No problem for me to have a little road trip for the right car!

I am a little new to the E53. I am a Bimmer fan from way back. We currently have an 11 Xdrive 5.0 M Sport Adaptive Drive and a 97 M3 Sedan.

I am looking for the E53 manual for my daughter. She really really wants a manual, and I am good with this idea. I like the idea of the E53 because it is a decent size and she is outdoors oriented (wants to haul bicycle, skibike, Kayak, tents, etc). She is also a BMW fan - the M3 is her older sister's car. Plus, I have always liked the E53. I am hoping to find one that has been well cared for.

There is/was an 06 X5 stick in Grand Junction at a Subaru? dealer. I had it inspected before I bought mine in Ohio last month. If its still available, it should kick up on Cars.com. It needed some TLC, from the inspection, but might be worth a look since its [generally] in your neighborhood. Good luck with your search!

There is/was an 06 X5 stick in Grand Junction at a Subaru? dealer. I had it inspected before I bought mine in Ohio last month. If its still available, it should kick up on Cars.com. It needed some TLC, from the inspection, but might be worth a look since its [generally] in your neighborhood. Good luck with your search!

Add another one to the list I just picked up this pretty clean 2001 5 speed with 125000 for only 6500$. It literally fell into my lap after a deal fell thru on an auto one with more miles but fully loaded. I am totally happier with this purchase and love the stick shift. My other cars are an 2003 gti vr6 6 speed and a 1997 f150 the x fits right in as the new daily driver. This is actually my first post on here too so cheers fellas. I've been looking over sites like this for years biding my time to pick up my x I've been hooked ever since riding in a friends back in college. Looking forward to learning from you all, I've already learned soo much. Not sure if I. Have the hang of posting pictures so hopefully this works!

Rolf made 2 long roadtrips this past year
 

Hi all - just checking in to give you a fun update on Rolf.

Rolf (2006 manual E53, 28K miles, like new, found him in Minnesota) made our two long road trips this year an absolute pleasure - Maryland to Florida (12 hrs) and Maryland to Toronto (9 hrs) - 2 adults, 2 kids, a golden retriever and luggage - and it felt like first class all the way. We overloaded the cigarette plugs with 5 or six things plugged in at once, so I'd bet a blew the fuse - otherwise the trips were uneventful. I average 80mph on trips like those and saw about 21-22mpg as the average.

Rolf has 42K miles on him now, I've only added an aux. audio input and a rear bumper protector (both BMW OEM) but I'm watching eBay for the rear entertainment package (DVD and headrest screens) - I'd add that for the kids if the OEM one popped up for the right price...in case anyone sees a good buy.

I'm thinking of putting snow tires on the stock 17" wheels the car came with and then getting 18-19" type63s or Type177s for performance all season tires - in case anyone has some they'd like to get rid of!

My car's identical twin is on ebay. BMW x5 3 0i RARE 5sp Shade PWR Leather Heated Seats | eBay $12k BIN, 79k mi, Sienna Red Metallic 03 5spd premium.

Congrats, MPughJr on your silver 5 speed. You'll need to pick up the 3m headlight restoration kit [the one you use with a drill, and the only 'consumer' one that works] to fix those faded headlights. The replacement units cost a fortune ....

For those fogged headlights, you don't need one of the kits - all you need is a tube of P21S and a half decent buffer (or the drill attachment buffer ball). P21S is magic - and is also perfect for bird-gunk/tar removal on paint, smears on glass, stubborn stuff on exterior plastics, etc.

P21S® Multi-Surface Finish Restorer- This extraordinary German car polish from P21S will bring back luster and reflective brilliance.

Is anyone here aware of any issues with our oil pumps nuts?? I know that specifically on the e46 with 3.0 m54 's and manual transmissions there has been an ongoing issue of the oil pump nut backing off and causing the engine to rapidly lose oil pressure (in some cases this causes catastrophic bearing / cam wear). From what I understand this is due to a harmonic that the engine develops at or above 6k. It is not super common and I realize that probably most of us here rairly get above 6k. I am just kind of curious as to what the concensus is on this as we share a very similar powertrain.