Price check please: 2004 X5 3.0 manual 6 speed

[vtvette]

Hello all, my wife has owned her 2005 X5 since 2009. It's time to move on as she no longer needs a larger car and is interested in a Porsche 911.

A few details:

2004 X5 3.0
6 speed manual transmission
Kalahari Beige Metallic
Black interior
175,500 miles

I know manual's are hard to find. My wife's last X5 was a 2002 manual 5 speed. I had to travel 1,200 miles to buy it. It was totaled when someone pulled out in front of her. We had quite a few of the common early X5 issues with that one - rear suspension bushings, multiple window regulators, etc. Her current X5 has been bulletproof. Almost no issues at all. I recently changed the oil filter housing gasket and valve cover gasket. I rebuilt the VANOS last year. CV boot replaced a few years ago. Religious oil changes every 6,000 miles with Mobil1.

Being a manual transmission it is nicely equipped:

Panoramic sunroof
heated front seats
heated steering wheel
rear window side blinds (I believe these were an option?)
Kenwood double din stereo with custom made bezel (VERY nicely done)

Oddly, it does not have HID headlights.

Paint is in very nice shape. No peeling, no dents. There is one scuff on the front left corner of the bumper. It was there when we bought it.

Interior is a 9.5. The seats are perfect - no signs of wear at all. The carpet, etc is perfect. Never been smoked in, no kids. Weathertech hard floor mats front, rear and trunk. Even the wood trim is in excellent shape. Only one small crack in the passenger's door wood trim.

Always garaged.

SO - Overall a very nice, very well cared for and well equipped 2004 X5 6 speed but, with 175,500 miles.

I'll try to get pic's of the car posted.

I have absolutely no idea where to price this? I'll likely put it on Ebay (and the classifieds here).

Pricing suggestions appreciated thanks.

[TiminIndy]

You can enter in all of the options and condition at kbb.com to get private sale and trade in blue book. Any prospective buyer will likely do the same. Will probably be a lot lower than you expect.

[vtvette]

Thanks Tim. I checked KBB - they say about $5,000. I figured around $6,000 or so.

Be careful with oddball cars and KBB. I recently took a 2000 Ford Excursion in trade for some work I did for a guy. It was a 7.3l Diesel with 270,000 miles on it. I know absolutely nothing about Ford Excursions, have no interest in them. I had no intention of keeping it and was just looking to sell it. I look up KBB and it stated $5800 as optioned with the 7.3. Sounded good to me. Having dinner with a friend of mine who is the head of finance at the local Ford dealer I mention in passing I'm going to be putting this Excursion on Ebay. He said be sure to do some reasearch there is a huge following for those trucks with the 7.3 diesel engine. I do some looking around on some Ford forums and I'm shocked - they go between $12,000 - $18,000 depending on mileage. I put mine on Ebay for $13,500 buy it now. Sold it in 2 days. Apparently folks in Utah, Idaho, Montana absolutely love them and they are getting very hard to find. Amazingly KBB pricing is right in line with the sale prices of gas engine excursions. They don't account for the desirability of the 7.3 diesel engine.

Anyway - that lesson taught me to check on forums like this when you have anything odd (hell, anything at all these days). I almost left $7,000+ on the table thanks to KBB.

I have no delusions that the X5 is worth much over $5000 or $6000 but, I flew 1200 miles to buy my wife's first manual X5 and 700 miles to buy this one. She refuses to drive a car with an automatic transmission.

The only two 6 speed manual transmission X5's I've found for sale were both featured on bringatrailer.com which features desirable, rare or just plain odd cars. The last one was a 2004 with 130,000 miles and sold for $9,500.

Just trying to get a bead on the value of her car.

I know the 6 speed X5's are very rare and desirable to some people. I just don't know if that translates to an increase in value. I do know KBB does not account for this type of situation in it's valuations.

[PropellerHead]

Originally Posted by vtvette

I know the 6 speed X5's are very rare and desirable to some people. I just don't know if that translates to an increase in value. I do know KBB does not account for this type of situation in it's valuations.

Your market is very, very narrow. While you may have an enthiast following for a manual E53, one with that kind of mileage will put off most buyers from the start (on a non-legendary, non-diesel motor).

If you wait for the one or two wrench turners that will dive into it for awhile after the purchase as their own daily, you may be near $4500-4900. If you encounter the more typical turner who just wants to run it for 6-12 months and flip it, you're closer to $3500.

All of this is through my own lens of course. I'd love a 6 speed E53. But I wouldn't buy any E53 (or any BMW) just south of 200k miles without major maintenance/restoration planning (like my '75). If I were given one, I would sell it. Maintenance fund willing, I will drive mine well past 200k, but I am under no illusion that when it is time to let go, I will sell my very good condition, getting tougher to find 4.8is with tons of on time maintenance for a mere pittance.

[motordavid]

+ ^... if you get $5Gs take it and run.
Doubt it will go that high, mostly due to mileage, and it's narrow niche appeal.

To hump it here, one has to be a Premo supporter, but good ad you did.
GLWS,
mD

[Anhelenuk]

I sold mine 4.6is for $8k with 81k miles on it so be happy with anything over 5k

[vtvette]

Thanks all for the info. I'd honestly be happy with 5g's if we can get it. The value we received is in the utility the car has given us over the years, not the residual value from a sale.

I'll probably put it on Ebay. I suppose my best bet is to start at like $3,000 with no reserve and see what the market brings.

Thanks again,

Brian

[cn90]

Take any car you want (BMW, MB, Porsche, Jaguar etc. etc.), once the mileage is > 150K miles, the value drops dramatically.

Play with KBB website with different mileage and you will see.

The thing about vehicles with > 150K miles...the car is aged, any repair at that age is expensive (steering rack, engine, transmission etc.), nothing is cheap repair at that mileage...