35d makes 2011 list of "Best Resale Value" vehicles
 

Best Resale Value: Large and Midsize Crossovers

2011 Best New Car Resale Values - MSN Autos

Makes me feel good about what my '09 35d will be worth in a few years.

Yeah, I remember someone starting a thread a year or so ago speculating that the Diesels would have poor resale value.

My experience with my diesel '04 Passat TDI was the same, last I looked it was still worth around 35% of what I originally paid, 7 years later with 95k miles on it. No surprise to me at all that the 35d would have a similar outcome.

makes me wonder if I should pay off the lease and keep the car... At the rate I am using my miles, I am going to be over 50K miles before lease end, might as well keep the car until 100K miles, and trade-it in for a 2nd year of the next generation X5 (model year 2015-2016)

Awesome! Great for trading in too!! :)

Consumer Report 35d Not Recommended
 

One source has the 35d best resale value. Latest CR Auto Review has it listed a "not recommended" vehicle. Probably based on 2009 model reliability I'd say.

It's interesting that BMW uses a lower residual rate on the 35d vs. the 35i for their lease terms.

I heard from my salesperson that a lower residual rate and higher money factor on the 35d are meant to compensate for the eco-credit.

I think it's awesome all the way around! I filled up today after 475 miles on a tank in 10 days. Couldn't do that with a 35 or 50i.
alex, I was thinking the same thing, pay-off the car, but the extended warranty to 100k and keep to at least 2015 or at least 1 year after the next gen comes out. Right now, my lease end coincides with the next gen coming out, end 2013-early 2014. Hate to get a first year of anything.

I would take anything published by MSN Autos with a bowling ball sized grain of salt.

The car that my X5d replaced was rated in MSN Auto's bottom 10 for resale not long ago. I paid MSRP, and sold it last month for 57.2% of that amount just under 3 years later; a higher percentage than 4 of the 11 cars in the subject article.

Predicting resale is guesswork at best. I figure they factored in continued increases in the price of gasoline and started leaning towards 'alternate' fuel vehicles. Not sure how the EVs and hybrids did.

From a personal viewpoint, I will say that I had never considered an alternative fuel until buying my X5D. I recall the diesels of the 70s and 80s. The whole electric and hybrid thing seems to me to be a shell game, hiding one type of environmental cost under the benefit of another.

If the German marques can maintain their diesel leadership here in the US (Europe is a moot point, or should I say a Won Game, with diesels appearing set to become a majority of vehicles on the road) and persuade more buyers to enter the fold, then this can take off rather suddenly, with diesels becoming true premium vehicles. Oil prices and consumer attitudes will make all the difference.