Faults:

The car is fun to drive, but expensive to maintain. The options on it are pretty interesting for an older car.

I have had to spend quite a lot of money to keep the car running, which is kind of disappointing. So far, I have replaced the valve cover gasket, water pump, oil filter stand, secondary air pump, expansion tank, radiator and clutch fan.

Just before I bought it, the previous owner replaced the power steering pump, thermostat, rear springs, and control arm bushings.

I have been told that the automatic transmission can fail and the cooling system is also weak. One power window broke, and those are also prone to fail.

The car also seems under powered compared to newer cars, and it's kind of sluggish from a red light.

Although the car is fun to drive and has lots of cool options, it can be an expensive car to repair. I have tried to get work done from mechanics, on the side, and this has saved me some money.

Faults:

Cooling system.

Alternator.

window regulators.

Accessory belts, tensioners, & pulleys.

Valve cover gasket.

Crankcase ventilation system.

DISA valve.

Cracked lower intake boot.

Oil filter housing gasket leak.

General Comments:

This car drives and handles great. It goes exactly where you tell it to go. Chassis, transmission, and engine all work very well: very smooth with great feedback to the driver. In short, it is the indeed the ultimate driving machine, though this comes at the expense of everything else -- reliability, practicality, etc...

Unless you're a gear head or you're willing to pay for all the requisite repairs and maintenance, unload the car at around 50K miles.

The cooling system is a huge issue -- plastic idlers for the belts and plastic parts throughout the cooling system can fail catastrophically at any point after 50K miles.

In my view, many of the failures are inexcusable. All these items should have a design life of at least 10 years/100K miles. BMW could easily attain this standard if they selected better materials.

I still like the car, even if some of its flaws are inexcusable.

Faults:

Suspension bushings had to be replaced, and the interior is showing signs of plastic discoloration.

Sunroof rails jammed.

General Comments:

The car is nimble and mostly reliable. I've driven it between the east and west coasts of the USA six times, and only had to have suspension bearing replaced, and it still runs great as a daily driver.

Super fun on mountain roads, but unstable in snow and ice.

Faults:

CV boots, front inner and outer, cost = $480 - 110.000 km.

Thermostat - $380 - 160.000 km.

Headlight washer pump - $110 - 180.000 km.

The rest of the costs are just regular maintenance: oil changes, spark plugs, brake pads, fuel filter etc...

General Comments:

Sooo... I've owned this car long enough to write down something I guess...

Nice car to have; it looks so nice when it's clean.

The all wheel drive system is insanely good if you're living in Canada - Alberta. I can't believe I never ever get stuck with this car, and it's only 8 inches high off the ground.

In winter time I try to drift with this car, but there is no way make this car drift, except for sliding on the ice. Somehow the traction kicks in, even if you hold the DSC button to turn the system off, it still takes over...

Power is really good. It's only 185hp, but if you floor the gas pedal, she goes so fast, which BMW even says is lightning speed take off...

Mileage I got:

City 9.2L/100km

Highway 6.5L/100km

Mechanical issues never happened; looks like they made this car with non-breakable materials...

So... I sold this unit about 3 months ago, and bought a 2006 530xi... feels the same, I got the same mileage on gas, only a few things different, exterior and interior. Interior so quiet compared to the 325xi, which I won't compare because it's a totally different unit. But the 2006 530xi has killer looks...

That's all I can say... Thanx...