X-5 Squared Ownership

[cmgreen]

X-Factory,

I bought the X-5 about 2 months ago, and thought it would be the perfect upgrade to my xx4. I have had 3 xx4 over 10 years and never really had a problem with it, except prices of parts. After 2 months of ownership (maybe more) the x5 squared will now be replaced by a b44 when it comes out.

The reason : -

The x5 squared it the fastest car i have ever driven, but also the worst. I have broken one rear shock tower every week, and a spur gear every time i go racing, one belt, and several pulleys. It will now come to a end from sunday night, when i start rebuilding the xx4, which i rarely had any problems with. And with spur gears at £11 quid each (in the UK) is it becoming very expensive (shame cause there only $11 in the states, another X-factory ripp off)

I my opinion the car is S**T, It is just 2 cars put into one and re badged, like the super aguri team in F1 ( a honda copy).

I do apolgise if i offend any x5 lovers, but this car is really P***ing me off.

Just to finish, X-factory build a car from scratch and stop ripping the uk off!

[AndyM]

sorry mate, but the X5 is a very good car, the weak bits are the xx4 parts.

secondly, X-Factory have made my favourite 2wd car ever, nd it is also extremely quick. They are also my fav. r/c company, because they improve their cars to make them constantly better than they were to start off with, for their customers!!

they are very nice guys to deal with aswell, very helpful.

Originally Posted by cmgreen

stop ripping the uk off!

they are not ripping the U.K off, if you look at any AE packet, the american price in $ is the same as the price in pounds, ($4.99 in the states, and £4.99 here.) so i dont see how you can really mouth off about them that way.

chill out man.

[MikePimlott]

WOW. Thats a bit harsh.
I personally own the X6 and the X5. My problem with my xx4 was it was fast but wanted to "tip" over on high grip corners. and grip roll slowed my times down.

I converted my xx4 into the x5^2 and it was just fantastic (in my opinion )
The problem i had with the xx4 had gone and the car was just consistant. the only thing i have broken is the front shock tower But lets be honest on the xx4 its the same problem, the graphite towers are rubbish. Since i have put braces on the front and rear shock towers and converted to the X5 i havent had any problems.

sorry dude in my opinion car is ace.
X-Factory as a company are very supportive to each individual customer aswell as there team drivers who are always there to help.

[mattym0310]

i think this is a bit harsh, mouthing off against x factory.

i own an x6 and love the car. it is miles better than any of my previous cars [in my opinion]. the prices arnt rip-offs.
x factory update the car as they have suggestions from drivers which help x factory drivers everywhere get quicker times. do you not think that if the x5 was so bad, they would have stopped selling it?
the rear shock tower on your car is a xx4 part and is therefore nothing to do with x factory, [i havnt seen an x5 driver break one:s] and so is the spur gear [okay maybe not, tht was a mistake]. it is not their pricing. you never know their may be one tiny lil problem with how you built it?? its not hard to make small mistakes.. evrybody does.

yeh maybe your car hasn't been to great for you, but no need to mouth off at x factory for it, maybe try to find out what the problem is?? it could be very simple. ask one of the x factory guys? chris is on here quite often and is extremely helpful, send him a pm, im sure he will reply to this thread aswell.

how much will your car be forsale for?? if your selling, i may be interested if i can take carl's deal on the rebuild.. lol.

i totally understand your point, i wud be frustrated, but no need to be so aggressive, maybe try getting it fixed before saying all this

[MikePimlott]

Originally Posted by mattym0310

the rear shock tower on your car is a xx4 part and is therefore nothing to do with x factory, and so is the spur gear.

You do have to dremel the rear shock tower which may (if to much taken off the corners) weaken it. And the spurs are specially made, not losi ones.

[mattym0310]

okay, okay okay... lol. but still x factory have always been great to me, and to others i no.

[ashleyb4]

Wow

I think the x5 is a little over priced but i think its a good car some say its an improvement over the xx4 im not 100% sure but hay if people like it cant argue with them.

A

[Chrislong]

Sorry to hear this Chris,
I will see you on Sunday and id otherwise be prepared to lend any help required, but to be Frank, if this is how you mouth off when things go wrong I'll just wash my hands and let you run the XX4, B44 or whatever else. There are plenty of extremely happy X-5 owners who are the living proof of how well the car performs and they have no issue using them, racing them fast, improving their results overnight (Carl ) and maintaining them well, and im proud to race for a team with so many great customers and so many enthusiastic potential customers due to such great products - so its unfair of you to 'rock the boat'.

I actually changed to the X-5 about 3 years ago as a customer for its reliability, and it has never let me down. The weak parts of the car are XX4 parts, but with the wishbone screws (X-factory part) & shock tower braces (DC Racing), the car is close to bullit proof.

[B&H Racing]

I`ve changed to an X5 and X6 from a B4 and BX.

More than happy with the cars and I have been very impressed by how quick both XFactory themselves and fellow XFactory drivers are only to willing to help out.

Sent a PM to an XFactory team driver yesterday and had a response straight away with the information I required and more.

[bigred5765]

you have to be the only unhappy x5 owner i have every meet,
its a shame you have had so many probs, i can only think the Donner car was at fault here, there are enough people out there running it faultlessly to prove that, if u want someone to take a proper look at it I'm more than willing to strip it rebuild it, a give you a full report as to why you had so many probs,and i would think any of the xfactory team boys will back me up on that one,

[cmgreen]

Disagree guys, The donor car was perfect, i always take my time in building cars, and make sure they are perfect before racing.

