Buying advice: 2011+ X5 or X6

[msm]

Please can I get some input and feedback from those who are familiar with these cars and either owned or have experience with them.

I'm considering a 2011+ E70 X5 (facelift) or E71 X6, but only the twin turbo diesel model (xdrive40d). My guesstimate is that I would buy a car towards the end of MP and keep it until sub 200K KM (3-5 years max). Hence, I would essentially be servicing and maintaining the car out of MP between 100k-200K KM.

What are the big tickets items to budget for. Here is my list so far:
1) 19"/20" tyres. Will ditch the runflats, but a decent set is still going to be R15k-R20k and I need to get a space saver.
2) Gearbox flush. 50/50 on whether I would need to do this on the newer 8 speed ZF, but an item I'm budgeting for.
3) Service cost - any feedback on what BMW dealerships are charging for standard services on these cars and intervals? I would prefer to service it at BMW and use independent places for any repairs/issues. Any big ticket items listed in the service schedules?

I've owned several 3.0d BMW's (E39, E53, E90) and besides injector cleaning, had no engine issues - hence, the reason for me looking at the twin turbo diesel this time around. Also, with single turbo 3.0d, turbo issues/replacement seem to be far and few between on these cars so I'm assuming the twin turbo to have very similar reliability patterns.

Besides the obvious list of used car items I need to look out for, anything specific on the X5/X6 xdrive40d vehicles?

Input/advise welcome.

:ty:

 

[messi essack]

air suspension pump tend to go on these cars

 

[Charlie Brown]

I have similar thoughts re the X5 and would also appreciate the responses too.

My research (limited) led me to believe that the Twin Turbo variants were more troublesome vs the single.

 

[frs1]

Had two X5 3.0d and had no troubles, had two services out of MP and both were less than 2 grand at BMW. Tyres if its the 20" but there are affordable brands that gives better km's. Dont have info on the 4.0d.
Got the 8 speed on my X3 3.0d, quite a difference from the 6 speed

 

[70007]

I have 2010 3.0d M-Sport with the 19" wheels. I bought it with 86k on and it now has 128k on the clock.

On the M-sport models the ride with run-flats on less than smooth and bumpy roads is definitely a bit uncomfortable, can only guess the 20" wheels even more so. With a bit of search you'll get run-flats for mid to high R3000's. I've replaced mine with non run-flat tyres over December at R10 880 for 4, fitted. There is a huge improvement in ride quality, a lot softer and less road noise. So far I'm happy about my decision and was lucky that my car was ordered with a space saver spare.

Normal services outside motorplan varies between R1500 - R2000 at the dealers which is fair I would think. The intervals on my car is about 15000km, but I do oil / filter changes at 7500km as well.

In terms of maintenance I had the following since I bought the car:

- gearbox replacement at about 95 000km (I think it was R105k for the box - thank you M/plan)
- outside fuel lid repair under M/plan (it didn't want to stay closed, think it was only a switch)
- battery replacement outside M/plan (R2500 iirc and R260 for coding)
- over the December holiday the gas struts keeping the bootlid open gave in, I still need to replace, just haven't had time yet. They are R1250 each. (there are 2 of them)

So apart from the gearbox failure (which doesn't seem like a known problem on the E70's) it's been fairly trouble free with just the odd maintenance items. I'm still not convinced that the gearbox needed replacing, might have been the easy route out for them.

All in all great car that chews up the miles like you can't believe.

 

[msm]

- gearbox replacement at about 95 000km (I think it was R105k for the box - thank you M/plan)

Seems odd to be replaced so soon. Out of interest, what was the box doing before it got replaced as this is something I would potentially need to look out for (although the newer cars have the 8 speed ZF units).

 

[Rish///M]

Mine is a 2010 40d. Bought in 2014 with 75k kms. 1 month out of m/plan on 92k kms and the DPF failed. Bmw quoted R45k for replacement. Chose to rather do a downpipe replacement and software. Cost around R10k. Car runs like a daemon now. Happy days. No other issues.


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[70007]

- gearbox replacement at about 95 000km (I think it was R105k for the box - thank you M/plan)

Seems odd to be replaced so soon. Out of interest, what was the box doing before it got replaced as this is something I would potentially need to look out for (although the newer cars have the 8 speed ZF units).

Mine is the 8 speed ZF box. It had VERY "hard" gear changes for the first minute or 2 when driving off when car is cold. So it was a difficult fault to rectify. It was literally the first say 5 - 10 gear changes (only when oil still cold) and from there on it would be perfect and smooth. And one day, ironically the day I had it booked in to have yet another look at the issue, the gearbox did not want to engage reverse, so I couldn't get out of my garage. They came to fetch the car with a low bed. They tried resetting the adaptations, software upgrade, oil change etc. etc. At the end they just replaced the whole box.

 

[dnavid]

I've heard that the electronic handbake is also prone to failure. No warning and it just locks up. Was either R15k or R25k for the replacement parts.