Hello BMW drivers. I am a Jeep person, but my mom has a 2002 X5, I think it’s got 5 gears, but it is a manual…..

She picked it up used in 2004 for $25k, and has had nothing but problems…. tranny replaced at 32k miles, weird tire wear problems, and all sorts. I have heard that bimmers are maintenence whores, but is this normal?

My mom is young for a mom (well, grandma), and doesn’t drive her cars hard, she gets her oil changed regularly (every 3K miles or less) and drives less than 20 miles a day.

Anyway, saturday I got a frantic call about the smell of burning rubber, white smoke and the engine quit. She had driven less than 2 miles the day the engine blew, all down hill (probably using engine braking), the weather was in the high 20’s or low 30’s… she tried starting it, and the engine wounldn’t turn over.

She had it towed to the mechanic (not the dealer) who had been maintaining the car, they claim to have found oil on each sparkplug, indicating that the eingine was blown.

Has anyone had this happen to them?
We live on the east side (far east) of Cleveland. If anyone has any advice or is interested in the car for parts (it has the HID’s) please let me know. She would like to get into another BMW, or get her car fixed, but I think that it is going to cost over $9k to have a used engine put in the car (and a 2002 X5 3.0 with 75K miles only sells for $14,000 on autotrader).

Thanks for any advice.
-Mark