XOP,
As of this morning I rolled over 149,000 miles, 10,000 miles since I purchased the truck. Here is a brief review of my ownership experience.
Coming from an M3 I knew the X5 wasn't going to offer the same performance. I was willing to sacrifice some speed for some practicality. Luckily, what I've found is that the 4.6is, at least in my current trim, will perform within 90% of my old M3 on the street.
I said this in my first post... this truck does a lot of things really well. It hauls ass in a strait line, it sounds like a muscle car, it handles like my M3, the storage is adequate, the comfort level is incredible, it's a great cruiser, has a good sound system, and it has most of the options that we would want in a luxury vehicle.
What is more important than all of that... and IMO... the most important question when reviewing any vehicle: How does it make you feel? When you walk out to the garage, and you look at the car... what emotions does it evoke? My answer: this truck makes me feel like a badass. I feel like a football player or celebrity or CEO or someone important. I feel "cool" driving this truck. Trust me, cool is not a word normally associated with epdarks.
The bad news is that I've put about $2,500 into maintenance over 1 year of ownership. Being cool, as it turns out, has a cost. I do 16 MPG on average, that ain't cheap either. Listening to the V8? Priceless.
When I first got it, my (ex) GF's family asked how I afforded a brand new BMW? I told them it was 10 years old and had 140,000 miles and cost less than their Chevy Malibu.
There have been random people approaching me and giving compliments to the truck. A gas station employee ran over to me once and started asking me questions. A young kid once yelled out "SICK CAR" as I drove past. It's that kind of positive attention that I've grown to appreciate.
Whatever happens with my love life, or work life, or home life... I get in the car and it all goes away. Any true car guy understands this.
Owning any BMW can be a love/hate relationship. When I was underneath the truck doing the transfer case job on those cold winter months in an un-heated garage... I questioned my loyalty to the brand. In reality, doing that job made me grow closer and more attached to the truck.
Now I put on 50+ miles per day. The next 10k miles should happen a lot faster.
So there you go, the worst review ever, epdarks' verbal diarrhea on Xoutpost. If anyone has any specific questions about the 4.6is, I am happy to answer.
Thanks for reading.
Dan
Pics from yesterday:
