form a questionable emotional relationship with cars I appreciate and I am there with the X5, having built many memories since acquiring it. Of note:

- It was the last car my partner's father rode in (while breathing and being seated if you really want to get technical). He was a big 3 union worker (Chrysler) and proponent of "buy American", hence not a fan of my string of BMW's. He actually complimented it the X5 saying was the most comfortable nicest car he'd ever been in. RIP Ted.

- It helped empty my partner's parents' house who were borderline hoarders. As part of that process it towed many trailerfuls of accumulated stuff to the dump (it was the only X5 I ever saw there), as well as loads of furniture / clothing / household items / medical equipment to various charities for donation.


- It has hauled a complete bedroom set from our house in Oakland to the new wine country weekend place with room leftover for two humans and two dogs, plus a bike on the hitch mounted rack.

- It carried trees and shrubs with tailgate open when the gardener flaked out just before one of our rentals was ready to show.



- It has taken me and several friends to running events and triathlons, not to mention the training rides and open water swims along with the gear that goes with it.



Those are the best memories and yes, I am that guy - the one who plasters those stickers on the back of the car.


So how has it been? Absolutely fantastic. Zero complaints. It has been to the dealer for a couple of warranty repairs recently because I had my independent shop do an "end of warranty" inspection which yielded a leaky power steering pump and a leak for a line around the turbo. An East Bay BMW dealer (but not East Bay BMW) fixed without question and also replaced the front brakes and rotors as part of the 4/50 maintenance plan. I had a loaner car while the work was being performed.

Now for running costs. I track all maintenance, repairs, wear parts, consumables, fuel, insurance, registration, body work. I subtract money that I receive for miles expensed for business (driving to and from the airport primarily). I am not including car washes / detail since I always do it myself, nor purchase cost.

Total cost per mile over 38,849 miles is $0.270. How that breaks down:
- Fuel $0.139 per mile
- Insurance + registration + yearly NV smog $0.103 per mile
- Winter wheels and tires (used) $.025 per mile
- Maintenance (extra motor, diff, TC oil changes) $0.017 per mile
- Repairs $0 (warranty only)
- Rear bumper repair and PDR door dings $0.016 per mile
- Credit for business expensed miles -$0.032

Your mileage may vary, but that makes the X5 cheaper to run compared to the daily drivers that preceded it (2012 CM $0.375, 06 330i $0.295, 02 Jeep GC $0.506 - the Jeep had several out of warranty repairs and guzzled fuel...)

The reasons for this thread are twofold:
1. For anyone considering an X5, despite many Bimmerfest members experiencing problems not every one of them is a bad car. I am entirely satisfied with mine to date.
2. I look forward to keeping the X5 for several more years. I will revisit the cost per mile aspect as the miles pile on and see if my gamble of not purchasing a warranty pays off.

Cheers!
 
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#3 ·
Thanks for the feedback. Kind of a corny post, but I think it's good to share the good experiences to balance some of the bad.
 
#4 ·
Good info. That cost per mile data doesn't look like it includes depreciation though, right? That'd be the biggest cost by far on a fairly new X5. E70s have depreciated about 15-19% YoY pretty steadily throughout their lifespan with "normal" miles put on them. So early on you're shedding $6-8k per year on just depreciation.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Yeah, depreciation is the "silent killer." People tend to ignore it because it's an abstract concept to most people unless they're accountants or bookkeepers. People plan for car payments in their budgets. But, car repairs are always "unexpected," and get under their skin more. I make a point of quantifying my cars' depreciation when I do a budget for the year. Doing so motivates me to keep cars to 100k miles, and to take care of my cars.

It's been my experience that the first year's depreciation is about 25%. The years the car goes out of warranty, the model year they turn seven years old, and the year they go over 100k miles are about 20%. The remaining years are around 15%. But, that steady 15% is a exponential decay.

My 12 year old BMW had $7k in repairs and maintenance the last year I owned it. There was also about $3.5k in depreciation, since the car was well past its prime at 115k miles. But, those costs were about half of the first year's deprecation on my new BMW, $19k.
 
#5 ·
Thanks. I wanted to focus strictly on running costs, the reason being they are tangible, documented, non arguable costs plus I think it will be interesting to see how they evolve in regards to repair and maintenance as the car ages.

