Thanks for the input! I've been looking nationwide as well, just out of curiosity, but there aren't any sport package manual trans cars out there as far as I can tell. I didn't check CarMax before, but I just did and they have 0 manual trans X5s right now. I'm not opposed to buying out of state, but it would have to be THE right car at the right price. I've done it before and it's a PITA...plus with the cost of flying out on short notice, and paying for gas on the way back, it might end up being more expensive. And I have that time constraint too; we're expecting a rough winter and it's coming up fast. If I don't find a car here soon I'll end up having to buy snow tires for the M3, and raise and realign the suspension.

Wellll as luck would have it, I just found a manual trans sport package, and it's exactly what I want. It's at a BMW dealer in NJ---quite the trek for me, but man, is it nice. It's a 2004 (6-speed!), pano sunroof, cold weather package, etc. Being that it's at a BMW dealer, where it has been serviced its entire life, I assume I wouldn't need to have a PPI done. And it's a one-owner with only 101K miles. The catch is...it's out of my price range (dealer site says $15K, and they've already dropped the price from $18K). But...I don't know, I could probably make it work. They also have it listed on eBay at a starting price of $10K with 0 bids, so maybe I could talk them down. However, NADA says $14,700, so probably not much.

Can anyone comment on how much wiggle room there might be as far as price goes? Also, is there anyone on here who lives in NJ and would be willing to check it out for me? It's in Newton. One more thing, can anyone comment on the durability of the 6-speed vs. the 5-speed?

See sentence in bold. Bad assumption.

Six speed is no less reliable than the five speed. It is a better match to the vehicle and is thus desirable.

6 speed vs 5 speed...'better', all things being 'equal'.
The first 5 gears in the 6 speed are identical to the 5 speed box, with the addition of a slightly overdriven 6th gear = slightly less rpms at cruising speed.

Newton,NJ...my guess is Bell BMW, where I bought my '01, way back in Sept 2001.

If I still lived in NY, I would wander over and give it a look.

Just because a BMW is selling it, doesn't mean they looked at it very hard. If they are willing to cough up its 'history', that would be helpful, but doubt they will.

Interesting car, even with the 101k miles...
GL, mD

I live 40-45 minutes from Open Road BMW of Newton, I'd be willing to check it out but my schedule doesn't leave a lot of time. I saw that silver X5 on ebay a couple weeks ago.

In my opinion, it might be tough to get them down to your price range, if they gave a lot of money on the local trade in to get the previous owner to buy a new vehicle, they may not be willing to let it go cheap, and would rather sell it at auction than take too much of a loss.

I agree, 15k is still rather steep considering it is over 100k miles (nothing for a M54), but trust me, the manual X5's don't fly off the shelf unless someone is looking for one. No "Saturday shopper" is going to randomly walk in the dealership and buy a 10 year old X5 with 100k miles for 15k if it has a stick.


Dealers don't really use NADA as far as I knew, more on black book value, but again, you don't know how much the dealer "showed" on trade in value to the previous owner, and how much of a deal on the new car they gave to the guy to get him to trade it in. A lot of times there isn't much wiggle room on the newer cars so they will give more in trade to get them to buy the car that day.


This weekend is shot for me but I might have an evening next week I could take a ride up to Newton for you. I checked the ebay pics and it looks clean to me, pm "Naz24" he is also local and has dealers license, he can look up the carfax/autocheck report to get the vehicle history for you.

EDIT: I didn't see you said its listed on their website at 15k. If it is, I think you have some room there, they obviously want to move the car and see that its not easy to sell, as they have already dropped the price 3k in just a few weeks time. Dealers hate when cars sit. If its clean, I'd offer them a reasonable deal, and also just caught that you said its a one owner car, if that is so, good news as well. One owner cars are USUALLY cared for well, and as we know in the "manual transmission" club, we all care for our 3-pedal machines as they are special E53's. Sounds like a nice car.

UPDATE as I just went through the Free Carfax and looked at the pics again:


Dillon, just from seeing the service records on Carfax and the pics on ebay again, it looks extremely clean, Silver is a color that holds up great over time but as a one owner (who bought it out after leasing it) it looks well cared for, it was in for service every 10k at least, if not more. Brakes were changed at 76k, coolant was flushed 20k ago, brake fluid flushed, oil changes were regular, etc.

Only issue I see from pics is the peeling on the trim for the steering wheel ($50 part)


It has been serviced there at BMW Newton its whole life so I wonder if they could release the maintenance history on it, that literally would be amazing if they could.

Looks like an extremely clean and rare 6-speed/sport equipped vehicle, and honestly for one that is well cared for and in good shape, I would up your budget and buy it if it checks out.

Thanks for checking into it! Not sure about NJ, but dealers here use NADA almost exclusively. If it were closer, I think I would pursue it. But I just looked up the cost of a trip out there to pick it up, and unfortunately I don't think it's worth it for me right now---the total cost, including plane ticket + hotels + food + gas, would end up being around $800. That's money I feel would be better spent on registration fees (which are VERY costly in CO, it would be $600-700 for that 2004), or maintenance / upgrades. I think I will have the white one inspected next week as planned and go from there. If it checks out I'll likely buy it, and if not, then I guess I'll have to wait. Thanks again.

I've owned both the 5-speed and 6-speed. That extra gear does make a huge difference. Call the dealer up and make a firm offer and see if they bite. It's worth it, in my opinion, to go for the 6 speed as well as the updated x-drive. I live in Northern Utah, so I understand your winter needs. I've bought all my manuals (X3 and two X5s) out of state. Pa, Sc, and Tx. It is a PITA I know. Good luck with which ever route you go with and unofficially welcome to the three pedal club. You'll love your manual X5! Best decision I've made, times 3! Keep us posted.

Own a 2002 X5 3.0 diesel 5 speed (manual), take the plunge. The 2nd gear things you feel are likely the fact that the factory "lifetime" synthetic oil needs to be changed (use Redline MTL). Change the transfer case oil as well, if NV125 - either Redline ATF or MTL.

THEN replace the CDV valve. Been there, done that.

Just ordered a Schmiedmann adjustable short shifter. It will be here Monday. It's not gonna be a plug and play, as I will have to match the oem shifter angle. But this seems to be the best option out there for us 3 pedal e53 guys right now. I'm pretty excited. Full pictures to come.
Also, I built a new selector rod for the e36 a few years back that was similar to the uuc dssr. Don't be suprized to see me fire up the lathe........ The mad scientist has entered the building.;)