Beemers have got a bad name as many of them today are driven by utter cocks who'se journey is more important than every one elses & have blown indicator fuses. I don't know much about the older 2002ti's suffice to say they're good. Most of the new ones are pig ugly...why is that? New designer? & yes X5's 3's are ridiculous. I've only owned two mid aged Bmw's. The first was a G reg. 318i touring auto which was great except for the autobox which kicked down too late & when it finally did changed up to early. They were all like that you just had to "manual it" if you needed to. The other one was the manual 328i coupe i took to one of the Chester meets. Better bottom end snap acceleration than a 3.0 Mig but less top end. Also a Mig will warn you when it's about to let go on a bend...the 328i won't it just goes & you can get it back but you gotta be quick about it as i found out in the dry.
Still good cars though. Both had been round the clock & i went up & down the country in both of them without a hiccup.
My brother had a G reg 525, superb car. That must have done 300k+. Bit disappointing on performance, but true BMW qualities. Last decent beemer he had (and he is like those gay prats who will only buy Sony TVs (he does that as well

), and only buys BMW or MINI). He has had several beemers since, they have more toys now, and more performance (well, his Alpina and his 540 did have), but have lost something in the process, beyond just reliability and build.