[k23435]

Rather than commenting on the various threads, I thought to compile my experience on the X7 build quality in a separate posting. In short, it has been horrendous.

My car was manufactured Aug 2019, thus 2020 model, and I received it on Oct 2019 (it takes time to ship cars from the States to Europe). It is X7 30d, with 35 000 miles / 55 000 kms over the past 22 months.

Some of the issues I have experienced include:

• Car not starting, requiring visit from BMW mobility services (twice)
• Driver side headlight fogged (took 1 month to receive replacement, during which only one headlight properly functional)
• The replacement headlight DOA (requiring another month of wait for the second replacement)
• Battery replaced (after only 9 months!!!)
• Navigation not working, as it assumed the car was 50 miles away from the actual location (2 months to fix)
• Speed limit indication not working (showing 20 mph / 30 km/h speed limit on motor way!)
• HUD not working (showing "Calculating route" even when navigation was not in use)
• Memory settings for seat / steering column not working
• Door seal strips requiring replacement
• Calling emergency services on its own (every 5 seconds), unable to answer the emergency call or close the call

You get the picture.

I was wondering if I just got a lemon, or whether the X7 build quality (especially with anything electric) really is this shocking. Now, in Germany TUV inspects over 9 million cars annually, and they produce very useful statistics. Unfortunately I could not find stats for X7, but the rating on some of the other Spartanburg built X-series BMWs gives an indication (https://car-recalls.eu/reliability/t...021-2-3-years/):

BMW X3/X4: 77th out of 129 car models
BMW X5/X6: 113th out of 129 car models

As a benchmark, Audi Q7 which was my previous car is 19th out of 129 car models.

I love the engine, but would love to have Audi build quality. If Audi Q9 becomes reality, then I think I will depart with the X7.

YMMV as always.

[MystroX5]

My 2020 X7M50i has outstanding build quality and I am a PCA concourse judge. Gaps and panel fitting jump right out to me in a few seconds. I went over my X7 and was very impressed with how tight the Alcantara headliner meets the leather rear panels, etc…. It has certainly built better than my last 991 C4S. Our Audi A8 had a multitude of intermittent electrical issue that would suddenly go away but not enough to diagnose. My wife’s current A4 is typical entry level Audi build which is o.k for what it is but significantly worse than my X7 which is another level of vehicle.

My exterior paint, panel and trim fit and finish is impressive.

[dmanb2b]

Unfortunately, I think you got a lemon. This forum is relatively quiet and forums by their nature are a place for people to come discuss issues they are having with their vehicles, vs. expressing overall satisfaction.

[jasheaer]

Originally Posted by MystroX5

My 2020 X7M50i has outstanding build quality and I am a PCA concourse judge. Gaps and panel fitting jump right out to me in a few seconds. I went over my X7 and was very impressed with how tight the Alcantara headliner meets the leather rear panels, etc…. It has certainly built better than my last 991 C4S. Our Audi A8 had a multitude of intermittent electrical issue that would suddenly go away but not enough to diagnose. My wife’s current A4 is typical entry level Audi build which is o.k for what it is but significantly worse than my X7 which is another level of vehicle.

My exterior paint, panel and trim fit and finish is impressive.

Appreciate that you commented on actual "build quality". OP seems to be confusing component and software quality with "build quality" and I won't make any assumptions about the comment about the Spartanburg assembly operations, but outside of the weather stripping none of the issues appear to be related to an impact the factory assembly operations would have on the vehicle.

Also my experience with my m50i is great(knock on wood).

Jay

[k23435]

Yes, you are both quite right. Also, very good that you have not had similar problems, I would not wish them on my worst enemy.

I am happy with gaps & panel fitting, perhaps I used the wrong term. Hope the examples given clarify what I meant.

[thenew3]

I had some electrical issues with my 2020 X7 (built in April 2020 when the factory was closed from COVID).
I've owned it for 14 months and 8k miles. It has spent almost 4 weeks at the dealer. They did various software updates, computer reboots, factory resets. Each may fix one issue or not, and sometimes caused a different issue.
As a last resort, BMWUSA told the dealer to disconnect all 3 batteries and let the car sit for a few hours. After they did that, all the electrical issues went away. So far I've had it back for 3 weeks and not a single issue has resurfaced.

Maybe your car just need a "Cold" reboot, have all the batteries disconnected (there are anywhere from 3-4 batteries in the X7 supposedly). and let it sit for a few hours. That might resolve your electrical issues.

As far as build quality, I found a couple of paint issues pre-delivery which the dealer fixed (spent a week at the body shop), and after the first 6 months, all the door seals creak when the body flexes (i.e. going over rough roads, turning onto a steep hill etc). Dealer can't reproduce the creaks, so I use some gummy pflange on the rubber seals and wax the painted area in the door sills and that quiets it down for a month or two. Had this issue with a previous E60 5 series as well, and that was not built in USA.
Other than that everything else is tight and quite thus far.

[k23435]

Very useful suggestion, many thanks! I'll pass this info to the local BMW service centre.

[jsmonet]

my rear moonroof shade motor crapped out, and some ages later the transceiver that detects my key died, meaning I could only unlock and start my car with my key card.

So far that's all that's gone on with it, and every time I've ended up in a perfectly acceptable x5 for a few days at no cost.

[760Lifan]

Sorry about your experience but you got a lemon.

In my 18 months of ownership I've taken my car to the dealership's shop only once: That was after 1 year for its oil service.

[djbonsu]

Sorry to hear about your issues but sounds like you got a lemon. We also have a 2020 with minimal issues. We have had the car in for a new pano roof shade as it gets stuck and unstuck while opening. Still awaiting parts from Germany after almost 2 months. Lastly the drivers side exhaust tip was delaminating. Other than that, my wife and I still love it!

[Olekiller]

I have a 2021 that was built October 2020. It's honestly been flawless. However it's a replacement from BMW for my 2019 x7. The only issue that car didn't have was moving the wheel in a circle.

[don20111]

HUD not working (showing "Calculating route" even when navigation was not in use)
Memory settings for seat / steering column not working

I have the same 2020 as you and get these errors from time to time, how did you get them fixed

[k23435]

I hope the service centre figures them out, I'll let you know after I get my car back. They did take note of the constructive suggestion of @thenew3 above.

[Phasers]

Originally Posted by don20111

HUD not working (showing "Calculating route" even when navigation was not in use)
Memory settings for seat / steering column not working

I have the same 2020 as you and get these errors from time to time, how did you get them fixed

HUD “calculating route” issue hit me this last week on my ‘21 540i.

Seems to be a general software bug rather than X7 specific.

[k23435]

Well, I assume it could be worse - at least the car was not stolen:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/202...len-birmingham

[Wanderer73]

Sorry OP. What a bummer. No issues on my end.

[Tinbad]

You're not the only one. We do seem to be in minority but I'm also currently dealing with multiple and rather annoying "fit and finish" issues. Sounds like isolated to my specific car but the issues I have are mostly around lots of interior creaking, popping, ticking in the interior. Doesn't seem normal for a 117k MSRP 1 year old luxury vehicle.

I've been taking it to dealer but between "can't reproduce the issue" to "issues has been fixed, only for it to come back immediately" etc . I have given up, no time to deal with it - trying one more time to work with dealer and exchange it for a different one but if this attempt fails, I will likely be moving on from the X-series.

Truthfully very disappointed in BMW after having owned multiple super solid Audis and non-luxury brands. I'm afraid this is what we get for buying a German vehicle not made in Germany. The manufacturing process may be very similar or even identical but the quality control and standards are just not the same!

[BobsM3Coupe]

Originally Posted by Tinbad

You're not the only one. We do seem to be in minority but I'm also currently dealing with multiple and rather annoying "fit and finish" issues. Sounds like isolated to my specific car but the issues I have are mostly around lots of interior creaking, popping, ticking in the interior. Doesn't seem normal for a 117k MSRP 1 year old luxury vehicle.

I've been taking it to dealer but between "can't reproduce the issue" to "issues has been fixed, only for it to come back immediately" etc . I have given up, no time to deal with it - trying one more time to work with dealer and exchange it for a different one but if this attempt fails, I will likely be moving on from the X-series.

Truthfully very disappointed in BMW after having owned multiple super solid Audis and non-luxury brands. I'm afraid this is what we get for buying a German vehicle not made in Germany. The manufacturing process may be very similar or even identical but the quality control and standards are just not the same!

I got a brand new 2010 M3 Coupe back in late 2009 which was indeed built in Germany. The hood and fenders had uneven spacing which needed to be adjusted. Being it was a white car, the German so called quality control experts certainly must of had to many Weizenbiers that day and their vision must have been all blurry. Uneven gaps/spacing is especially easy to spot on light colored vehicles. There was no excuse for it to be missed.
But they are all mass produced vehicles and nothing is perfect. I've seen defects on hand built exotic cars. So nothing is immune.

[Tinbad]

Originally Posted by BobsM3Coupe

I got a brand new 2010 M3 Coupe back in late 2009 which was indeed built in Germany. The hood and fenders had uneven spacing which needed to be adjusted. Being it was a white car, the German so called quality control experts certainly must of had to many Weizenbiers that day and their vision must have been all blurry. Uneven gaps/spacing is especially easy to spot on light colored vehicles. There was no excuse for it to be missed.
But they are all mass produced vehicles and nothing is perfect. I've seen defects on hand built exotic cars. So nothing is immune.

This is clearly all anecdotal but based on the last decade or so of vehicles we owned in the family all the ones built in Mexico/US were a crapshoot and the German made ones have been very solid.

Granted, none of them have left any of us stranded but theres always been a clear difference, especially in fit and finish and just overall quality. I don't doubt your experience (I'm sure even in Germany they let one slide once in a while) but again, generally speaking, there still seems to be a difference. I think definitely not a profound as I'm the past, as manufacturing processes in general have become less error prone and margin for error very narrow. However I stand by that there's a good reason Porsche is only now considering building their first production facility abroad… (and if I were in the market for one, I would likely avoid a Malaysian built Porsche for a long time).

[k23435]

Quick update, in case this is of use to anyone:

The initial diagnosis to the electrical problems was that the telemetry unit needed to be replaced. After one week wait for the missing part, it was replaced and everything was fine - for 2 days.

The emergency services malfunction resurfaced, and the car went back to the service centre again. This time they discovered that the shark fin had not been properly glued to the roof, and thus water could penetrate into the telemetry unit. This same problem has been reported earlier on the X7 forum, for example

https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...ight=shark+fin

and

https://g07.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...ight=shark+fin

A bit worrisomely, there has been similar problems also on the X5 forum:

https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1643724

So, another week without the car as they ordered and replaced the shark fin, the antenna inside the shark fin, and the telemetry unit (again).

After picking up the car, everything worked well for almost a mile, after which the emergency call problem started again. I considered my options, and decided to drive home and open a nice bottle of wine.

I will need to attack this problem once again next week, I just could not muster the energy to do it on Friday.

[k23435]

Bringing this saga to an end, the shark fin has now been replaced twice and the internal electronics three times. For now, the electrical problems have been mostly solved. For the first time in 3 months I do not have a warning sign on the dashboard!

What persists is the issue with seat & steering column memory settings, but I have run out of energy to address it. At least the car has stopped calling the emergency services proactively, and that is good enough for me.

It is a fantastic car, I just wish it would be better quality and not in constant need of repairs.