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I have been working on acquiring a 2003 BMW X5 for the last few weeks. I went out to see the car and did as thorough a PPI I could do by myself.

Car is with the 3rd owner. It was a CPO car and was bought by a BMW technician and then his friend - the current owner. Car is pretty clean inside out. Owner is a car guy who takes pride in his cars. Car has a new battery as well as Cats (Unfortunately aftermarket). It's also got new tires.

Car has 123K miles on it and it is a Sport Model in all Black. I love the Black interior as well. Owner said it came with tow package, but I don't see anything like that or able to verify it does.

It has a few blemishes. The headlights will need to be restored. I need to clean the Passenger side mirror or check it as it not smooth on Reverse Auto-Dip and sometimes hesitates and stops.

Also, will need to replace the 16:9 Nav Screen as it has burn spots on it - even though it's working fine. I am looking at a little under $8K for the car. Hopefully, that is a decent deal for this. The car passed Smog today - so it seems the deal is on.

The Car itself.

http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/w...ver/2003X5.jpg

Congrats. You still have those E39s?
Clean those headlights asap :)

Yep! Crazy me still has the E39s, but I am planning to sell one. How decent a deal would you consider this car to be at $8K?

$8k is in the right range. Ask about replacement parts: trans, cooling sys, suspension, timing chain guides being the big ones. Pay for an independent PPI. Whatever you find in the PPI, use as leverage in the negotiation.

It really seems that prices on these cars varies from car to car and from region to region. I saw these cars selling between $7K - $12K for similar year for 3.0 to 4.4 models. Also similar mileage. Some with history, some without. I guess they are more popular in California.

The owner has records on the car's history which I will be going over. I doubt the major items were changed like the timing chain guides. Most owners of M62TU don't do it as preventative maintenance. I did check on the car's engine thoroughly and the chains still seem in good shape - of course failure is inevitable with these engines. The car runs like a champ compared to a lot of other ones I saw.

I leveraged as much as I could to this point. Doubt even a dealer documented PPI will impact price. As I said, there were / are a few other examples around that are priced higher - even ones like 2001 3.0 & 4.4 models.

I agree with epdarks.. The price seems right, but the fact of the cats being replaced is somewhat suspicious to me...

Be leery brother!

yeah why cats only replaced? I can understand why if the entire exhaust was replaced, but if it wasn't, that is an odd thing to put aftermarket on.


Car looks good by the one pic, except for the horrendously oxidized headlights. The previous owner actually could drive at night with them like that?

1) Tires are new? The tread in the center looks worn out to me, but if you say they are new I believe you.
2) Passenger mirror autodip is fixable, there is a writeup on here that doesn't cost much at all to fix
3) you can replace 16:9 navigation screen quite easily, I would also upgrade the software version to the newer map display, I think for both should be under 200 bucks. Does it have DVD Navigation (I think 2003 does)
4) If it has towing package you should be able to see the hitch in the rear?

Price seems fair to me.

Thanks! It seemed so to me too based on what I was seeing out here.

Thanks. I wondered about the cats too as they should not be dead at that mileage. I wonder if a shop took advantage of the owner though. I was told that the ICV assembly at the back of the intake started leaking and oil was allowed to get into the Cats and ruin them. That is why they were changed. Is that plausible?

I wonder if a shop might have taken advantage of the owner - he is a car guy but not as knowledgeable on BMWs.