Thinking about this...
 

I'm thinking about selling my X5. I absolutely love the car, but I honestly don't want to deal with the price of gas anymore. Living in SoCal instead of Denver is completely different and has begun to take its toll on my patience.
Does anyone recommend a place to sell a vehicle; whether it be online or a real dealership? Are there benefits to selling online or selling in person? Has anyone tried to sell a 2003 4.6is that's fully loaded with a few mods added?

MB:
No Xpert and no clue on your situ, but my guess you
are gonna take a beating on your X, vs what you paid
and what you put into it.

Then, you go buy something that gets 30 and you
tell yourself that you are ahead of the game.

It's somewhat analagous to those that ran out,
spent 2500 more on a hybrid version of a brand,
but the "payback" is 100K+ miles, gas cost-wise,
unless the jihad gang shut off the supply and gas
was 7 bucks.

Do whatcha must, but you may be in for a reality
check, dough-wise, when you go to toss your X.

By the bye, what are you thinking of in the quest
to beat the petrochem man and his prices?
GL,mD

It's been mathematically explained many times. The depreciation you take plus the money spent on a "new frugal car" is substantially more $$$$ than living with what you pay now. In addition, it's also been proven mathematically that you'd have to drive hundreds of thousands of miles to make up for the cost. Unless you have some.....need to be environmentally friendly........stick with what you have.

This is off subject, but what car are you planning to purchase??




--I would try Ebay.

What would you sell you X for? Are you planning another trip back to denver with the X? I might be interested.

I don't know about you but changing from a 4.6 to something that saves gas.....I would not know how you would appreciate the ride quality and speed.

Your getting some good advice here, think you will regret selling it. Looks like you've spent a fair amount $$ on mods to your X, unless you find the right buyer, I doubt you would get a fraction of it back in a sale. The other consideration for me is comfort and safety, depending on what you would replace the X with, I wouldn't be willing to give up safety for a few extra MPG's. Then there is the fun factor, I love driving my X, that in itself is worth about 10 more MPG. Good luck...

I just bought an '02 4.6is - the gas milage is the same as any other SUV. I'm so thrilled to own this SAV - I'd suggest keeping it. But I understand your pain as well - heck, life is short - enjoy it while you're here. If that means selling the SAV - dump it, if you truly love it - then stick it out :thumbup:

By the way, when I was shopping for my X5 4.6 I was looking on autotrader.com & ebay.com. I'd suggest going that route...

Best of luck with whatever you choose.

Sincerely,

Lance

I sold my Acura in one day with a FOR SALE add pasted to the back of the car.

dude your X is nice. Dont you dare sell it because of gas.

Do you do a lot of driving? I think you will regret selling your X5. Just make a few more bucks a year and the low mpg will not hurt so much!!!!!

If you do decide to turn your backs on your X5 chums and sell your amazing, cool, fast X5 autotrader.com or cars.com Give Ebay a try buy it seems if your price at the high end of the range it will not sell.

I paid $33,000 for my 02 4.6is w nav and 53k miles. Most of the Ebay sellers wanted $35k to $42k for the same vehicle.

Now go for a drive and rid your self of these economical pragmatic thoughts!!!!!

Do not give up yet. Try this product...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MPG-B...QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for all the advice, this is definitely a difficult decision...

A little of the reason why I want to sell my X5 is to get into something smaller, more car-like. I lived in Denver until I was 18 and left for college in California and while in Denver I had four different SUV's. In Cali, my parents went for a 3-series and I loved being in something small. I know if I get rid of my X5, I'll lose the love of my life but I like changes in scenery.

EuroGeek1 - A trip back to Denver is always possible. My parents still live there and its been a while since I've been home. Another issue is that I might be going back abroad for a job opportunity and if that's the case, I'll definitely be selling this car. I don't want my parents or older brother to get their hands on it, I know they wouldn't truly appreciate the X5 for what it's worth.

DriverX5 - I was thinking of something with the same kind of speed, but smaller. I like the new Acura TL S, but then again, it's an Acura. I'm really at the beginning stages so I have a million ideas flowing through my head. An M3 is always an interesting thought, that is the perfect beast car-wise in my opinion. By the way, does that chip thing on Ebay actually work? I haven't heard of that before but if it really adds MPG and horsepower, it might be something worth buying. Do you have any input on that?

Thank you again for the replies.

2002Silver4.6is - I don't do an extraordinary amount of driving, the most right now is a 30-40 mile trip one-way down towards the beach area. I do that drive about twice a week or so.

The chip link was a joke. ;) I saw the acura TL s at the LA car show, and I think that it is a great looking car with exceptional performance IMO.

