[Marty in NY]

I've been with BMW for so long that I am not familiar with the activity and knowledge level of owners on the other forums, compared to this X5 G05 forum. Since many of you have owned, and still do own, several brands (BMW, Audi, Lexus, Land Rover, etc) and are members of this forum, I assume some of you also belong to the forums for your other brands.

I am wondering what your comments are as you compare the other brands forums to this one.

[MystroX5]

This is a outstanding forum. It’s one of the best with only the occasional troll or troublemaker and even then their actions get discouraged and they move on.
It’s a a tight group here wanting to exchange knowledge and genuinely want to help others out without sarcastic or belittling comments that scare new members off from participating. That is the key to a good forum. It makes a difference when the atmosphere is friendly and encouraging. So many other forms are full of cliques that like to pick on anyone new or don’t share their narrow viewpoint.

[Ninefourteener]

I've been a member of probably...... 60 car forums? Maybe 70? I've even served as the president and founder of one of the largest Subaru clubs in the country from 2007-2012. Imagine 10,000+ members from 5 different states..... of Subaru drivers... LOL You wanna talk "drama"?? I was actually challenged to a street fight... more than once - LOL One of the guys that wanted to "beat me up" was a scrawny 22 year old that happened to work as a civilian on the base I was stationed at (I was still in the military at the time).... he lost his job... lost his access to the base.... then got even more mad at me. Found out later he was an active member of the ICP gang... dressed up like an angry clown on the weekends and carried a hatchet to drug raves and whatnot, or whatever those idiots do... It was crazy. I was glad to be rid of the drama.

This one is pretty good. I wish there were more "technical" or "repair" info/tutorials... but I try to add them as I do certain things myself. At the same time, I learn a lot from many of the computer/techie people on here, as it is definitely not my strong point.

All in all, it's a good, but small, group of folks, without any real drama, that generally do their best to help others out.

[SmartSaves]

I also eco MystroX5. I recently started asking questions (long time lurker) and there are a lot of good folks here who shares their time selflessly to help out; however, some don't reply PM, look down on you, and judge you based on your garage 😀.

I don't know if this has something to do with demographics and/or the age group, but the overall engagement is better here.

[Frenetic]

I’ve been a member of Audi and Lexus forums for a long time and I’ll say Audizine and Audiworld were probably the best in my opinion.

Some members of this forum and Clublexus take great offense when you have any blunt, negative feedback, which I don’t get as that’s one of the reasons these forums exist.

Audizine was great. The members there were laid back and very helpful and were understanding when you had gripes. Audi reps were also part of that community and were actually very helpful as well.

[GOLFFRR]

Ive been a sponsor/supporter, participant, and enthusiast of this forum for over a decade and have not only been treated amazingly by the members and also the owner, but I have learned almost everything I know from these forums and its members. This is a great forum, the team that owns/runs it does a great job, but more importantly the community is pretty solid for the most part.

I had a brief time where I was into Bentley's and spent a few months on 6speedonline and it was not as active or informative however the moderators seemed to be doing a pretty good job. The Porsche section of that forum tho was pretty good, lots a great info in there and lots of good people but the interaction and traffic didn't seem to be as good as bimmerpost.

[Tenac]

Similar to others replied already, I've been on many and can honestly say this one has the best well rounded group. If I summed it all up in a word or two this is what it would look like.

BMW - Thoughtful, respectful
Ford - arrogant, stressed
Mecr - disrespectful
Jag - Great, kind
Mustang - dicks, helpful
Vet - old, boring
Landrover - lost, complaining
Victory - probably best one ever
Harley - supportive, helpful

There are more and don't remember which exact forum some of them were but like the typical forum most are on there to find issues or problems. The majority of owners will never visit a forum so you tend to see a common style to all forums.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by Tenac

Mustang - dicks, helpful

[Tenac]

Originally Posted by wtwo3

It was so true too... The moment you started to mod and ask for help it was like oh you will never get this 900hp I got running in my drag stang. Then the post would end up being another damn oil thread.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by Tenac

It was so true too... The moment you started to mod and ask for help it was like oh you will never get this 900hp I got running in my drag stang. Then the post would end up being another damn oil thread.

Hilarious.... and sounds so stereotypical

[MystroX5]

I have owned a lot of European vehicles over the last 30 years. I was a moderator on a few popular German car forums. I am not going to get too specific but Porsche has had their demographic evolve over the last 10 or so years more so than other brands. The lack of experience by new owners has them buying into their own marketing perhaps. The personality of the brand has changed to more of a snotty, undeserving smug type owner more so than other European brands (at least online). I know we get some chest thumping M owners but it’s not as openly flagrant. 30 years with the brand and I just don’t get where this unflattering personality evolved from because all my long time PCA members are humble and the last to profess superiority of the brand. My guess is the vapid social media crowd encourages it???? There’s a dichotomy in the Porsche brand like no other.

[Auricom]

Originally Posted by Tenac

Similar to others replied already, I've been on many and can honestly say this one has the best well rounded group. If I summed it all up in a word or two this is what it would look like.

BMW - Thoughtful, respectful
Ford - arrogant, stressed
Mecr - disrespectful
Jag - Great, kind
Mustang - dicks, helpful
Vet - old, boring
Landrover - lost, complaining
Victory - probably best one ever
Harley - supportive, helpful

There are more and don't remember which exact forum some of them were but like the typical forum most are on there to find issues or problems. The majority of owners will never visit a forum so you tend to see a common style to all forums.

