q vs. BMW Xi

[Jonathan Carron]

I've had a 2004 325xi since 2006. Has been fairly reliable actually, but
has it's own set of problems. Common issues for the chassis in general are
for 99/00 only FBS (fragile bum syndrome) - rear subframe tears, plastic
coolant parts leak, and need to be changed, and if its a AT, the clutch fan
can be explosive if a motor mount fails, or reverse collar can break if
your hard on it (noreverse.org), and rear coil springs, which are a joke to
change.

Mine is a manual so neither apply. In terms of XI problems, front CV boots,
need to monitor them, but they are so easy to pull out and apart to swap
the boot out. Overall the car has open differentials with modulating of the
wheel brakes to obtain traction; works good. The XI has a little more
clearance, and behaves with more RWD bias in the snow if you shut off the
annoying dsc. So far it seems to go good in the snow until you bottom it
out. My Audi is a 5000 TQ and of course it gets much better grip in the
snow with all differentials locked :) .

Hope that helps

Jonathan
Ontario, Canada

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 3:31 PM, Tihol Tiholov <t.tiholov at gmail.com> wrote:

> Still looking for an A4 q but found relatively close to me (far western
> Canada) a 2003 BMW 325Xi. Any BTDT, comparisons, impressions, hearsay, etc.
> about this car? Gladly go ahead and talk me out of it, not that I'm buying
> it, just considering at this point.
> Did some reading on them and like what I found but closest personal
> experience was with a '99 323i - RWD in the dry.
>
> Thanks,
> Tihol
> _______________________________________________
> quattro mailing list
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/quattro
> http://www.audifans.com/kb/List_information
>