Drove a 2006 3.0i today
 

My wife has been bugging me for an E70, but found an E53 in the Chiagoland area for me to check out. White with tan interior.
It drove well and the body was in great shape, but radio pixels were out and oil was on the stiffening pan - an oil filter housing gasket would likely have been in my future. No way to tell if the CCV had problems or not.
$14,400, 100K miles. A few other trim pieces were missing - ashtray doors, cargo net anchor covers - but nothing serious. Funny, though, the power recline rear seats only worked from the cargo switched, not the c-pillar switches next to the seat.
It would probably need to be in the $12K range for me to be interested.

Pixel fix is 100 bucks by any of the pros on eBay.

CCV and OFHG are both DIY jobs you can do in a weekend if you are handy, 4 dollar part for OFHG and 150 in parts for CCV (cold weather)

Sounds like some other small things wrong but yes at that mileage there are original components that need to be addressed as far as age and mileage for repair so you're right the price prob needs to come down a bit. Unless there are records showing quite a bit of preventative maintenance

You may already know this but If the window lock button is pressed the rear seats won't recline with the c-pillar switch.

I paid $11,300 for my 2006 3.0i 6sp MT with 115K miles in June this year.

1. Oil was on the stiffening pan: yes replace the OFH gasket, a $6 item at dealer. I wrote DIY for 1998 528i, almost same procedure for E53. Ignore the "freeze plugs" issue which was unique to 1997 and 1998 528i:

1998 528I Oil Filter Housing Gasket & “Freeze Plugs” Repair (E39) - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

2. Pixel issue is easy fix, just re-position the ribbon and wedge it properly.
Info in bimmerfest E39 forum. This is a free fix if you are handy.

Could you post a link for the pixel fix please?:)

No offense to E53 crowd, but there are way more E39s around, so there are more DIYs.

Radio Pixel thingy:

Eric, I fixed your MID from Peter. Writeup of E38 MID repair

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKYk0zWSse4

IMHO the price is too high for the mileage and all of the nitnoid problems it seems to have. You said it has nothing serious, you'll be amazed at how quickly and often stuff pops up on these things. Just spend some time and read some threads here on the site. If you're buying this for your wife I wouldn't get her an almost 15 year old car that's sure to have problems down the road, you'll be hating life, remember, happy wife happy life! :thumbup:

how is a 2006 x5 almost 15 years old?unless you live in the future, a 2006 x5 is exactly 8 year old.

That price was bit steep with those obvious defects. CN90 got a good deal on his, and obviously has the skills to get it up to snuff. 06s, especially with manual transmissions, are well worth looking for. Love mine!

Don't pay more than 12k for that car