Quote:
Originally Posted by Henn28
A friend was asking about the X5 the other day and said "you've really saved a lot of money, compared to a new car, by keeping that X5 on the road." My wife almost blew her drink through her nose laughing.
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Now that I have a third car I've been wondering if I should just put the X up in the garage for the next 3-4 months and tackle a bunch of those things: clutch, front driveaxles (a couple of my boots are starting to leak too), transfer case chain, both giubos, front driveshaft R&R (using the spacer X5Chemist sold me) and maybe even the rear subframe bushings.
Per your wife's point though: when I bought the X I was debating buying it or buying a 4Runner or similar reliable Japanese SUV that could carry family and tow a small trailer (mid-late 2000s). We were budgeting $10-15k at the time (2015-2016). According to my maintenance spreadsheet, I still only have about $10k in this car (not counting consumables, only repairs and preventative maintenance) and not a single breakdown-stranding-driver situation. So even my wife has to agree that despite the time it takes me to keep it up, for a car that's really nice and that we actually like to drive (we are stick shift snobs) our first German car has been a financial success as well.
We're only at 135k now though, and there's no signs of having to rebuild or replace the M54. Doesn't drink oil, doesn't have any running issues at all.