Thanks for your vote of confidence!

I will offer that doing seals again on the 194K mile 4.8is weighed heavily on me. Letting it go was more of a relief than I expected. It helped A LOT that the kid I sold it to was so happy. His buddies at the dealer love that thing and he got his moment in the sun when he drove it to the back lot.



Even though we spent the time and effort to move over the parts from Ole Blue to the white one, the impending doom I feel from it is unsettling. With the addition of a purpose built bike and tow vehicle in the E70, I fear I may be out of the E53 business for good.

And the diesel DOES feel good! I drove an E70 back when they were new. I never liked them except in V8 trim with big tires. The one I drove felt huge and lumbering and impossible to find the corners on. Even then, as an owner of one SPP E53 or another since 2001, I STILL resented the trend toward huge headlights and what we all THOUGHT were HUGE, ugly grills across the line. Boy did BMW go off the deep end on that!

This one has all the things I would have done. Silly big brakes, KW suspension, Big sway bar, upgraded turbo and tune with ginormous wheels. I will admit I would have stuck with 20's, but the 21's do catch the eye.

The ride home was ALLLL the b@lls that my E53 had and much much more. The deleted DPF(?) doesn't 'roll coal,' but after an onramp apex and full throttle, it was clear this thing was diesel powered. NGL, with that much torque underfoot, I giggled. I can't wait to pull that off with 4 bikes hanging off. I used to LOVE the E53's LOUD exhaust and AA tune wiping the floor with little 4cylinder this and thats but with 4 bikes hanging off the back.



The 4.8is was one of the most fun BMW's I have ever owned. This one is a worthy replacement.Within minutes of hitting the driveway...

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