Rereading the post below now that it's finished I notice that it's a bit long....so maybe just skip to the pictures if you're busy...

I started looking in October, hoping to find my "dream-X5" and I was originally looking for a loaded 4.4. After reading X5 World for hours and hours (what a GREAT resource) I decided I wanted to add the 4.6/4.8 body kit, buy OE 20's, convert the stock wheels to a winter set-up, and add the 4.6/4.8 exhaust tips. Then after talking to LeMans and 2002Silver4.6is who said "find a 4.6 or 4.8 instead, you’ll love it and you’ll save time and money on mods" I changed my mind and heeded their advice. I've been using an excellent auto broker named CarSmith Motors for the last few car purchases/sales (6 total between family members and myself), and my contact, Dave, goes to wholesales auctions and bids on cars along side dealers who are buying lease returns (primarily.) The dealerships buy the car at wholesale, give it an inspection, add an extended warranty, mark it up quite a bit, and then sell it as CPO'd. After bidding on a few 04's and 05's and not getting them (price went beyond what I thought was reasonable) the 2006, one-year-lease-returns started showing up at the auctions and the prices were so good it made sense to give up on 04's and 05's. Finally, 6 months later, we landed the perfect X5 and I'm now the extremely happy owner of a saphire black, 2006 4.8is, with 16k miles. The broker took it to a dealership to get a few things touched up (the previous owner had picked at the steering wheel so the dealer replaced it) and the dealer also noticed a 'slight vibration' in the brakes so they replaced the pads on all four corners, and changed all the fluids as well. One of the rear tires was shot, so I bought two new shoes for the rear, and also added the OE tow hitch. The next project is to add on to the stereo (ipod, sirius, headrest monitors, upgraded sub etc...) so now it's time to spend some more time in the car audio forum and come up with a plan. All in all, I can't say enough about this SAV - it's a BEAST! - a true a marvel of modern engineering, and so much fun to drive. It's amazing!

note - the images were 5mp and pretty large so I scaled them down to 40% the original size so the files wouldn't be so big, but of course the resolution is lower

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