Hey all. I'm a BMW enthusiast (previously owned an E36 M3, currently own a 330i ZHP and an S54 M coupe) who is shopping for a new ride for the wifey. She is currently in a Forester which has been a great car, but she's running out of miles on her lease with 3 months left so we thought we'd start looking. Dealers are hurting for biz obviously, and most have offered to make her last 2-3 payments to get her out of the Forester and into something new. She was mainly looking at crossovers in the $35K range; Tribeca, Highlander, CX-9. Luckily the nicest BMW dealer in the Twin Cities is right down the road from the Subie dealer she was working with, so I non-chalantly suggested we stop in and at least test drive an E70.

She drove the 3.0 gas and while she clearly liked the luxury after just driving the Tribeca, the performance didn't get her excited considering the price. The saleswoman suggested we try one of the diesels, something that wasn't even on my radar going in. She told us we would be surprised, and she wasn't kidding. What a gem of a motor! My wife was clearly enjoying it, so when we pulled back in to the dealer I made her get in the passenger side so I could have a go around the block. Having never driven a diesel, I just wasn't prepared for the tarmac ripping grunt of the thing off the line, it's crazy. It makes a pretty good noise too, which was another pleasant surprise.

So we head back inside, and I'm not really expecting them to make us an offer to really entertain considering she would like to keep her lease payments around $500 a month, give or take. She goes away, and comes back with 3 lease offers. All are 12K miles per year for 3 years. The 3.0i came in around $682 with $5K up front (tax, title, deposit, first month's payment included). One diesel came in around $722 with $5K up front. We say "Ok, thanks" and I'm about to get up and walk out. Then she gives us the numbers on another diesel... $500 a month with the same $5K up front. I sit back down. "What?" She says "Yeah, we've had that one in inventory for too long, and it needs to go away. We'll take care of the last payments on your other lease as well."

Specs on the car... it's a bare bones 3.5D. Jet black / beige leatherette. No other add-ons, which is fine with us because the only must have's on her list were a panoramic moonroof and heated front seats.

So what say you? Can you think of any reason not to jump on this? I've read about every thread on here regarding the diesel over the course of today, and feedback seems positive overall. I ran all the numbers, and figuring in the superior mileage plus the tax credit plus the free maintenance, total cost comes very close to the Tribeca and actually undercuts the Highlander (which is crazy to me considering the sticker prices). FYI, diesel is about the same price as mid grade here, which obviously helps the equation.

I've already managed to banish most of the old canards that haunt diesels from my mind (noisy, smelly, etc) because they clearly aren't an issue with this car. About the only concern I would still have is cold weather starts, since we live in the great white north of Minnesota and it gets pretty damn cold up here.

By the way, she's sitting in our driveway right now since I convinced the sales manager that we needed to spend a little more time with it. I've been a fan of the X5 since it's inception and I have to say it's only gotten better looking in this iteration, especially in black. I'll throw in a pic here:



Anyways, let me know what you guys think. I'm a regular over at roadfly and sometimes on bimmerforums, looking forward to possibly joining your community sometime soon. Oh, and sorry for the novel.

Andrew