I purposely kept depreciation out of the equation because it's not a factor for me until I decide to sell a car. I do calculate it for the cars that are no longer around. FWIW the Countryman came it at a high $0.87 total CPM inc depreciation after 18 months and 22,680 miles. Bought new, took a bath on the trade, ouch... The least costly car to run we've had of late by far was the 06 MINI Cooper S at $0.43 per mile inc depreciation. That was a car we bought new, kept 9.5 years and put 109k miles on. I don't think we'll ever come that low again. Was hard to let it go but ran out of garage space.
 
#9 ·
Thanks. I wanted to focus strictly on running costs, the reason being they are tangible, documented, non arguable costs plus I think it will be interesting to see how they evolve in regards to repair and maintenance as the car ages.

I purposely kept depreciation out of the equation because it's not a factor for me until I decide to sell a car. I do calculate it for the cars that are no longer around. FWIW the Countryman came it at a high $0.87 total CPM inc depreciation after 18 months and 22,680 miles. Bought new, took a bath on the trade, ouch... The least costly car to run we've had of late by far was the 06 MINI Cooper S at $0.43 per mile inc depreciation. That was a car we bought new, kept 9.5 years and put 109k miles on. I don't think we'll ever come that low again. Was hard to let it go but ran out of garage space.
True, depreciation isn't realized until the vehicle is sold, but the value pretty much falls over time so it's easy to estimate.

It is just an estimate though, so I can understand how you want to have hard costs only in such a detailed log.

Thanks for sharing it.

What would be interesting is an analysis of approximate depreciation up to this point vs. your actual repair costs going forward.

Yeah, depreciation is the "silent killer." People tend to ignore it because it's an abstract concept to most people unless they're accountants or bookkeepers. People plan for car payments in their budgets. But, car repairs are always "unexpected," and get under their skin more. I make a point of quantifying my cars' depreciation when I do a budget for the year. Doing so motivates me to keep cars to 100k miles, and to take care of my cars.

It's been my experience that the first year's depreciation is about 25%. The years the car goes out of warranty, the model year they turn seven years old, and the year they go over 100k miles are about 20%. The remaining years are around 15%. But, that steady 15% is a exponential decay.

My 12 year old BMW had $7k in repairs and maintenance the last year I owned it. There was also about $3.5k in depreciation, since the car was well past its prime at 115k miles. But, those costs were about half of the first year's deprecation on my new BMW, $19k.
Cargurus has some really detailed information from scraping FS ads. I would bias these prices down about $1-2k to adjust for actual selling price, as I believe they use list price, but I'd say it's pretty accurate given the large data pool.

http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/price-trends/BMW-X5-d393

Not sure how to show specific years, but if you do '07-'13 X5s over a reasonable time span like '10 to present, it's pretty enlightening. The most striking thing is that the depreciation is pretty much a set percentage over time, with things only leveling out in dollar terms once they get in the teens due to geometric decay. But there's limited data on the E70 at those price levels.

But even looking at later model E53s, the trend continues, with a timespan of 5.5 years yielding about 55% depreciation (the early E70s during this same timespan had a depreciation of 60%! But there's still a large gap between '06 and '07 X5 values due to the newer body style and possibly feature set).

What does that mean in dollar terms?

In just 10 months, '08 and '09 E70s went from $40k to $30k. Ouch. It took 14 months for an '09 (less volatile in that timespan than '08s) to go from $30k to $20k.

But it took 4.5 years for an '05 E53 to go from $20k to $10k (Aug '11 to Feb '16)!

That said, I don't expect an E70 to experience that long of a run between $20k and $10k. The E53 was subject to large macro marketplace forces that kept used car values increasing during that timespan. But I think ~3-4 years is a reasonable run for most E70s from $20k to $10k.

After that point, depreciation costs are largely negligible compared to the running costs of an old BMW. So it's not really worth much effort to track it other than to say you're on the order of ~$1k/year give or take.

Another interesting point, it seems the lowest ~6 month period of depreciation is at the roughly 3-3.5 year old mark. There's a "hump" in each curve which must reflect cars coming off a 3 yr lease and getting CPO'd at dealers. You'd think that large supply increase would cause values to drop, but instead, it makes prices rise! The advertisement of the value of CPO warranties is definitely working in the manufacturer's/dealer's favor these days!

Sorry to OP if I derailed the thread a bit (a lot? :eek:) to talk about depreciation, but I feel it's the final piece of the puzzle. It's also a bit interesting, and I did quite a bit of research on it when I was picking my E70 out. There are ways to estimate the cost before you've incurred the expense via selling the vehicle, and the Carguru tool is too cool to not chat up when depreciation is brought up.
 
