After a 5 year hiatus, looking to get back into an E53

[ylwjacket]

I bought a car a week ago from one of those places. The Carfax actually looked good on it - regular maintenance identified to about 200k miles. It had 212k when we bought it.

In our case, the saga continues:

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...otal-loss.html

When I waffled on it, they threw in a 3 month warranty, which has saved us $1500 in the first week.

I think at this age/mileage, it's a crapshoot, and you have to walk into it expecting to do something.

We figured we could buy one with 100k miles, but we replaced a bunch of stuff at 100k on the old one too. Our thinking was that, no matter what we spend, we're probably dumping in $2k in the first few months anyways, which turned out to be true.

Happy shopping.

Originally Posted by DiscoStu

I've been around the block before with the E53 so I'm still kind of leaning that direction.

Another issue I'm seeing is that when I browse around online, most of the X5s I'm seeing are sold by those shady roadside used car dealers. They seem to be hit or miss which is why I'm thinking a PPI is a must.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by ylwjacket

We figured we could buy one with 100k miles, but we replaced a bunch of stuff at 100k on the old one too. Our thinking was that, no matter what we spend, we're probably dumping in $2k in the first few months anyways, which turned out to be true.

Happy shopping.

This is the correct mindset to have when purchasing any used BMW. If you don't end up spending that money then you are lucky, but always go into it expecting to have to bring the car up to spec. Especially if you are like most owners on the forum; enthusiasts. We like everything to look and work as it did when it left the factory. A good PPI is a must if you aren't qualified (or able) to go over the vehicle yourself with a fine toothed comb. I've broken that rule twice now with the e53 and been fairly fortunate in that it didn't bite me too hard.

I've purchased an X from both a small curbstoner dealer and also from a large dealer (Buick) and both trucks had their issues that needed addressing.

Upallnight's description of used BMW owners is pretty accurate unless you are buying from an enthusiast. It applies to all BMW's, not just the e53.

Good luck on your search.

[DiscoStu]

From what I'm reading, everything sounds par for the course. Nothing really scares me about these cars other than the automatic transmission, which I have zero experience with.

I've been eyeballing this Stratus Grey 2006 X5 this week. Seems to be in good shape, low miles, with the options we want, at a great price. The history looks good too - originally a lease and then sold as a CPO. It has three prior owners, each owning for roughly an equal amount of time. I might have a look at it this week.

[ylwjacket]

That car looks great. It has 101k miles, so I guess you know that you can look forward, in the immediate future, to:
- valve cover gasket
- oil filter housing gasket
- coolant system rebuild (belts, hoses, water pump, thermos, temp sensor)
- radiator in the next 20-30k miles
- drive axles (or at least the boots) in the next 25k or so.

None of the above is terribly difficult to DIY, and the parts are all cheap if you DIY.

At 100k, you're hitting the first refurb cycle. If possible, I'd try to bargain the price down a little to account for that.

Originally Posted by DiscoStu

From what I'm reading, everything sounds par for the course. Nothing really scares me about these cars other than the automatic transmission, which I have zero experience with.

I've been eyeballing this Stratus Grey 2006 X5 this week. Seems to be in good shape, low miles, with the options we want, at a great price. The history looks good too - originally a lease and then sold as a CPO. It has three prior owners, each owning for roughly an equal amount of time. I might have a look at it this week.

[DiscoStu]

Originally Posted by ylwjacket

That car looks great. It has 101k miles, so I guess you know that you can look forward, in the immediate future, to:
- valve cover gasket
- oil filter housing gasket
- coolant system rebuild (belts, hoses, water pump, thermos, temp sensor)
- radiator in the next 20-30k miles
- drive axles (or at least the boots) in the next 25k or so.

None of the above is terribly difficult to DIY, and the parts are all cheap if you DIY.

At 100k, you're hitting the first refurb cycle. If possible, I'd try to bargain the price down a little to account for that.

