BMW 5-Series Touring (2003 - 2010) 530d SE 5d Auto Owner Review

I bought this car as I was looking for a large estate to soak up the motorway miles. Thankfully, having bought the car from a reputable independent dealer, it came with a warranty. The car was on the road for 2 weeks in the first 6 months I owned it whilst the rest of the time it was back at the garage being repaired. Initially the remote control unit in the boot failed and so had to be replaced. Then the boot tail lift failed and the garage could find no way to fix it, so we agreed to replace the auto close mechanism with regular gas struts. Then the electrical gremlins really started. Despite several investigations by the garage, they couldn't find what was causing the problem, so the car went back to BMW. A new alternator at a cost of over £1100 fixed that problem (thankfully I didn't have to pay). Finally the car was driveable and reliable, but only for a short period before the self levelling rear suspension failed. Back to the garage again and another bill for several hundred pounds I didn't have to pay. I'll skip over the saga of the 'washer fluid low' warning that had nothing to do with the washer fluid sensor, but the final straw came when the rear parking sensors failed and I decided to cut my losses and get rid via a 99p no reserve ebay auction. We chose carefully when selecting the car, finding this one with only 2 owners from new and a full BMW service history and an average mileage for the year. Beyond the terrible unreliability, the thing that would put me off ever owning another BMW was the inability of the independent and the main BMW dealer at diagnosing the faults. Everything was trial and error. Despite being supremely comfortable and having a reasonably large boot, I'd steer well clear if I were you.