I have my first and LAST!!! BMW ever! Bought a 2013 X3, off lease, with 51,000 miles on it. Purchased top of the line extended warranty and WAS very happy. 13 weeks and 2 days ago...I am counting, without warning, the X3 threw a drive train malfunction. Almost immediately, the car locked up and I was dead in the middle of the road. I was stranded with the car locked in park, in between 2 blind turns. It took over an hour to get it on a tow truck and out of the road. Finding out , after the fact, that this is a very common problem with the 2013 N20 engine in the X3 is infuriating. No warning to consumers, no action to help warn customers about a potential dangerous situation. All service work was performed during the lease and I have maintained all scheduled service. BMW dealer is stating that the timing chain tensioners failed ( at 81,000 miles). Being told that it will cost 19K for a new engine, plus extra for labor. Being told that there is an engine that the warranty company can send for 14K and then BMW not approving it and coming back with an engine of 19K....neither of these are including labor. With labor the repairs would be 20K or 26K....I owe less than than on the car. Now yesterday the warranty company sent out an adjuster that is only approving for the chain only and not for any diagnostic or labor. If anything else in the engine is damaged, that would be out of our pocket as well......SERIOUSLY??!?? That scenario would end up being minimum 6K with 3K of that out of our pocket. I admit that the warranty company is being shady as well, but BMW should do the right thing and acknowledge this mechanical flaw in this engine. Volkswagon did the right thing when they did the buy back program. they had a car, realized that there was an issue and did something to try and make it right. No one wants anything like this to happen, but stepping up to try and do the right thing is something.

Anyone considering a purchase from BMW should really consider it thoroughly. A company that advertises an Ultimate Driving Machine", and does not actively try to rectify a problem of this magnitude, should seriously be questioned.

While on a road trip, a low coolant light came on. Stopped and investigated the problem, and saw coolant leaking near front side of vehicle. Fortunately a repair facility was nearby, and investigation revealed a cracked water pump. Further investigation determined that lower mounting bolt was missing entirely (see image 1), and cause of water pump crack was settling onto subframe. During replacement of water pump, lower mounting bolt was replaced and tightened. Mechanic was unable to tighten upper mounting bolts because they were sheared. The upper mounting bolts have not been replaced as of this date. While investigating cost of replacing upper mounting bolts, discovered that shearing of mounting bolts on this model is a common problem. This is totally unacceptable and has caused us to question the quality of BMW.