Such a dilemma
 

We're now working from home and our cars barely get driven. We are thinking about selling the X5. It might be driven twice a month for less than 100 miles. We would rather sell it to someone who can enjoy it than having it in the garage taking up space and cost of insurance.
Part of me doesn't want to sell it. I have maintained and make it uniquely ours. You can say that we're partially attached to the car.
If we decide to sell it, I'm thinking of listing it on the bimmers enthusiast sites only. If it sells, good. If it doesn't, fine. How much should I list it for? 2006 4.8iS fully loaded, 125k miles with all maintenance up to date. Car has Dinan stuffs and the Aero kit. I can source a set of iS wheels in place of the HRE 648R and list it a little lower.

Tam I think you saw the TiSi 4.8iS sell over on bf.c recently. That would be fairly similar to your vehicle. Not sure what the final sale price was but he had it listed for around $18k-19k with 83k miles on it (but it was listed for over 2 yrs as well). I don't see big numbers for our E53's unless they have uber low miles. This has been listed for months, started at $20k (2003 BMW X5 4.6is - Pre-Owned Inventory) One of the lower mileage iS I've seen in awhile. Hope some others chime in, but goodluck if you decide to sell it! Great looking SAV

It might be worth contacting EAG to see if they have interest in the X.

Enthusiast Auto Group Cincinnati Performance BMW Center

These guys get top dollar for the "best of the best" BMWs (Like the 2002 E39 M5 priced at $65,000 currently). You could see an acceptable offer from them.

I personally don't think EAG would buy any of our X5's. There isn't enough profit to be made for them. There isn't enough of a demand for clean E53's. I've seen all of two E53 iS on EAG site before, both were 4.6 and they were stupid clean and low miles. Can't compare E53 iS to E39 M5. If anything, I would try bring a trailer (BaT).

Not saying it will pull low mile E39 M5 money. But, I would bet they could pull over 25k, if it's parked in a showroom full of 60k E39s and 100k E36 M3 lightweights.

Maybe if you put $12k cash in the front seat you could sell it for that money. Else, no way in hell on ~125k miles. My 4.8is was a bit more than that 6 YEARS ago with 11k miles.

A 4.8is example recently posted here with less than 60k miles wouldn't move on Ebay for $14k. That's a fine target price of a really clean example that wants to wait awhile before it's sold.

These are not classics. They are not relics, either. They're just old cars. They're old BMW's with a poor reputation for major service issues over 100k miles. We may like them, but a pretty big part of that is already having one. For the next many years, the older the E53's get, the less expensive they get. Plain and simple.

OP: Set your price and wait. If someone wants it, they'll buy it. Then again, like any of us, if we don't really want to sell it, whether we realize it or not, we might just price it so that we won't sell it. And that's ok except for the wasted effort. :)

His 4.8 has too many miles for EAG... they almost never buy anything over 100k miles, it's usually the 20k mile garage queens that they're after. BaT would be the best bet— cars regularly sell for well over their book value there.

TMV - you know you will have sellers remorse after all youve invested into the vehicle.

Regarding pricing...prices are all over the map with these things and they really havent developed the cult following of e39 or e36 etc as you know. I'd say drop a few lines in the pond and see what happens (do not go to bottom feeders on craigslist but dont think you will). Worse that could happen is you get no response and theres your sign to keep it.

For reference the last e53 EAG had that I recall seeing was just under 90k miles was estoril 4.6 and his price was over $18.5k. I dont remember list of repairs/records but that was at least a year more likely longer than that.

Good luck!

