X5's and high mileage

[johnnylax]

good morning out there...

i have an '08 Z4...great gorgeous car, but not practical as i've recently gotten a puppy and i don't want to get a 2nd vehicle. i'm looking into trading the Z4 in for an X5 with 100,000 miles. i'm wondering how the X5's, and X3's do with high mileage?? are there lots of problems, or do they pretty much run smoothly as long as maintained? thanks!

jp in ny

[MarcoZandrini]

All cars-BMW, Chevy, Honda-need routine maintenance in order to last a long time. The first thing you need to do is to review the car's maintenance history.

BMW's that have been properly maintained (NOT the dealer's maintenance schedule, but an enthusiast's schedule) run for hundreds of thousands of miles without major issues. Conversely, BMW's poorly maintained will have recurring issues.

Things to check for:
- oil+filter changes at least every 10k miles; oil needs to meet BMW's "LL-01" specs
- coolant system overhaul at/near 100k miles
- coolant changes every 3 years
- at least 1 ATF+filter change since new
- changes of other lubes including the power steering ATF.

Good luck.

[MIMI1]

x5s and x3s actually hold up quite well as the mileages creep up ... check thrust arms, axles, ball joints, and for leaks otherwise they are pretty pulletproof