I bought my used BMW X3 F25 in January 2016 with 14,000 km on the clock. Ten years later, on 18 March 2026, I took it to an auto auction with 503,237 km showing.
That works out to around 50,000 km a year. My commute was roughly 200 km round trip, so the mileage kept adding up. The Japanese side of this blog has 155 F25 articles, and even I had trouble remembering which job was in which post. Here is the ten-year overview: what the car cost me, what the dealer wanted to repair, and what happened at each mileage milestone.
BMW’s 2014 X3 press kit identifies this generation as the F25. The numbers below are from my own car in Japan.
BMW X3 F25 ownership cost over ten years
The net cost of buying and selling the car was about ¥4.26 million (roughly $26,600 at ¥160 per dollar):
- Purchase total: about ¥4.65 million in January 2016, including an auction bid of ¥4,265,000 plus fees
- Amount returned after the sale: about ¥390,000, finalised in June 2026
- Net purchase and sale cost: about ¥4.26 million
Spread over ten years, that is roughly ¥430,000 a year; ¥35,000 a month; ¥8.5 per kilometre driven. I think that is a reasonable result for the car I got to use.
This is the car’s purchase price minus the money I got back. Insurance, diesel, tyres, oil, inspections and repairs are outside that calculation.
The winning bid for a diesel X3 with more than 500,000 km was ¥385,000. I was relieved it still brought that much. Being able to drive it to the auction probably helped. I wrote up the sale and final payment in Japanese.
The ¥1,113,354 repair quote that changed how I maintained it
At 260,000 km in November 2020, I took the X3 to the dealer for its annual inspection. The inspection itself cost ¥18,700. The repair estimate handed to me alongside it came to ¥1,113,354.
It listed seven jobs. The DPF replacement alone was ¥448,294. The driver’s power seat was ¥245,190; a cracked front camera, ¥74,250. I had to look at the total twice.
I did not authorise any of those seven jobs as quoted. Instead of replacing the DPF, I had a specialist clean it. I changed the battery myself. For the brake discs, I supplied the parts and paid a workshop for the labour.
From then on, I found myself working through that estimate one item at a time, looking for a less expensive way to keep the car going. The original inspection record and DPF cleaning story are on the Japanese site.
Mileage milestones and the big jobs
I had hoped to keep the X3 until around 500,000 km. With that in mind, I grouped the less frequent, expensive work into the middle of its life, mostly at 280,000–310,000 km.
Work concentrated at 280,000–310,000 km
- January 2016: bought at 14,000 km
- August 2020: reached 250,000 km
- April 2021: changed the battery myself at around 280,000 km
- April 2021: had the DPF cleaned instead of replaced
- June 2021: changed the brake discs at around 280,000 km
- August 2021: reached 300,000 km
- December 2021: changed the automatic transmission fluid plus the differential and transfer-case fluids at around 310,000 km
- September 2022: reached 350,000 km
- November 2023: reached 400,000 km
- February 2026: reached 500,000 km
- 18 March 2026: drove to the auction at 503,237 km
The water pump, coolant and power-steering fluid went unchanged throughout my ownership. If I had kept the car longer, I expected those to be possible next expenses. That was part of why I stopped at 500,000 km.
I kept a battery replacement record and an ATF change record on the Japanese site.
What the old milestone posts remind me of
At 250,000 km I recorded an average of 17.35 km/L. That came from a commute of about 200 km round trip, mostly on motorways, so it is not a general fuel-economy figure for the F25.
The 400,000 km retrospective goes into more detail on the work done up to that point. Looking back at the milestone posts, I can still tell what the car felt like to drive at each stage.
Looking back after 500,000 km
After ten years and just over 500,000 km, the net purchase and sale cost was about ¥4.26 million: roughly ¥35,000 per month. The car stopped on a motorway once. Near the end, a charging failure left it unable to move for two weeks. Even so, the engine made it to the finish without an overhaul.
If you own an F25, the ¥1.11 million dealer estimate is the story I would start with. The choices I made after seeing that number shaped the rest of my time with this car.
I moved from the diesel X3 to an electric car. The powertrain could hardly be more different, but I will keep recording what it actually costs and what needs attention.
This article is also available in Japanese.
