2005 BMW 325XI problems
Owners have filed 34 complaints with NHTSA about the 2005 BMW 325XI. Air bags is the most reported problem area, at 53% of complaints. After that come cruise control (6%) and electrical system (6%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 34 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 53% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 5 and 4
- Injuries and deaths
- 0 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 80,000 miles 18 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 0 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 3 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 3 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 3 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 2 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 6 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 18 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 80,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 5 complaints mention a crash; 4 complaints mention a fire. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 82% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2005 ranks 4th most-complained-about out of 5 model years of the BMW 325XI with enough data (4 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 4 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
My wife parked the car in the doctors office parking lot. It was 58 degrees and raining. She left our family pet in the car. When she came out of the doctors office she saw that the car was full of smoke. The key fob would not open the locks. The doors would not open. The glass in the windows would not break under her strength even with a glass hammer that someone managed to retrieve for her. She finally remembered the key and was able to open the drivers side door.
I was driving and my side air bag and door air bag on the driver side deployed with no cause for this to happen. I pulled over. Nothing at that time was smoking or wrong with the vehicle. I drove the vehicle further down the road for about ten minutes to get closer to my boyfriend's house. I stopped in a lot to call him. Put the car in park and turned the engine off and the front end on the right side started to smoke. I got out of the vehicle and the front end slowly bursted into flames.
I am writing you to tell you that I have a vehicle affected by the air bag recall - twice I have scheduled for replacement, twice the dealership has called me on the morning of the appointment to say the parts are not in stock. They are not apologetic, nor concerned for the urgency of this situation. I travel a very difficult route into the city - during rush hour - and have asked them to at least disconnect the bag for the passenger side. They refuse to do so.
BMW of arlington has had me on a waiting list for over a year to complete the airbag recall. They do not seem to care if this mandatory recall gets done or not.