Quote:
Originally Posted by robg
Thanks! I vaguely recall this thread now, but it was fun reading through it again (complete with many posts from TD!). That gen X5 is still my favorite from in terms of looks. There seems to be a consensus that they are problematic but glad to hear that yours has been pretty bulletproof. I think i'd be very content daily driving one of those.
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I think a lot of the 'problematic' comes down to the options you select.
Generally speaking
The v8s are much worse than the i6
Later build I6s are better than earlier
diesel is much worse than gas (emission control stuff)
air suspension / dynamic components can be costly
Ours is a 2013, so the last year of e70 production. N55 versions of those seem to be solid. I'd think a good example of one would be in the high teens now, so you'd have plenty of headroom to budget for maintenance. It is already 7 yrs old, so I don't know if I'd be comfortable counting on it for another 10. But if you were able to get a nice one for $17k, budget ~$3k of maintenance total for 3 - 5 yrs and get $12k for it, that's a pretty inexpensive overall cost of ownership ($166 / month + gas and insurance).
At least that's our plan. Unfortunately we put so many miles (~24k/yr) on it that I don't know if we'll get 3 more years.