#11 ·
I don't think the bump in value is because the car is nearing the twilight period of its factory warranty, but reflects the cost of dealership backed warranties being put on lease return cars. That cost is baked into the vehicle's purchase price (out of sight, out of mind to some degree). Because otherwise why would a vehicle sudden gain value over months as it's rapidly chewing through the remaining bit of factory warranty it has?

I like your spreadsheet, and do agree that BMW M cars depreciate much slower. I've purchased two used M3s, and the depreciation was really low (<10% on average per year).
 
#12 ·
Nice write up. We had similar experiences both owning 2011 Mini Countrymans and I took a bath on that deal too but ended up with a fairly reliable x5. You hit 50k on yours around the time I hit 100k on mine. The only issues I've had were with the complex diesel emissions. But now I've taken care of that, and plan on another 100k. I like the Bianchi, btw. I'm not a big fan of carbon bikes.
 
#13 ·
The talk about depreciation is no skin off my back but I don't want to get into it here. Significant other is actually a fixed assets guru, been doing nothing but fixed assets consulting and financial software development focusing on fixed assets / depreciation / tax implication for the 22 years we've been together. He rolls his eyes about how I account for depreciation and it could be why I'm not getting into the depreciation discussion here, but you can all feel free to discuss.

Sir bikes, about the Bianchi, great bike for me. Steele frame but very comfy on long rides. Looks like an antique compared to the tri bikes, but I'm not winning any races so I couldn't care less and will keep riding it.
 
#14 ·
This is all I carry.
Whoops. Shameless plug...
 

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#17 · (Edited)
To me the depreciation argument is below the belt. Just about any vehicle is gonna depreciate. It's inevitable.

At the end of the day, I'll take more depreciation for a Beemer versus a Ford or a Kia or even a Lexus.

Great post by OP and I've also enjoyed the responses and photos to this thread. The X5D is by far the best vehicle I've ever owned. The only vehicle I'd rather have is a X6 or a new X5--preferably a M.
 

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#20 · (Edited)
I used to drive a lot for work. They'd usually pay me the standard IRS mileage allowance. To calculate the actual deprecation on the car due to a particular business trip, I'd look up the value of the car on KBB.com with and without the additional mileage of the trip. Back when my M3 was newer, and the accumulated mileage was less than 12k/year, the additional depreciation from the business trips was minimal. I ended up putting 7k miles on M3 for work over the time I had the car, mostly when the car was newer. But, even accounting for deprecation and maintenance, I was money ahead.

I racked up 20k business trip miles on my Cobalt. In addition to pocketing a few grand, that 20k miles meant that I get a new car about two years earlier than I would otherwise. I'd also get to stop along the way and see friends and family.

I had a pscyho boss for a while. He was pissed when I bought the M3. He asked me how much the payments were. I told him nothing, I wrote a check for it. Then he was really pissed, saying I was paid to much. I told him that one of the reasons that I can afford an M3 is that I pretty much paid for my two Nissan Sentara's by driving them on business trips. He was so pissed that I could see the muscles in this forehead twitch. I moved on to another boss. But, after that he stopped letting his people drive their cars on business trips. They had to fly or take a rental car. The way the government pays for POV (personally owned vehicle) travel is that you get the IRS mileage rate, or what it would have cost the government if you'd flown, which ever is less. So, POV-ing doesn't cost the government anything, and usually saves the government money. For a lot of places I went, driving was also faster, counting connections, layovers, and having to backtrack from the destination airport to the destination. But, my boss was such a **** that he couldn't stand seeing anybody putting an extra few hundred bucks in their pocket.

My best experience with my M3 on a business trip was an impromptu drag race between me and about ten VW's from some VW club convoy coming out of a huge toll plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike. An E46 M3 sounds so awesome at high RPM's and full throttle that all those VW guys were cheering as I blasted past them.
 
#22 · (Edited)
In my mind depreciation has nothing whatsoever to do with practicality.

Most of accept the fact that cars depreciate. They're way overpriced to begin with, but consumers love cars, and they're willing to pay for them.
practicality? not sure what your point is.

To me the depreciation argument is below the belt. Just about any vehicle is gonna depreciate. It's inevitable.

At the end of the day, I'll take more depreciation for a Beemer versus a Ford or a Kia or even a Lexus.