I dont disagree the car is very fast but so unreliable i cant put it into words. I never really had a problem with parts breaking on the xx4, but now you have to file them down to make them fit a bodged car they are so breakable.

Sorry guys just the way i feel, it will be raced on sunday at the aces, and then if i get time will put it back to the xx4, but will place my b44 order.

Yes other manufactures do just convert prices from $ to £, to rip the uk off, but i thought x-factory would be different, how wrong was i.

I am just so annoyed at this car at the moment, its turned into this rant, ooooo guess what just placed an order for a b44. Buy x-factory.

[MikePimlott]

Originally Posted by cmgreen

Yes other manufactures do just convert prices from $ to £, to rip the uk off, but i thought x-factory would be different, how wrong was i.

Associated being one of them.

Sorry cars wrong for you but its ace for me.

[jimmy]

Are you breaking shock towers where you dremeled them?

[losixxx]

Originally Posted by bigred5765

you have to be the only unhappy x5 owner i have every meet,
,

no he's not you know at least 2 others!!

[Oscar]

Perhaps this car is just not suited to your driving style?? If the car does not do as you expect you may then push it harder, hence the breakages (I assume the only way to break rear towers is by crashing heavily). Pulleys, spur gears and belts seem to last for everyone else, so perhaps there is an issue with how your car is built?
If you look at my results with the Hot Bodies reveiw car this year as an example. Although the car is proven to be very quick in others hands, I simply could not drive it in high grip situations (When it was wet and I seemed to be extremely quick comparatively). Conversely last year with the X5 review car I often performed over and above what would be expected.
Is this is because the X5 is a better car than the other 4wds?? I suggest it is more to do with how the X5 handling just suits the way I drive.
Not every car will suit every driver, this does not mean the car is I quote "S**T"

[Gayo]

You're doing something wrong with the dremeling of the rear tower. In more than 2 years of X-5 abuse I changed mine only once, and it was because of a ballstud failure.

The tranny TBH needs some mods to work on astro. Mine is perfect with a 17t Losi pulley and a belt roller.

If the motor is rotating even when fully screwed on, you need to shave some plastic where the long screw goes into the chassis, to allow it to clamp harder.

You can strenghten the towers with braces. I use the Fiberlyte front one and it's ace, never a failure [knock on wood] !

Give this car a chance; if you liked the XX4, you should love the X-5.

[Fiddybux]

I'm a relatively new X-5 owner and got one because I loved my XX4 and wanted to make it better.

The only trouble I've had so far is completely stripping a belt and centre pulley.

I've put this down to two things:

1. They are a new company and some of the parts they make aren't finished off perfectly like Losi or AE ones. They have burs and sharp edges etc. This is slowly getting rectified.

2. My fault for not getting rid of burs as the manual said I should....although it is not the easiest to follow.

I've got to hand it to them though...they are 'in touch' with regular drivers. They understand our needs and are more than happy to help.

This personal touch is very much lacking in other RC firms.

Within days of owing my X-5, Chazz was helping me directly with some issues I had. Now that is service!

[bigred5765]

Originally Posted by losixxx

no he's not you know at least 2 others!!

there not unhappy just had a belt problem, all fixed now and are happy chappys

[RogerM]

I wouldn't normally come into a thread like this as I do not, have not and probably will not run the car in question however the nature of the attack is not really on.

If the car doesn't suit your driving style then change for that reason. I have been quite public in the past about how bad I thought the XX4 was to both drive (didn't suit me) and work on. I did not however slate the company who made it or try to put other racers off as it might be the right car for them.

That aside there are a couple of things that I think you have misjudged;

1) the cost of parts $ = £ is more to do with how expensive it is to import & distribute and also the various direct taxes (such as duty and VAT) that need applying. If your upset about being ripped of in Britain then I am afraid you need to take that out on the government not X Factory / Lesro as there is nothing they could do about it other than run at a loss ..... and if they were that stupid they would consider that, for what is globably speaking a small market, they would not have had the brains to build the car in the first place!!!

2) Before complaining much about the price of the bespoke parts consider how much it costs to manufacture the parts in question. A spur gear is either going to need to be cut on a mill, possibly flipped and re cut if there are features on both sides. Gear cutting plastic is a pain to do accurately and thus your never going to get a positive result from the eternal good-cheap-quick triangle (you can only ever have 2 of the 3 .... good and cheap is never going to be quick ..... quick and cheap is never going to be good).
If we are talking moulded parts then please remember that a mould tool doesn't have to get complicated to cost 10s of thousands of pounds is it is to be of high quality!!!!

3)If you have to modify parts to make them fit there should be good instrutions on how to do that without causing stress raisers in the parts in question. If that instruction is not there or not easily understandable then that is the manufacture's fault .... if you just haven't followed it then that is your fault. It must be possible to do as several people have done it successfully! The best option is for the company to modify the parts at source and then the customer only has to fit them. The problems with this are that you can then only buy them from that supplier (potentially limiting availability trackside) and also they obviously have to charge for their time in unpacking, modification and repackaging ..... that cost would HAVE to be passed on to you. If it's a simple mod then why not ask the end user to apply that modification and save themselves money??????

4)If your breaking the Losi transmission parts then how can that be the X factory's fault ...... especially when they offer an improved alternative themselves which you could have chosen to use????????


My advice my freind would be to chill out, find a car that suits you and worry about how your going to move the X5 on now you've convinced everybody YOUR car is a dog!

[losixxx]

Originally Posted by bigred5765

there not unhappy just had a belt problem, all fixed now and are happy chappys

not on about them, myself and a n other, bought mine and returned it to x-factory when they first came out!