HaveBullDogWillTravel

I'm pretty sure the plastics in BMW bodywork began with the 2006 E90 so this is nothing new. It's more about weight savings than $$$ savings. Expect plastic panels to spread(as evidenced by your X5) throughout the model line-up. I'm all for it! Now runflats I can do without.

UrbanExtant

I agree with you bulldog, but only about the weight savings. Plastics gouge, crack, and bend easier than metal, and one can't use paintless dent repair on a plastic fender, and therein lies the problem I have with it. Living in Philly, I've used paintless dent repair numerous times, and it always repairs the problem so well one can't find the original blemish, but the marks I have on the X5 we're trading aren't so easy to repair.

Also, I agree with you 100% on those craptastic runflats.

HaveBullDogWillTravel

I've had 2 "plastic fender" BMWs and I never really gave a thought about paintless dent repair on the plastic fenders but I did have the need for repairs on the doors and rear quarters. Maybe I was lucky with the fenders or maybe the fenders resisted denting. I have no idea.
I would think that an impact from whatever was enough to crack or gouge a plastic fender would certainly not be able to be repaired by PDR had the fender been metal. We need to do a study to find out. You get 2 cars(1 plastic & 1 metal) and I'll take care of the impacts.

UrbanExtant

In all fairness, we don't have cracks currently, but there are a few gauges where the plastic "pulled" upon impact from someone kindly ramming their door into it. I actually saw, from across the parking lot, someone do that to my old Q5's front fender, and painless dent repair took car of it. The X5 is being traded as is, because the only real way to repair the damage would be more money than we'd get out of it when we trade it next month.

neunelf

It's a freaking car, so how it drives SHOULD BE THE PRIMARY CONCERN! All of the techno-geeks seem to think the electronic gizmos are more important than a cars primary mission. Reminds me of the constant whining about cup holders.

Huey52

Exactly. But it seems these days more folks consider a car as a rolling iPod.

UrbanExtant

Frankly, if a car's only purpose were to get one from A to Z, then no car manufacturer would be upping the ante, so to speak, and offering more and more creature comforts such as heated seats, radios, navigations, etc., because no one would care about them, they'd care only about the drivability. If only drivability were to be focused on we'd all be driving sparsely equipped vehicles, but something tells me most on this forum wouldn't be happy with only that. The car, these days, is the whole picture, e.g. drivability, feature sets, high tech gizmos, quality of materials used, ease of use of features, etc., and since many in this day and age, due to traffic and lifestyle, spend many waking hours in their vehicles, it should be a place well equipped and comfortable.

The G Man

I agree UrbanExtant, if all we care about is how a car drives, then we all should be driving the Subaru WRX instead of an Audi, the Subaru is cheaper, faster and handles better. The fact is that we prefer Audi becuase of the luxury aspect of the car. Options like Ipod interface, leather seats or real wood trims are all part of the luxury experience.

Huey52

I don't argue that G-Man, and I enjoy high tech as much as the next enthusiast (probably more as I've been around since all we had was an AM radio), but it does seem that the driving experience is taking a back seat to gizmo's across many brands. Fortunately Audi has maintained both, which is of course why I own one.

ManMachine

It seems that the reasons for letting go the X5 are quite minor, and it also appears that not enough due diligence was done before the actual purchase.

Handling / power wise, X5 M sport drives very well compared to similar vehicles it competes with.

X5 is also one of the only two vehicles with an optional spare tire, which is a plus.

The new X3 offers very comparable features to Q5 and performs better, of course being a 1st yr model and the lack of spare could be the deal breaker for some.

Reliability of Audi fares worse in general compared to BMW based on various standard ratings, and don't get your hopes up once you decide on a German car.