Anyone want to take a stab at what the hell is written all over the air box???? I can only imagine!! Scary

I agree. Salvage title is not a death sentence, assuming you purchase the car well under the market value for a clean title

More pics on their dealership website.

2003 Bmw X5 4.6is AWD 4dr SUV In Lynnwood WA - Western Auto Brokers

They're right up the street from my work...

ETA: What's the dot in the odometer picture? On the trip odometer right under where it says "miles"?

ETA2: I also just noticed in the odometer picture, it says it's 78 degrees. It hasn't been that warm around here since last summer!!! What gives with that? Picture taken inside a hot garage? Old picture?

ETA3: Ok last update...I just ran this through a BMW VIN decoder (from the dealer website) and it was optioned with xenon headlights. Seems to be a pretty bad salvage attempt. And makes me skeptical of the whole dealer.

That's called a "manipulation dot" and is to be steered clear of at all costs (if you ever want to resell). It occurs when a used odometer with lower mileage than the engine (ECU/BCM) is installed. If you use an odometer with a higher mileage, no dot appears.

The "right" way to do this repair is to buy a new cluster and have it coded. This particular truck could have 200,000 miles on it... who knows. I thought it was illegal for a dealer to sell a vehicle like this without stating the mileage is unknown or something.

Edit: Still looks like a nice truck... if he would sell for $4000-5000 I'd still go take a look. But I doubt that's the case.

This X is so jacked with, I wonder if it's still got the 4.6 motor.

Hope anyone looking at it gets a REAL PPI, the Goodyear PPI in ad means NOTHING more then it's safe to drive down the road.

It's not illegal to resell a car with a bad or tampered odometer. All you have to do is fill out a disclosure statement saying that the actual mileage is unknown.

RCW 46.12.665: Odometer disclosure statement required—Exemptions.

If someone wants to buy a car in that shape, that's on the buyer.

Oh I know... but he says in the ad the X has 97k miles... which it doesn't. And yes, if the buyer is okay with any discrepancy a sale is legal. But the buyer needs to be aware of that discrepancy to be okay with it.

Plus, he's asking $10,500... which is a TON of money for something that hacked together. It's a $4000 to $5000 truck IF it drives alright.

That particular one has been on Craigslist for quite some time. There's probably many reasons why it hasn't sold yet. It's kind of funny that they advertised it with such "low miles"!!! When obviously the cluster had been swapped. Shady business IMO

Ran the carfax and it states that it had 124,555 miles on it in 06/16/2011, non collision total loss according to the insurance company, sounds like either complete engine destruction or a flood damaged car. I wouldn't even doubt if someone did swap in a regular 4.4 into it.

Easy to find out.

Warm up the motor then stand on the throttle, if it's a 4.6 engine, the tach will swing way past redline of the non 4.6 cluster.