Great post by OP and I've also enjoyed the responses and photos to this thread. The X5D is by far the best vehicle I've ever owned. The only vehicle I'd rather have is a X6 or a new X5--preferably a M.
But depreciation IS a real cost, which is the purposes of our discussion here. You don't write a check for depreciation monthly (unless you lease), but you realize the cash impact immediately after you sell your car. This year my out of pocket expenses would be just an oil change and fuel costs ($100 and $50 per fillup), making my annual operating costs about $3100. But my depreciation this CY would be on the order of about $3500, realized if I elect to sell, no chump change, and that's a real cost any way you cut it.

This thread is now debating when to recognize and the method to record depreciation cost, annually or monthly (accrual), or as a "writedown" at the end of ownership and whether you use secondary market pricing or an assumed schedule a-la some fixed asset we learned in accounting classes.

One way or another, you can't avoid this cost and shouldnt' turn a blind eye to it (if you actually care about usage of your own money).

You're right, every car depreciates, but we're talking about the RATE of depreciation. The RATE for a new car is wallet bustingly high. My 2008 M3 stickered at $67k. The previous owner bought it for $67k and drove it 8000 miles. I bought it for $46k in 2010. In 3 years, he ate $21k or about $7k/year. Today, my M3 is worth about $30k after 43k miles. So in the 6 years I owned it, my depreciation is $16,000 or $3200/year over 5 years. See how I only ate $3k per year and prior owner ate $7k per year? My rate is more than half of his.
 
#29 · (Edited)
More X5 love...
It had to earn its keep this weekend. We are in the process of getting Oakland home ready for sale and moving items to both Reno and Healdsburg houses. Drove a load of heavy furniture and misc large items up to Reno on Friday, and back down with empty trailer today. No idea how much the trailer weighed for the drive up by it was loaded.
No sweat going up the Sierras and I'm happy with the 18.6 MPG rating given the terrain, plus it's always fun to travel with the Burning Man crowd. My former Jeep GC would return 14MPG I same trip without a trailer!!

Car Vehicle Auto part


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Transport Mode of transport


Transport Wood Roof Trailer Tree


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Bmw Motor vehicle


Getting close to 57k miles and running as expected.
 
#30 ·
More X5 love...
It had to earn its keep this weekend. We are in the process of getting Oakland home ready for sale and moving items to both Reno and Healdsburg houses. Drove a load of heavy furniture and misc large items up to Reno on Friday, and back down with empty trailer today. No idea how much the trailer weighed for the drive up by it was loaded.
No sweat going up the Sierras and I'm happy with the 18.6 MPG rating given the terrain, plus it's always fun to travel with the Burning Man crowd. My former Jeep GC would return 14MPG I same trip without a trailer!!

View attachment 574433

View attachment 574434

View attachment 574435

View attachment 574436

Getting close to 57k miles and running as expected.
Cool. You're at the halfway point, if that.

I'm going to try to talk Frau Putzer into an X3 x30d when the new ones come out. I'd rather have an X5, but they are another $20k and Frau Putzer is rough on cars. It's a push letting her loose on a $56k BMW, much less a $76k one.

Ain't Alpine White great? It doesn't fade... only gets whiter. Reds don't get redder; blues don't get bluer, etc.
 
#31 ·
I actually am going for another 6.5 years with the X5 so it should be past 150k by then. No idea what I'll do then... I secretly keep toying with the idea of selling both the X5 and the 650 (especially now that I'm losing two garage spots), adding a big pile of cash and turning them into an Alpina B6, but the SO would quite literally kill me.

Didn't know the next gen X3 was coming to US with diesel again. If 3.0d is six cylinder, it should be a good drive.
 
#32 · (Edited)
I actually am going for another 6.5 years with the X5 so it should be past 150k by then. No idea what I'll do then... I secretly keep toying with the idea of selling both the X5 and the 650 (especially now that I'm losing two garage spots), adding a big pile of cash and turning them into an Alpina B6, but the SO would quite literally kill me.

Didn't know the next gen X3 was coming to US with diesel again. If 3.0d is six cylinder, it should be a good drive.
I'm pretty sure the 3.0d will be the current 2.0 liter, turbocharged four-cylinder. Somebody posted "inside information" on another board saying the X3 U.S. lineup will be" sDrive30i, xDrive30i, xDrive30e, xDrive30d, and xDriveM40i. This will be a Frauwagen, and Frau Putzer really isn't a "driver." Her priorities in a car are: being up high, comfortable seats, heated seats, good stereo, good AC, nav,' and... a shark fin on the roof. The $5k or so I'll save on a four-cylinder will go in my M2-911 fund.