BMW - depending on the model forum. Personal experiences are that members in the X5/6/7 forums are more helpful and respectful - compared to 3/4 and X3/4s perhaps most likely due to the size of the community.

I'm more active here than the other model lines and also member in other automotive forums but here feels like a nice pair of broken in jeans, LOL.

[Tenac]

Originally Posted by Auricom

BMW - depending on the model forum. Personal experiences are that members in the X5/6/7 forums are more helpful and respectful - compared to 3/4 and X3/4s perhaps most likely due to the size of the community.

I'm more active here than the other model lines and also member in other automotive forums but here feels like a nice pair of broken in jeans, LOL.

That is a great point, I'm mostly on only a sub forum of any of them, so that has to be taken into mind. Good call out.

[Tenac]

Originally Posted by MystroX5

I have owned a lot of European vehicles over the last 30 years. I was a moderator on a few popular German car forums. I am not going to get too specific but Porsche has had their demographic evolve over the last 10 or so years more so than other brands. The lack of experience by new owners has them buying into their own marketing perhaps. The personality of the brand has changed to more of a snotty, undeserving smug type owner more so than other European brands (at least online). I know we get some chest thumping M owners but it’s not as openly flagrant. 30 years with the brand and I just don’t get where this unflattering personality evolved from because all my long time PCA members are humble and the last to profess superiority of the brand. My guess is the vapid social media crowd encourages it????

Keep an eye on me now that I have the X5MC, if I start thumping call me out. LOL

[MystroX5]

Originally Posted by Tenac

Keep an eye on me now that I have the X5MC, if I start thumping call me out. LOL

Yea, and I am a M Competition owner myself and will have to have a intervention with you if the M brainwashes you too much. It’s funny cause M guys and P guys can go off the rails believing in their own marketing too much. Fantastic cars and speak for themselves. Plus we “Competition” M owners know we are better than everyone else anyway.

[Paladin1]

Good forum comparatively, and helpful info. I am surprised occasionally by, I assume. younger forum members, who appear to lack the basic info available to them in their owner's manual, but it never hurts to ask questions, and the vast majority of members here are happy to help

[thereef510]

Originally Posted by Paladin1

Good forum comparatively, and helpful info. I am surprised occasionally by, I assume. younger forum members, who appear to lack the basic info available to them in their owner's manual, but it never hurts to ask questions, and the vast majority of members here are happy to help

I'm guilty of this. I'm young and didnt read the manuals. In my defense, they gave us two thick books written with german precision and before I asked a question here, I did attempt to look it up in the books themselves but frankly most of the time their explanation didn't clarify the issue. I appreciate the real world use case senarios presented here by forum members.

[TXSchnee]

I am on here, Rennlist and Bimmerpost. Those three are all pretty good, people are respectful. I will say I have been given some crap on the G01 forum here (and some on the G05) usually after it is found out I am a woman, and have had some push back and questioned about my knowledge or driving ability. Not sure what Porsche forum Mystro moderated, but the Cayenne 9Y0 forum is currently pretty good, no one is snobby or looks down on anyone for having "less than" they do. I frequented Audiworld and MBWorld when considering the RS6, SQ8 and E63S Wagon, those forums seemed pretty decent, but I never made an account on either.

[Unit]

Prior to my X5 I was and M3 and M4 man and ive requented www.m3cutters.co.uk for years. Still do now as it’s very like this place. Lots of good knowledge and chat. I’d say it’s the best BMW Forum alongside this one as it’s got a wide range of M car owners but also lots of chat about other cars and brands too.

[Paladin1]

Originally Posted by thereef510

I'm guilty of this. I'm young and didnt read the manuals. In my defense, they gave us two thick books written with german precision and before I asked a question here, I did attempt to look it up in the books themselves but frankly most of the time their explanation didn't clarify the issue. I appreciate the real world use case senarios presented here by forum members.

Absolutely, and sometimes information isn't in the manual. And - horrors! - sometimes the manual is WRONG! Great knowledge base here, and many have already gone through exactly what new owners go through, and experience here is sometimes the shortest distance to a solution. Who woulda thunk, for example, the simple iDrive reboot covered such a multitude of BMW engineer-induced malfeasance. In this forum, ask away!

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by MystroX5

Porsche has had their demographic evolve over the last 10 or so years ... The personality of the brand has changed to more of a snotty, undeserving smug type owner

I've noticed this too and it's one of the reason I don't have a Porsche - maybe said better, this forum is one of the reasons I stick with BMW since it acts like a support network and you can get virtually any question answered fairly quickly ... plus it's fairly light-hearted which is something that wasn't really in the Porsche community of old, at least in my experience - seemed like it was just the facts.

The best thing about this forum is most members - especially long timers - understand the price for getting knowledge is returning the favor.

[Finito84]

Joined a month ago, after reading this forum for over two years. I have been wanting to buy an X5 for a long time and I enjoyed the knowledge and exchange of information here.

I decided to share my buying experience and connect with other members to understand where I should be falling with my price point. I have no experience buying cars and I am a foreigner, so the US process of fighting for discounts with the dealer is not my strength. Since I shared my experience, I received different private message giving advice and some members replied to my forum messages. Kind of like how you are supporting each other and how you share your experience in the BMW world. I am confident that I saved several thousand dollars for being an educated buyer, so I am grateful to this forum and its members.

This is the only forum that I use and I had a great experience so far. Love the app in my phone too. Trying to be more active once I get my BMW X5 45e, before I had no value to provide as I did not have any BMW experience.