Ok.. now.. granted. This process *did* take ab 6 or 7 years... but hey. It worked. Here's what I did:

First:
I had no budget. Ok, I did. I mean, I wasn't going to pay $40K for a 6 yr old car. But I had a range from my most incredible wet dream car price all the way to the one I would take.

Next:
I knew the mileage range I sought. I didn't want one with over 30K miles. I *might* take one with 40K, but it would be from a guy who used vaseline to clean the tail pipes. And made sweet sweet love to it from the day he took new car delivery in Spartanburg.

Finally:
I wanted a BMW dealer. Yep. Price uptick and all. The CPO ship had sailed, but I wanted someplace I could expect a reasonably good cooperation on the car's credence. I was looking for a car with maintenance history I could rely upon.

And so my experience:
Nearly every time let something slide- like the color or the dealer or the mileage- something would go wrong. I called a non BMW (Honda) dealer, the car was gone. I would invariably end up on a never ending SPAM email list. I called only about 6 dealers in the final 8 months. I was content with what I had. I had not convinced myself I *needed* what I really just always *wanted*. I did not allow myself to be pressured in my search. Not by *me* or by anyone else.

And then it happened:
I did the same silly search routine I had done for years past:
BMWUSA- X5, 2004-2006 4.8is. Sort by: Mileage.
Cars.com- Same
Autotrader.com- same

But wait- what's this odd thing at the top? 11,000 miles? 2004? 4.8is? That can't be. Ooohh look... a VIN! Google that muthah... Hrmmm... A dealer used car website had that VIN listed recently. Let's look at their site.. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. It's 2AM. I'll call tomorrow. Or, yeah. Like later today.

A familiar call ensued. "I'm calling about a car. Stock # xxxx. I want to confirm that you have it... that it's an E53.. and this typo.. that it has only 11,000 miles. (Shah. Right. And monkeys will fly out of my butt)

The rest is history. To keep it, I had to place a $500 deposit on it sight unseen. Within an hour I'd planned my flight, found a buddy who would go and look it over and *still* had zero expectations that it wasn't a flooded train wreck.

If from all of this you can take away some guidance.. I will suggest this:

Don't get in a hurry. The right one is out there. Don't look for a deal. Look for what you *want*. If you find what you *want* you'll find the deal. And finally, you don't NEED a car. You WANT a car. Shop as if you're buying the pair of tennis shoes that fit you best. If they don't fit, move on to the next pair. Nothing is better than getting just what you want.. when you know exactly what that is.

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