I concur with mostly what was said on here. Between the '04-06 production, nothing much has really changed except BT was offered in the late 05 production of the 06 MY. As for most 1st year production runs, there can be problems that are normally ironed out late in the same production year or in the new one. Such with mine, I have a '04 and I don't have any bugs in mine that needed to be ironed out. Looking through all my records from when the car first rolled off the line, nothing in the records showed that an excessive amount of weird repairs were done. Even with the later production models, they still have quarks. For example, a recall went out for certain '06 X5's because of a passenger air bag malfunction. But 04 and 05's were not included in the recall... So it is all relative.
When buying an E53, the best thing to do is request a service history. If on can't be produced, then have the X taken in for a PPI... but be cautious. PPi's aren't cheap. If you run through 3 X5's, that roughly $600.00 and you haven't even signed your name on the dotted line. IMHO, I personally like purchasing used cars person to person when there is no warranty involved. I.E CPO from a dealer. Dealers normally sells inventory that is bought from auction or trade in. They don't ask about service history, they don't car that you have it, and they don't care if the car is in good shape or not when they get it. When at auction, they will just see if the car is Green lighted or red lighted and go from there. Any potential problems, they will fix and then send it out. If they bought it traded in, they will just open their black book, look down and say "It's worth $7000" Once they make the deal and then bring it in their shop, they will make a decision on whether or not it is worth to put the money into it or send it off to auction.
But if you buy from a person, you have a better chance of getting more detailed info about the car. They are more likely to produce service records and more often than not, they are an enthusiast, so maintenance should already be done.
While I agree with buying what you can afford and getting the latest model you can get, just because an 06 with 77K on the clock has less miles than an 04 with 135K, to me doesn't mean much. I can almost guarentee if you pit my '04 4.8is with 131K on the clock against an 06 with 70k on it and you PPI both of them... I betcha my PPI report will come out better. I've owned my 4.8is since 105K. Dealer maintained and just before I bought it, Insp 2 was done including entire front suspension. Since I've had it... I've redone the cooling system, new PS res, Coolant Exp tank, leveling sensors and rods, etc... The 06... it probably had insp 1 service done in the past... but upcoming is a refresh of front suspension, cooling system, then insp 2 stuff... If the 06 was $18K and mine was at $15K... I'd do mine again in a heartbeat. But again, just my opinion.
02-13-2014, 10:45 PM
Linear Mode
