Jayphil82
Legacy Member
800$ battery? Sounds like she was taken for a ride by a dealer. Batteries are due every 3 years.. higher end 5ers, X5 could be every two. 7er once a year. There is nothing really serious about N52s and all the issues are well known. Lots of problems come from people going to shops that claim to be experts but don't know crap because they want to pay 45$ an hour.
Personally I'd stay away from 2012 model year X1s and N20 engines... Look 2013.5 plus
My rule is the wife/gf drives an appliance. RAV4, CRV etc. The moment the BMW is out of commission you'll never hear the end of it
My 535I 2011 with 95K KM has been really reliable (below 1000$ average per year in repare and maintenance from a mixt of dealer and independant BMW specialist jobs). I am expecting this amout to reach closer to 2000$ per year as the car get older. For the battery comment, I am still on original battery which will be 7 years old this summer...
Back to topic follow Gregster recommendation and go with the more recent you can of that generation to get all the things they fixed from earlier versions. I must agree though that the newer generation is a big upgrade in term of size, look, refinement etc.