BMW made a 2.0 liter six back in the 1970's, but we never saw it here in the U.S.

VW's stopped selling diesels here. So, there's a big hole in the market if BMW wants to go after it. Diesel-ers are a militant bunch, for good reason. There's a new uptick in emission reg's coming in 2018, I think. VW said that weighed into their decision... yeah... along with Dieselgate.

With smaller vehicles, the advantages of a diesel is less, yet the emission compliance cost is just about the same. Other markets have a diesel X1, but we don't get it here.
 
#33 · (Edited)
Update time. It's been one year since the 4/50 warranty expired based on miles, 15,000 miles have been added to the odometer, and it has been totally uneventful.

Happily there have been no repairs, maintenance wise it has had brake fluid, coolant, and a couple of oil changes. I replaced the rear brake pads rotors and wear sensors due to wear, and also installed less dusty front pads.

The most memorable X5 event this year has been related to the sale of our house in Oakland and move to two other homes we already owned - downsizing in preparation for less stress and overhead as retirement approaches. Since this was not your standard A to B move we ended up renting trailers and hauling belongings between the three places. The X5 performed flawlessly, and was particualrly impressive going up the Tahoe area passes with a fully loaded trailer. It is also handling the piles of Tahoe snow like a champ.

The overall costs per mile decreased slightly from $.270 to $.258. This will change in the upcoming year. It needs two sets of tires (one summer, one winter), trans diff and TC fluid changes, as well as a new thermostat which will be the first out of pocket repair unless a CEL comes up between now and the 70k mile trip to the shop. Honeymoon over. Feel free to debate depreciation at will again, but like last year I am not considering it in my running costs as I don't know what the actual depreciation will be until I sell the car.

Adding pictures of table with relevant costs breakdown and gratuitous photos. Still love the car. Yes, this is a little OCD but some might find it a nice change from problem threads.
 

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#34 ·
:thumbup: Good to see very little problem reported here. It gives me hope in my X5 35d ownership down the road. I guess I am more proactive at changing fluid then you have.

A coworker owns a 2006 BMW 3 series, he told me this is the first year after his warranty expired that he does not need to repair anything. Basically, he had finally replaced everything that could have been broken. Each year, he spent about $3k or so on repair. He told me he will still keep his BMW 3 series even after his wife's Tesla model 3 arrives. You just can't beat the feel of kit car associated with it. Even his Porsche MaCan makes him feel isolated when driving around. He now has more than 150k miles on the BMW 3 series. Looking at the current landscape, I think it would be hard to replace his BMW 3 series to have the same feel.

I am sure we all decided to get BMW due to personal value outweigh the financial costs. If I really do my computations, I don't understand how any one would buy BMW vs. Honda or Toyota. Dow hit a new high today at 21k. If I kept my Honda Accord instead and put the money into DOW, I would have made more than 50% more in gain. I would also missed out the fun of driving the car around during 4 years of ownership.

I have a feeling this BMW X5 will be like my coworker's 3 series. It will stay with me even after I decide to look for a replacement. That steering feel is really addictive. I hope 6 years later that I can get that steering feel back. I heard good thing about Porsche. Perhaps, I need to look there instead.
 
#35 ·
You should try the older BMW's, steering feel and lighter weight combo was like nothing else. I wish I still had my former E30 convertible, I browse for used ones periodically but adding another car is out of the question these days. Knowing I can't replicate what I currently have is the reason I am hanging on to the E46 and the E63: Stick shifts, hydraulic steering, non turbo, easy to work on (E46 at least)... The reality is I have no need for either of those cars and I am now paying to garage one of them after selling Oakland. Be careful or the BMWs might start multiplying in your driveway as well.
 
#37 ·
121k! Nice, getting up there. I know, I'm slacking.
 
#38 ·
I am certainly happy to hear that there are relatively trouble free X5d's out there. Mine has been a real headache, and with only 85k miles on it. Even my SA says this one is at a different level for causing emissions-related problems. We basically had the entire SCR system replaced last year and now we are back in the shop with the same codes (10k miles later). When/if the "real" problem is fixed I will have to post an update.

FredoinSF, thank you very much for the update!

