Potential new owner, with questions!

[AdrianIreland]

Hi there,

I have a 2006 Toyota Hilux Vigo crew cab at present and am all but decided on sellin it to buy a 01 or a 02 X5 3.0D. Pics at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AdriansAccount/Hilux

However, I have a few questions I would LOVE answered.

1) How reliabe at the 01 and 02 3.0d X5s. I mean, from a day to day, month to month point of view.

2)I am used to driving manual transmission, but have driven auto before. I had, however some trouble with an auto box and found it more expensive to fix then the manual. I have heard that the BMW X5 auto box is "sealed for life" and can give trouble at around 130k miles. Is there any truth in this. So most X5 folk prefer auto box?

Oh, and are ALL the auto boxes also tiptronic?

3) Some 01 X5's look amazing, and some look.. wel, not so amazing. Are there certain facelifts available for the 01/02 model and how can some look so good and others so bland.

4) In your experience is there a MASSIVE difference in the >2004 model from a spec, power, reliability, look and feel, drive etc and the 01/02 model

5) Anything else you can tell me to look out for would be great!


Thanks for having me here!

Adrian (Dublin, Ireland)