Well I went to look at this one and walked away very disappointed, especially given the color/options that it had. The engine, and everything under the hood for that matter, was in great shape. The issues I saw though were the fact that it had very badly mismatched tires. The front tires were nearly bald and the back tires appear to have been replaced recently. I know it's bad for AWD car to have mismatched tire diameters so I had concerns about the transfer case. The vapor seal on the rear driver's side door was also ripped, so there were water stains all over the rear interior. The bolts holding the drivers seat were completely rusted too. I didn't even want to know what else could have been hiding under the carpet.

The icing on the cake though was when the salesman went to open the driver's door for me, the handle broke He was embarrassed, but I wasn't really bothered by it. Just X5 things...

[ylwjacket]

You should've offered him $3500.

If you see my thread on replacement after the other one got wrecked, we looked at a BUNCH of X5 replacement candidates. The one we ended up with looked great, but had a list of replacement items required immediately.

We looked at one similar to the one you saw, with water leaks, and moved on.

There are a lot of them out there, but you have to sort through some to find one you can live with.

We saw one online that looked great. The salesman told us it needed some paint upfront, and they'd take care of it prior to delivery. We drove about 25 miles to look at it, and the front bumper was hanging half off, and the area the needed paint had a bad paint job attempt to cover major rust underneath.

It is a journey - good luck.

Get them to throw in a warranty if possible, even a short one, in case you find yourself in our situation.

Originally Posted by DiscoStu

Well I went to look at this one and walked away very disappointed, especially given the color/options that it had. The engine, and everything under the hood for that matter, was in great shape. The issues I saw though were the fact that it had very badly mismatched tires. The front tires were nearly bald and the back tires appear to have been replaced recently. I know it's bad for AWD car to have mismatched tire diameters so I had concerns about the transfer case. The vapor seal on the rear driver's side door was also ripped, so there were water stains all over the rear interior. The bolts holding the drivers seat were completely rusted too. I didn't even want to know what else could have been hiding under the carpet.

The icing on the cake though was when the salesman went to open the driver's door for me, the handle broke He was embarrassed, but I wasn't really bothered by it. Just X5 things...

[upallnight]

Originally Posted by DiscoStu

Well I went to look at this one and walked away very disappointed, especially given the color/options that it had. The engine, and everything under the hood for that matter, was in great shape. The issues I saw though were the fact that it had very badly mismatched tires. The front tires were nearly bald and the back tires appear to have been replaced recently. I know it's bad for AWD car to have mismatched tire diameters so I had concerns about the transfer case. The vapor seal on the rear driver's side door was also ripped, so there were water stains all over the rear interior. The bolts holding the drivers seat were completely rusted too. I didn't even want to know what else could have been hiding under the carpet.

The icing on the cake though was when the salesman went to open the driver's door for me, the handle broke He was embarrassed, but I wasn't really bothered by it. Just X5 things...

Hey you could have knocked $500 or more off the asking price.

[itsbrokeagain]

Originally Posted by DiscoStu

From what I'm reading, everything sounds par for the course. Nothing really scares me about these cars other than the automatic transmission, which I have zero experience with.

I've been eyeballing this Stratus Grey 2006 X5 this week. Seems to be in good shape, low miles, with the options we want, at a great price. The history looks good too - originally a lease and then sold as a CPO. It has three prior owners, each owning for roughly an equal amount of time. I might have a look at it this week.

That looks like a really sweet truck. Love the interior color.

I'd haggle on price some. I managed to steal my 06 3.0 for $3000, but it didn't run and the owner wanted it gone. I'm the third owner, first was a lease then my chiropractors assistant owned it CPO from 2009 until now.

I had to redo the entire cooling system to start (snowball effect), fuel filter (black), all air filters, oil change, and all the rear upper control arms. Have lower control arm bushings waiting to be done.

Had I not needed to do any of this, it would easily be a $6600-7000 truck...

Good luck and hope you purchase it. So jelly lol