So Long
 

I am at the end of my journey with my X5. I am moving on to another family car. The X5 was a love hate relationship, but it never failed to put a smile on my face when I drove her.

I still have my trusty 95 525 E34 to keep my BMW roots alive though.

I have put her up for sale on Auto trader, I can send you the info if you would like (send me a message). I did not see the need to pay for the premier membership to list it here, since I won't need to full year of privileges after I sell her.

I have one last CV boot to repair and that should be it. I'll be sure to use the "30 minute" CV boot replacement method that does not involved removing the collar nut. It was information like that fix that I really liked about this site.

I helped out a few people and a lot of posts helped me out too.

Take care.

What are you replacing it with?

I am trying out these:

Used Mazda CX9
Used Toyota Highlander
New Kia Sorento LX

All V6 and all have 3 row.

I need to test drive the Sorento, but I am leaning towards that one. Nice Hyundai Lambda engine in that one too.

Good luck Luke, look at the Nissan products also.

woof...quite a dip going from the E53, but iguess you gotta do what you gotta do..

Are you considering Toyota in reaction to the reliability of the X5?

The most recent Highlander is decent. My in-laws have one. It certainly has a lot of punch with the V6, almost as much as an X5 4.4i.

There are a lot of good crossovers out there now. The Sorento certainly looks good on the outside, and you can't argue with the performance. Pretty much anything Mazda makes is a good driver.

CV boot repair is done.

The 30 min CV boot repair trick took me a few hours. http://www.xoutpost.com/images/smilies/rofl.gif Oh well.

I had to go out and get a crowbar from home depot. I needed one anyway. That did the trick.

Buzz I am looking for a reliable car for my wife and kids. They don't need all the X5 power anyway. The safety the X5 has was one of the reasons I got it in the first place. Way back when, it was one of the only SUVs out there with stability control and side airbags. The other one was the Volvo XC90 (didn't like that one too much. Not too many forums at the time).

Now a days the SUVs have caught up on safety. Stability control, airbags all around, etc.. I do like that the CX9 has side curtain airbags all the way to the third row.

So I am downgrading the family truckster but I think the safety will be the very close to the same. I will hate the torque steer though. :confused:

I will always have my E34 though.

Good luck, safety is of course #1.

You got some pretty good points there. The newer the SUV, the more likely it is to have stability control and side airbags, which make all the difference. SUVs have gone from being more dangerous than cars (because of the rollover risk) to much safer in the last 10 years.

Reliability has also increased across the market. The newer the car, the more reliable it is, irregardless of the make.

So... you just can't lose buying a newer SUV.

With that said... I am just in love with my '02 X5. I really don't like anything else. Maybe I'd go for that new VW Toureg TDI if I had $50k, but I don't.