Sent from my iPhone using Bimmerfest mobile app
 
#39 ·
Yeah, I had both active and passive tanks replaced. I am at 65K, and wanted to keep car for a long time as I know from experience these engines can run forever. But, all this emission issues are making me go buy appliance SUV after warranty and then get used 135i with stick shift :)
 
#40 ·
Awesome updates. My personal life isn't nearly as interesting life as your X5's life. I live vicariously through these updates
 
#42 ·
Not a detailed update, but reached the 70k mile mark not too long ago. I had some maintenance and what I would qualify as first repair.
Maintenance:
- Trans fluid change (first time)
- Diff and transfer case fluid change (2nd time)
- Belts
- Fuel filter
- New summer tires (all season rubber)

Repair:
- New thermostat due to lower than optimal operating temps measured on Carly.

I had my independent shop in Sonoma Co CA do the work due to lack of time, complexity of thermostat, mess of auto trans. Not cheap, but I assume the whole amount for parts and labor came to less than what a lot of people spend on a trimester worth of BMW payments. Totally worth it for presumed greater reliability and peace of mind.
 
#44 · (Edited)
The X5 turned 5 years old as it was built in July 2012. It's a major milestone, so doing a mid year update after spending a couple of evenings cleaning it inside and out this week.
Started with interior leatherique leather cleaning and conditioning which I typically do once a year for the seats, leather dash, and top of door trim. First picture is the rinse water after the 24 hour rejuvenation treatment. Must have been a long dirty year!


Clean leather:


Next was engine bay cleaning. I had never done it since purchasing the car in May 2013. 62k miles since then, 72k total. Before picture:

After:



Finally got to paint care. Did Sonax fallout cleaner first to try to remove encrusted junk from tailgate area, then wash, polish, wax, black trim treatment.
Fallout cleaner at work. Did OK given spray and wait, but clay and more aggressive polish would have been better.


Clean car:




All followed by ceremonial add of the latest sticker for a memorable race: IM 70.3 Calgary a couple of weeks ago. Partner hates them so he won't be thrilled about the add, but it's my car and at least I can pick it out in the parking lot.


Moral of the story is trying to keep a daily driver clean is about as futile as putting toothpaste back into the tube. I'll still try it.

Sent from my iPad using Bimmerfest mobile app
 
#45 ·
Update time! Second anniversary of no warranty, aka flying without a net.

The verdict is I still love the X5 and it has been trouble free for yet another year. Miles went from 65,070 to 79,830 so another 15k miles which is the same as last year. Could have been more, more on that later.

What did it need in the past year? Maintenance wise it had a couple of oil changes, trans fluid and filter, diff oil, transfer case oil, fuel filter, belts at around 70k miles. The thermostat was replaced at the same time because coolant temp was in mid 70's, I categorized that as a repair so the X5 had its first official out of warranty repair bill. I did not have time to do the work other than basic oil changes so the maintenance and repair costs include labor at an independent. It got a new set of summer / all season tires (Conti DWS06's) and a new rear wiper. one of those new tires needed a patch after a puncture.
All of the above made my per mile running costs jump from $0.258 last year to $0.282. Chart below:


What's in store for next year? New winter tires for sure, likely a battery as well, and then mechanically who knows? I feel like I am entering the past due zone for DEF tank and rear suspension airbags. Hoping for the best (hope is no strategy but it's all I got) but expecting rougher waters.

To keep the what I did with it and why I still love it theme, here are the highlights. There was furniture shuffling from house to house as well as relocating the Vespa, but happily we are done moving.
I was able to do more triathlons so lots of bike and tri junk carrying to beautiful places such as Lake Berryessa, Lake Sonoma, Donner Lake and of course, Tahoe. One of those triathlons was in Calgary; I was going to drive, make a vacation out of it, and go to areas I have never been to. Life intervened and I ended flying in and out of Calgary for the event. Bummer.
That trip would have made the miles go up this year. Pictures below:
Moving furniture:


Vespa relo:


Car full of tri junk:


Lake Berryessa:


Flat tire fixin' in Nowhere, the middle of.


What it looks like today, it needs a wash:
 
#58 · (Edited)
What's in store for next year? New winter tires for sure, likely a battery as well, and then mechanically who knows? I feel like I am entering the past due zone for DEF tank and rear suspension airbags. Hoping for the best (hope is no strategy but it's all I got) but expecting rougher waters.
If your DEF tank does fail in some way, it should be covered by the 10yr/120k mile warranty extension (http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=981054). I'd be keeping an eye on your harmonic balancer. Lots of us 335d guys are seeing them fail in the 80k-100k range. Anyways, I enjoy your posts updates.
 
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