I'm Off
 

My X5 sold yesterday. Just waiting for the buyer to arrange the money and collect it now.

I bought it in January and have spent a reasonable amount of money since then fixing some common issues such as front & rear bushes, lambda sensors, radio module and repeatedly re-balancing the wheels to chase down the steering wobble. I also had to replace the undertray that was missing and fix a cross-threaded front subframe bolt - I blame those on the supposed "specialist" that fitted a new steering rack a few months before I bought the car.

It's a lovely car to drive and all last week I was having second thoughts about selling but the torque converter is juddering a bit and my paranoia has taken over, fuelled by the number of gearbox threads on here. I'm almost scared to use it now for fear of a £2k-£3k repair bill when something big goes wrong. I can cope with a couple of hundred quid now and then on smaller things but that kind of money on a car that's only worth £4k is madness so I decided to quit while I'm ahead.

Also, last week I spotted a car I've wanted for a long time in the exact spec I'd want, local and for a fair price, and after a few days of me acting like a child before Christmas my wife said I can have it :D That sealed the X5's fate. There's still a little negotiating to be done on the price but it should be sorted by the end of the week. Bye-bye X5, hello Porsche 996 :smokin:

Many thanks to everyone for the advice I've had here, and I'd like to think I've helped a few folks too. This is a good forum. Keep it up !

It has really good history and a full warranty :D My X5 had neither.

Fingers crossed for you :thumbup:

I have sold a car that cost me a small fortune in maintenance to buy something that seemed a safer bet lots of times, only to find the safer bet cost even more to make good than the previous one. I think that older prestige cars (BMW & Porsche included) are a bargain to buy but just a fortune to maintain, gotta pay to play as they say.

And just to underline the reasons why I'm trying to sell it, the guy came to collect yesterday and as soon as he went to drive off the engine management light came on :rolleyes: Technically not my problem by that point but I couldn't be that much of arse when he was barely even off the driveway. I gave him his money back and now need to figure out what's wrong before I can try selling again.

Not very happy :(

That sucks man, hope it's not serious. These EMLs come on for the silliest things at times though

It's called generating revenue through the parts department...LOL!!!:rofl:

ya - my E38 has a persistant CEL that appears to be no more than an EVAP control valve, which doesn't affect the performance or operation of the engine one bit. But now I do need to fix the silly thing because I need to get a smog cert to register the car.

In the 2 years I had the X5 I did not get hardly any CEL's. Seems to be a hit or miss thing.