My X's 10th Birthday!

[motordavid]

Our ol' 2001 E53 hits the Sawbuck mark this week. We picked it up 10 yrs ago, just after 9-11-2001, at a dlr in north Jersey. We loaded it up and moved/migrated south from NY to western NC a week later. It has never been back to the selling dlr, due to geography. It was our first, and thus far, only BMW...we traded in theCEO's car, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which had served her/us like a trooper in the NY winters, and for her long commute to Stamford, CT.

The dlr, Bell BMW, actually hunted this car down for us: a 5 spd manual Sport. The Sticker was $46,400 inc the freight, and the Parts Contents was 35% US/CDA and 55% Germany. It was built in S'burg, SC of course, in 8-2001, as a dlr ordered car, by Hendrick BMW in NC, of all things.

We got $500 off the sticker, (which I didn't think was very good), but the dlr gave us about $2Gs over what the CEO's JGC was worth by most valuations at the time, which had 90k trouble-free miles on that car. We drove away looking at each other that "this was a BMW", though I knew it did not have the 4 WD prowess of the JGC, but hey! we were moving 'south'.

Keep in mind that other than the CEO's Jeep, this was 'my' first new car since the mid '70s, as I had been driving company cars for 2 1/2 decades.

NEway, a decade later, and ~80,000 miles later, I still really, really like our X5. It has very few gizmos compared to the new E70s, but it runs like a top and has been up and down the highways, and hauled all manner of stuff during this time. Its glitches have been few, and its post-warranty fixes have been very minor. It could go Boom! tomorrow, but even it something really ugly pops up, a $grand or $two repair is preferable to a new car, on a RetiredBum's fixed/eroding portfolio.

It still looks damn good, and even with its 12+ yr old 'design', it sticks out in most parking lots full of pablum SUVs, imo.

A took some 'birthday pics' a weekish ago, and while I have put up hundreds of 'my X5 pics' over the years, here's a batch for my X5' 10th BD. Hope I get another few good years out of it.
BR, mD