I was just checking out that chip link, it actually looks interesting but I don't understand how a single chip has the ability to do this. In the feedback for that item, people actually said they can notice an increase in gas mileage and horsepower. Any thoughts?

Honestly I do not think any thing like that will work. A magnet over your fuel line?? I think that the only thing that will increase mpg is changing out the OEM filter for an after market filter like K&N. I changed my filter and noticed about 2 mpg in savings. Not alot, but the increased air flow is good for the engine.

What filters would you recommend? I haven't thought of adding anything like that to help increase MPG. Do you know of anything else that would help?

You better not sell your 4.6is beast for a Acura, You could atleast sell it for something with some german styling like a Mercedes, Bmw or maybe an Audi!!! But its your choice. I would try a Mercedes C55 or a M3 or a CLK280 they go faster than the CLK500 i have been told. Try an Audi S4

I would recommend getting a stock replacement K&N air filter. IT just goes into place where your stock OEM filter is now. You can also get a cold air intakes system. This is obviously a lot more money. I have tried both K&N air filter and an AFE cold air intake system. To be honest, they are both about the same in mpg gain, about 2. I think Dinan also offers and intake system, for the 4.6. I also use a fuel system cleaner, which I feed into my gas every few thousand miles to keep my system clean. I am not sure if it helps much, but i think it makes a difference. Other then the few suggestions above, that I know of, you can save mpg by changing the way you drive. Don't floor it often, decreas use of a/c, and similar things, I am sure your aware of. There may be some other members that could recommend things you can do to increase mpg. I hope this helps.

No arm wrestle and, everyone has an opin, but if K&N air filters really
offered up a 2mpg inc., they would be in every car, oem, imo.

The mfg'ers would chase that extra 2 mpg avg. like they chase
vendors for cost cuts.
GL,mD

Not necessarily...increasing air flow is good, but in doing so, the K&N filter will allow more dirt/debris into your engine in the process. The minor mpg gain is not worth the risk of engine damage.

Got any specific information to back that up? Not saying it is inaccurate, I've just never seen a spec sheet stating more particles were coming through.

You are right!

My parents have gone through Mercedes and Porsche. I like both of those, but I don't think I would ever really want one. I think you'd actually have to pay me to drive a C55 or any C-class in general.
The S4 just doesn't have anything special about it. I like how when you see a 4.6/4.8, you know it's one of those because of the exterior features. Although the RS4 is a beast, I test drove one of those a month ago or so.
At this point I'm just searching around for opinions and thoughts, still not positive about really trying to sell my car. But it would be fun to get into a car, that's the only thing that's keeping me thinking about selling...

RS4?!

Big dough and 20mpg, with a tail wind, downhill.

I thought your current mpg was a prob.?

So did I!!

Honda\Acura are in high demand. I sold my Pilot within a week with no discount in price.

MatzoBallsX5 - owning a car is a very personal decision. No two people will agree on it. In your case you have decided that gas is a factor. Okay, done deal, sell the X and get yourself a fuel efficient coupe or sedan. If you get a used car you may even end up with money in your pocket!

Now to answer your questions...It is generally better to NOT sell to a dealer because he needs to make money off your car so he can't give you market value. You need to sell it yourself. First, put it in autotrader and get the deal that shows it in the local magazine and online. Do your research to determine the market value. Let that sit on autotrader for 2 to 3 weeks. If you get no bites and you really want to sell it, then consider auctioning it off on ebay. You won't get as much for it on ebay as people on there are looking for a smoking low price.

If you have mods that can be taken off, consider parting those out as you really can't get your money back on those items when you sale the car.

One last thing to consider...if you are unsure of this decision then get a popular car. That way it would be easy to sell it and get something else. I like to think ahead because you never know!;)

It may not make you feel any better or make you change your mind but I have a 4.8 in the UK and travel about 35000 miles per year and currently our gas price is about £0.90 per litre. That's just under £5 or $10 per gallon!

I am happy to pay this hugely inflated price to hear the V8 on full chat. $400 per week I put in the tank on average and enjoy every ounce.

The RS4 was just a blast to drive, but yeah, if I'm worried about MPG I probably shouldn't be looking at that. I like driving a stick though, makes the drive a bit more fun.
For right now I think I'm going to stick with my X5, at least until I know for sure whether or not I'm going to be staying in the US. Thank you all for the opinions and advice.

Here's one...not scientific, but convincing enough to have you think twice about using a high flow filter => http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest3.htm

There are other articles just by doing some simple web searches.

35000 a year , I'm impressed. Is this just UK or includes other countries?
:thumbup:

I once hit 32000 miles in one year driving in LA...oh, and the gas was still under $2 back then.

I also didn't have an X5 then