THE X5 to have...

[MINIz guy]

Browsing through eBay I found this...

BMW : X5 AWD 6 Speed in BMW | eBay Motors

Yes...

Estoril Blue!

What's even better is the 6 speed and NO SUNROOF!

I think it's the perfect X5 and the person ordering it knew what they wanted.

[epdarks]

The guy that runs that dealer is a member on a few other BMW forums. He is an X5 enthusiast who current has a 4.8 and owned a couple of 4.6s in the past.

I do agree, that is probably the only Estoril Blue 6 speed X5 on the planet.

It looks like it sold for 11k? That's a STEAL.

[Koody]

very nice

[motordavid]

The seller has some interesting cars...the manual trans king.
That Estoril Blue 6 spd is real find. Lucky buyer.

[Roadkill]

Beautiful car. Too bad it's missing 2 cylinders and 1.8 liters.

[Bayerische E53]

That's definitely a rare car and a pretty good deal to boot. I bought my 2005 6 M/T 6 months ago - AW Exterior/SW Interior with slightly fewer miles and I paid just under $20K. Granted, the interior and engine compartment on my car are absolutely flawless (those on this car are a bit rough) but still. I wish mine had no sunroof (I have a pano.) - it would be up there in rarity with this one. That said, what a wicked little car (although it does need some love).

Originally Posted by dinan e39

Beautiful car. Too bad it's missing 2 cylinders and 1.8 liters.

That's one way of looking at it. Another way to look at it is to say "too bad the 4.8is is missing one pedal and a proper valvetrain/throttle operation unit." To me, pedal count + simplicity > cylinder or displacement count

[xsx450]

Originally Posted by dinan e39

Beautiful car. Too bad it's missing 2 cylinders and 1.8 liters.

+1. I bough my x5 to roll hard, not hardley roll

[TiAgX5]

Nice color and trans, not enough torque (5k lb tow limit and 0-60 times you can check with a sundial). What did the 1st owner hope to gain by deleting less then 10 lbs by passing on the sunroof on a 5000 lb X5 with just a touch over 200 ft lbs of torque???

[Bayerische E53]

^ (The sunroof cassette weighs 35lbs and the non-sunroof sheet-metal weighs 5lbs less than the sunroof version. Also, the tow capacity is 6,000lbs, not 5,000.)

In any event, I highly doubt the owner ordered it that way for weight's/performance's sake. I find it hard to believe that an enthusiast would be quite that daft. I'm sure he did it for simplicity. In a modern street car - any modern street car - I value simplicity over weight any day of the week. Forget fuel economy. If you're buying an SUV, you have no standing to complain about fuel economy.

There is all this talk about "drivers' cars." People think it's all about weight - rubbish; it's not - not in the 21st Century. In the 21st Century it's, at least, equally about simplicity and cleanliness. I say this because there's no such thing as "light weight" cars (i.e. "driver's cars" in the traditional sense) in the 21st Century that are actually usable (I don't want to hear any Lotus Elise talk; cars like that are far from usable). In the 21st century, "drivers' cars" have more to do with simplicity than with low weight. The new M3 weighs 4,000lbs. My brother just bought an E90 M3 stripper (cloth interior, no options, no sunroof); it weighs 3,700lbs. People might argue that that's a driver's car. In my opinion, it's as close as you can get to a usable "driver's car" in the 21st century. However, no matter how you cut the pie, a 3,700lbs "street sports car," no matter how well it handles, is just not a "driver's car" in the traditional sense.

Yeah, that's a tangent. Whoops.

To me, this X5 is sweet. I love the fact that it has a proper transmission and doesn't have gadgets and gizmos. I absolutely lover the sunroof delete. My only complaint is that it's not AW (yeah, I'm an AW whore). If there was such a thing as a "drivers' SUV," I reckon only this and the 1st Generation Porsche Cayenne GTS with the 6-Speed Manual would qualify. Of course, the GTS would totally one-up the 6 M/T X5 from a power perspective, but I'm just making a point. In any event, I bet the X5 is much simpler and lighter than the GTS. To me, that's more important than the power. Tomato/Tomahto, I'd think (especially if you put a suspension/brake/wheel package on the X5 that is as equally impressive as that which came standard on the 1st Generation GTS).

[tmv]

Not bad, but I'll pass.