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I'll chip in here as one of the 'embittered previous owners.'
Actually, I'm 'previous' for long enough that I'm well beyond being 'embittered.' But, I did own two of these, and S90 and a V90, and both were extremely problematic. There were things in common that failed multiple times on both of them, like the brakes, the sunroof, the air conditioning, and the door panel pucker. Then there were a bunch of other problems. Of the dozen or so new cars I've owned in my life, these were easily the worst in terms of reliability.
When I bought them, the x90's moved me. I think they are very functional, attractive, and refined, and even today they still move me when I pass one on the road. But I hesitate to call them a great car, even if they were reliable. Smooth, refined, nice engine, yes, but they don't handle particularly well, they don't accelerate particularly well, and in my opinion, the fuel mileage of about 18 in town and 24 on the hiway is subpar for the size and class of the car.
I'm also somewhat cynical of people who claim their x90 has been troublefree. There was one guy on this board who claimed to have an absolutely troublefree S90, and then one day let slip that his tranny was replaced at 15K. My sample size of 2, and the commonality of problems between the two, tells me that there are some fundamental design and engineering flaws.
I will admit these are bargain basement prices. These cars cost between $35 and $36K when new, and now they sell for $8-10K. That's abnormally high depreciation. For example, if you had bought a '97 328i, you would have put a couple of grand back in your pocket in 1997, and then you would be selling it now for about $15K. If the x90's had a decent reputation, their value would be higher.
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