I purchased my 2001 BMW X5, new in Sept of 2000. I began having problems with it pretty quickly. The most plauging problem was the gas gauge. It took BMW 5 times to finally fix it. 2/26/01 14461 milage, 3/9/01 14512 milage, 5/16/01 18566 miles, 8/29/01 24493 miles, and finally 2/26/02 37268 miles. There were a number of other issues with the car, water pump, lower contro arm (twice), and various other non-essential items. I tried to enact the lemon law, but since the 3rd time on the fuel gauge was at 18500 miles, I was told it didn't apply. Now after 4 and a half years, I have 114,000 miles on the car and I was just told that the motor is shot and will have to be replaced at a cost of $11,500. I can't sink that kind of money into a car with that many miles but I can't sell it with a bad motor and I can't make payments on two cars. This car has been one problem after another and BMW has refuesed help me. The only offer they made was to give me $5000 off on a new car when I hired a lawyer to try to enact the lemon law, but with the milage I had on the car already I still would have owed them money on the trade-in. There hasn't been one incident. It's just been one thing after another since I bought the car. I have paid BMW over $3600 for service and repairs not covered by warranty since I bought the vehicle. Now it's going to cost me over $11,000 more to get the car running again. I have all the service records and have always pampered the car. I only used the best gas, never missed any scheduled services. I can't believe BMW is not standing behind their products better than this.

- West Chester, OH, USA

It took 11 days for BMW to inform me of a safety-related recall (between the time recall appeared in the local paper (Jan. 31) and notification I received in the mail (Feb. 10). BMW should be appropriately "punished" for this indifferent attitude to public safety. Thank you. P.S. there should be a requirement to put an exact mailing date on these recall letters. Dr. cetingok.

- Memphis, TN, USA