Quote:
Originally Posted by equ
I've driven a 1st gen x5 manual 3.0 once. It was terrible, 1st gear nearly unusable, the whole thing an afterthought (Sarafil indicated as much in advance).
I've driven an x3 of that vintage with a manual. Also really quite bad. Ride/handling far from resolved; not saved by the manual.
The only good manual SUV I've driven is the 2011+ Cayenne, that was quite ok. The particular car wasn't right for a few reasons, but it was a good machine.
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Yea, the X5 manual was an unusually bad driving experience. 1st gear was basically a granny gear so you’d realistically start out in 2nd. The rest of the gearing was a mess too. Fine for a large truck I guess, but not what you expect for a luxury SUV.
The manual X3 isn’t as memorable to me, so I guess that means it was just “meh”. Not bad but also not very exciting. The 1st gen X3 had a lot of shortcomings in general too. My parents had a first year (2004 - when they had the grey plastic bumpers - ugly but it was a REALLY cheap lease deal so they didn’t care) and a later 2009 model that had some of the LCI upgrades but still felt cheap. The 2nd gen X3 was a massive upgrade in fit & finish. Current gen took it up another level.
Not sure what the incentives are for a new X3 these days, but figure a nice “new” X3 M40 is low-60’s and a good deal on a new BMW is 10-11% off MSRP before rebates. On a purchase you’d probably get $1000-2000 APR credit if you finance and maybe $500 or $1000 loyalty. Plus $500 BMW CCA if you’re a member. So call it $52-53k range + tax.
Compare that to the 3 year old 2017 X3 35i at $30-32k CPO.
If going for new, I’d personally lease - shoot for payment in the 1% range w/ good incentives and if you look at numbers above you’ll see total cost of lease is in same ballpark as the delta between buying new vs. CPO. And you get the benefit of not tying up the $$ for 3 years, ability to walk away if it’s a problem, or can buyout at end if you like it.
I do feel like we’re coming full circle though as I recall talking about this before. 😄