Need some advice from the E53 owners...

[Kam850]

Hi all,

Its been almost a full year since I posted lol

Anyway, I ended up getting the radio. I went overboard with how to install it. I basically took everything apart in the inside and ran all the wiring like the factory looms ran. Including the rear camera which was a huge PAIN in the rear. But I did it.

About the radio (Avin Avant 4):
I feel like the price that it costs...its a bit too much. Especially if you want to use the Apple Car Play feature. Would I buy again? Probably but I would have done things a bit differently. Im not going to complain about it because having this radio in a vehicle from 2006 is a huge bump in enjoyment. Looks OEM and I can do what most cars do. Yes its not the smoothest or the greatest...but it works just fine. The only REAL major complaint I have is that I cant really use the the unit to talk with people over the phone. Not sure why, but there is a major echo on the other end. People just hear themselves and its annoying to them. In the apple car play settings I have it set to car mic, but I guess for some odd reason the mic is picking up the callers voice from my speakers at all volumes pretty much. With the OEM headunit it didnt do that. So I probably should have gone with a external mic.

As for my mods, I didnt do much. My moonroof fabric fell off. I have ordered some alecentara headliner material and iv been postponing the job. I got the black plastic pieces and the pillar trim from a "si/M-sport" E53, just would have to wrap all the headliner stuff in new fabric. The seats I gave up on and the steering wheel as well. The OEM steering wheel grew on me and finding a cheap M-Sport E53 steering wheel with a HEATED function is proving to be difficult....unless you want to spend the $350+ on ebay for one.

The X5 currently just hit 86k miles. No major issues other than I had a leaky rear rubber brake line, so I just replaced both rears. I ended up changing out the fuel filter about a month or two ago and Iv seen a slight increase in my MPGs. The filter in the car was original from the factory and when I turned it over black sand/dust/dirt started to pour out from the tank side, fuel was clear from the other end of the filter.

Pretty much since my last post I just drove the car as a daily. I like it. I took it on its first 3-4 hour road trip and it handled it well. Thats where the X5 seems to shine.

I do find myself again in the situation where Im not sure what to do with this X5.

Here are my options:

-keep it and just maintain it, buy yourself something "cheap and fun" or something "fun", the X5 can be a back up car if you need to tow something, haul or use if I dont want my other cars to be damaged or something. I do have the OEM wesftalia hitch on it (I believe its a class 2 or 3), so I could technically tow 6,000 lbs without an issue.

-sell it, use funds to help me get a new car of sorts. Like a pick up or a newer X5. Maybe even throw half of that money into my "Can I finally buy my own place in this market?" Fund.

-Keep it, but buy something fun. But also have some fun with the X5. AKA dump more money into it and dont look back.

-Sell the X5, get another cheap car of sort, maybe something better on gas. Not that fill ups are an issue really.