Aside from the PPI, why not just ask to see the car on a lift before you buy it. If the OP is capable of replacing the cooler, surely he would recognize a leak and use it as a negotiating point ( or information that results in walking away) before you even have a PPI done.

It amazes me the number of buyers who don't ask to see the underside of the car as well as the car itself.

Let me make this clear .... I WAS STUPID ... I WAS GAMBLING.

I flew in looked at the car for 3 minutes and drove to a AAA to do the title transfer signing. I gambled and got what I got. I really couldn't schedule airfare and rooms in Yosemite, and have the seller hold it for weeks.

if the car very obiviousy had a problem as I drove it and looked at it under the hood the option was to rent a car to Yosemite and arrange airfare back to Austin. I do have the semi-free airfare miles on my credit card to burn.

Here is what I would tell someone ... if you want to be sure it has no problems you will need to find the deal very near to you and then you will need to try and arrange an inspection with the seller. Likely you may need to pay for inspections several times on several cars for said inspection if you seek no significant issues! These cars leak a big leak is a problem to avoid. Having to pay BMW service to fix anything significant is expensive.

OK now the good news and part of the reason I was willing to gamble .... I personally with my tools and brains ... can fix the leaks ... and actually can do a lot. What I am happy I do not have is broken parts like valve train or worse ... of course it wouldn't run for **** with broken parts. MY plan is to do all the service on this car, except in the rare case I can't do it, and then give it likely to a highly rated INDY nearby do the work. This way I should be able to have an X5 which does not cost much going forward and I also will know what it's mechanical state is! FYI not impressed by BMWs world class stuff. BMWs interest seems to primarily be to get the money, not to reduce the cost of ownership. To reduce the cost of ownership I will do a full inspection do full fluid services, and look for anything that should be replaced before it causes more costly damage.

You keep saying BMW this and BMW that. You do realize that BMW had no part in this transaction, right? Even if you bought it at a BMW dealer, BMW made no money on it. The car has no warranty, it was AS IS. So it is not like the BMW dealer inspected it and put a BMW warranty on it; in that case BMW did make money.

So, for all of us here, can you show us where BMW made money on this? The BMW dealer might have made money on the inspection though. That was the extent of their involvement. For all you know, you didn't get a copy of the actual inspection report.

If you want to gamble; you have Las Vegas if you want to head west. Out east you have Atlantic City. Closer to you, you have Shreveport or Eagle Pass or even just across the border in Oklahoma. There are plenty of Native American casinos around as well.

Buying a car without a warranty is a gamble.
Buying a user car without a warranty is a bigger gamble.
Life has it's gambles.
WE marry and that is a gamble.
We take a job it is a gamble.
We buy cars they are gambles.

So yep I gambled and actually it is turning out fine .... some drips and normal service items to do. Given my labor is free it isn't very expensive.

I would love to hear how many hear have bought a car a thousand miles away and paid for an inspection on it before they had bought it.

Bought my 996TT in Madison Wisconsin in 2007. Had a PPI done, based on the results they reduced the price to cover $700 in items. PPI cost $300. I basically took the CPO checklist and added a DME dump for over revs and paint meter.

I flew in 4 days later... left CA on an afternoon flight- slept at the airport in Madison, I was picked up the next day. Looked it over, test drove, bought it, drove to DMV, got a temp permit for $17- had lunch, drove it for 3 hours, then met a car carrier who loaded it. I flew home. Three days later the car carrier was in California.

I will grant you two points- it was a lot more than an X5, and it was a private seller.

On several forums, (M5 and Porsche), I will regularly see people asking (1) can anyone do a drive-by for me?, and (2) can anyone recommend a PPI shop?

I just went through this last summer. I arranged and paid for multiple PPIs before I booked any plane tickets to actually go see the car I was intending on purchasing. I ended up not buying them due to the results of the PPI.