You all are missing my point. I lost all trust in the car. When the rear differential shredded, that was the beginning of the end for me. Figure the $5k I spent on that two months ago, then I had to tow my car a couple of weeks ago because all coolant leaked out again to the tune of another $600, and then getting quoted another $5k+ of repairs! and then knowing that there were pending failures that always happen at certain mileage (water pump, rear air bags, etc) the thing just became a money pit that I wanted no part of. I just dumped $200k cash into my new house. I also started with a new job where I'm busy building out my team, it was killing me to have to think every time I turned the car on "am I going to make it to this interview?"

I am a simple guy. It was nice having the X5 when it was reliable, but I don't care about the status symbol or any of that crap. I just want to be comfortable during my drive and feel confident that I will get there. Some will say "well then just lease". I personally enjoy owning something and not worrying about the recurring cost so that I can put it towards something else. The X5 was no longer a pleasure to own.

Btw, to smassy, when I was picking up the X5 from Fairfax, I noticed two X5s hoisted with both engines and trans dropped out of them. A) couldn't have been cheap and b) sort of weird for two at the same time side by side.