These are some EAG examples that were sold:
Pre-Owned X1/X3/X5/X6 for sale for sale at Enthusiast Auto (4.6iS - 96k miles - LN80649)
Pre-Owned X1/X3/X5/X6 for sale for sale at Enthusiast Auto (4.6iS - 79k miles - LN79148 - $18,940) - Purchase used 2002 BMW X5 4.6is in 11608 Reading Rd, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, for US $18,490.00
Pre-Owned X1/X3/X5/X6 for sale for sale at Enthusiast Auto (4.8iS - 57k - LE82180)
Pre-Owned X1/X3/X5/X6 for sale for sale at Enthusiast Auto (4.8iS - 15k - LE84726)
Pre-Owned X1/X3/X5/X6 for sale for sale at Enthusiast Auto (4.4 - 135k)

I had my 4.8iS with 135,000 km listed for 13.5k CAD a few months ago when I was tempted to get an X5M, had some hits, but offers were around 10k so I kept it.

I just sold my 02 4.6is with 81k miles two owners and full service history from new for $8500 as a point of reference. I probably could get more if I waited but it's wasn't critical for me. These are sure not m5 money or desirability in any way. Numbers being thrown around of over $15k are highly optimistic.

Keep it!

So true, and high/fast depreciation imports on top of all that. We have crossed the point where low miles versus time matters...all these BMWs are just getting too old, even if they are some of the best they made. Values--even in great shape--reflect that.

+1 What PropellerHead & lo jack posted...

Any of us with older E53s, and other older cars/m'cycles often wonder what the hell do I have all of these for?

In our case, we use all 3 cars to some degree, the '01 X is not worth much imo, even being a 3 pedal and in 'very good condition', and our Geezer age insurance is minimal.

But, keeping up with 3 and 3 is a partial time job and not a fun one for someone staring 70 in the face, in terms of DIY, "hey, let's wash and wax all the vehicles this weekend", etc.

tmv, your car is very fine and it probably would find a good home, and none of us can really know your situ, your needs and your attachment to it. If you do toss it, I wish you a 'good sale' to a good enthusiast.
GL, mD

EAG typically picks the low mileage vehicles so that they can ask the high mile price.

I also experienced low prices and for now we are keeping ours. One factor not mentioned is that it is hard/expensive to get financing for a car this old (and worse if the X5 generic value is used by the lender instead of something specific to the 4.8is), which limits the buyer universe to cash buyers. They, of course, have a lot of choices.

We drive ours less than 2k miles per year now. But it is still awesome, to us.

Tam, going to be a tough sell... but the buyer is out there. Just list it for what you want, wait, enjoy the vehicle, and eventually it will sell... or not no big deal.

I was one of those buyers... I paid $14500 for mine (@90,000mi) and it is not as clean as yours. Granted the red heads do fetch more $$$ it seems.

Sentimental value, plus the wife lost the titles for the two Lotus during our last move 18 years ago. LOL

TMV - i think where you're located will effect the pricing a bit by a grand or two.

im in los angeles and have been shopping for e53s for the past two months. i've ran across a few very clean 4.6 and 4.8 with aero kits. those all averaged to have around 120k-140k miles on the odo. average pricing i've seen for a quick sale on these is $8-10k. $10-12k is about the average "all day" price, even on some special edition trim ones. for yours id say $14k+ on the high end and eventually it will go. may take some time against the competing prices. but yours is super clean and really loved for. i think at this point i would keep it for sentimental value but shouldn't be much longer till they gain a rise in popularity. i think also the reputation for the 4.4L and up motors is that the torque eventually breaks down these motors at around +120k and a lot of the more pricey maintenance procedures are due. so seems like there are buyers that are trying to avoid that as well as owners trying to ditch them at the same time. haha

with that said. .. i ended up settling for a super clean 120k mile 2006 3.0L for $6k that drives like new and am now in the process of making all the cosmetic mods. took it to the dealership for a pre purchase inspection and all they said was to replace the vc gasket. which i already had expected anyway. i'm pretty content with my purchase and super excited to get it together to show you guys. although i kinda wish i bought this one

edit: i want to mention i was only searching for 2004-2006 facelift models.

Our cars really are twins. It's getting creepy. $14,410 @ 88,000mi.