Facelift 3.0 petrol - buying advice?

[Sit]

Evening all,

Came across this forum after Googling X5 buying advice amd it seems the best place to ask!!!

I have been looking for an X5 for a while now and was initially looking for a facelift 3.0D with around 70k and a good spec so money wise it was looking to be around 13k especially after all the snow we have had!!

Today I have been to a garage who have offered me a 3.0 petrol Sport on am '04 with 72k full history, comms pack, heated seats, privacy, f&r pdc etc etc. It's an SOR car and the customer is looking to settle a finance agreement he has on car and will take sub 10k for it!!! To me this appears a bargain, I only do short journeys around te town so when you consider the difference in outright purchase price, it would take a lot of tanks of petrol to make up 4-5k in my mind!?!

Would like some advice really on peoples thoughts on the petrol and anything I should look at particularly??

Look forward to hearing from you.

Si

[535dboy]

If you don't get any help here try..........

Just kidding

Welcome here too!

[Sit]

Lol!! Evening!

Si

[535dboy]

Ps you've checked this out right

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25

[Sit]

Yeah had a good read of that this eve, particularly interested I whether this prospect is as good a value as I have it in my head, and does it have right options??

Si

[535dboy]

I don't have a lot of experience of E53s so hopefully the others will turn up soon to help, I'm going to shut up now

[CondorX5]

I had a 3.0i facelift sport for about 9 months - highly specced, nice colour, it was a good "little" engine - the engine is pretty much a bombproof tried and tested BMW lump. While mine looked after us last winter and I loved the intro it gave us to X5s, I found myself wistfully checking out 4.8is......and found the one of my dreams as a BMW AUC, so the 3.0i had to go (part-ex-ed it). For the price and the spec, that's good.....but be aware its a heavy car, so the engine works hard and therefore is not particularly frugal - I managed up to 23.9mpg AT BEST, while my 4.8 gives me over 30mpg at times...... Just my 2p worth as an ex-owner of a 3.0i......

[Sit]

Thanks Condor that's very useful information, I will only be using it to drive to and from work really and the wife will use it to ferry our new addition round. I particularly wanted a facelift model and have struggled to find anything comparatively specced and mileage for sub 11k.

I would love a 4.8 just for the noise! How do you find the mpg compares on an urban type journey?

I am very tempted but want to make sure I make an informed decision, taking my wife to have a look tomorrow.

Si

[CondorX5]

I do a lot of long jouneys...luckily, as the 4.8 isn't too keen on messing about in yucky town centres and I'm terrified to park her in places where she is "fair game" to urban yobs who like nothing more than to key a beautiful performance car.... Occasionally use it to shopping centres and the like, esp over Xmas just past, and the mpg drops a fair bit in stop-start traffic, around 21mpg is the worst its gone; towing a very heavy trailer on long runs I was getting around 22-24mpg which I thought was really good for such a big engine. But its at its most sublime on long motorway/ A road runs - makes travelling a pleasure !! The 4.8 noise is very special......

I do think the 3.0i is a cracking car - underrated in the UK but very very popular in the US. Engine maintenance much more straightforward than the diesels and the V8s, perhaps not quite so exciting as the V8, but that comes at a cost as the biggies can be incredibly expensive to repair when things go wrong. The transmission in the 3.0i has its problems and early facelifts did have issues - there are lots of threads on xoutpost.com, the US forum, about this and lots of info on the 3.0i as its so popular there (they don't do diesel). Very well specced ones in good condition not that easy to find - mine was one of them, had the upgraded sound system, tow pack comms etc etc. - so if you do find one, esp under £10K, it is very tempting......

Its a very safe, decent family car especially if you have a little one to ferry around but no BMW is a cheapie to maintain, run and look after......especially when you consider that they were never "cheap" cars to buy when new either. I absolutely love driving my X - before the 4.8, I did enjoy the 3.0i on the open road, it can move it quite well, but having driven V8s for years, I really missed mine and probably went into midlife crisis so went for the 4.8 - you only live once !!!! Whatever you decide, good luck and hope you make the move to an X sometime, the drive is a great experience!!!

[Sit]

Condor thats very useful, just doing a quick search on Autotrader to see what sort of V8 similar money will buy. I will take a browse on xoutpost as it is an early facelift i think being on an '04?!?

Oh what to do!!! Well will see what my wife thinks tomorrow and go from there i think, it seems well specced and at the price offered i reckon i could run it for 12 months and not loose money on it.

Si

[CondorX5]

Mine was an early facelift....one of the very first, actually specced as a dealer principals car. It had the transmission "lag from cold start" problem, which I found very disconcerting - on a cold start it would reverse no problem, but just rev and go nowhere in drive until you moved the gear stick from Sport to normal and back.....its a well known issue that prompted transmission replacements in the US and a typical snotty "go away theres no problem" in the UK..... BMW did update the software and it improved a bit, but even with a Warranty Direct warranty, I was a little worried about a transmission failure......the cause was said to be a leak in the transmission itself, so that pressure was lost when cold and had to build up around the internal seal again and eventually lead to early failure (sub 50K miles). To protect yourself, one of the things I would always look for with any used X5, is a decent warranty. BMW AUC is best, but then you pay a premium for the car from a BMW dealer, and Warranty Direct seem to generally do the business ok judging from comments here. You could phone BMW UK or a dealership and ask about any work done on the car in the past, just to put your mind at rest while you are deciding. For me, the V8 was a great move, not without problems - popped the oil cooller on Xmas weekend, but the BMW Warranty and Emergency were excellent and I had it back within two days of being collected, not a penny to pay. I've also had the Bluetooth module replaced under warranty, PDC sensor replaced and a load of other little things were done via agreement with Hexagon (selling dealer) and the local dealer as they were not covered under the warranty, but Hexagon accepted they should have been spotted and repaired before selling. Hexagon always have some very well specced 4.8is and other V8s for sale - worth looking at- but always premium prices. As with lots of things though, I think you get what you pay for - the peace of mind with the BMW Warranty has been crucial to me and played a big factor in my making the decision to buy from a BMW dealer. Do yourself the favour of looking at a V8 and perhaps having a test drive, even if its just to compare before you make the final decision. Don't think you'll get a low mileage, highly specced one for that sort of price though........ maybe an older 4.4 or 4.6??

[petert]

I had a 3.0i 54 plate facelift and very much enjoyed it. I was realistic in my expectations of performance and economy and other than the occasional battery discharge it never let me down (battery discharge was usually down to me forgetting to turn off internal lights when fiddling abouyt in it). We used to get an indiacated 21 mpg around town on very short journeys, best I ever got was about 27 on the motorway sat at a steady 75 indicated on the cruise control.

Peter T

[jas328sport]

I owned my 53 plate facelift 3.0i for 13 months and loved it, very underated and was quick enough for me. Never gave me any trouble and the gearbox worked perfectly and never gave me any cause to worry.
Fuel consumption was a problem and was the main reason for its sale apart from my yearning to be in a hot hatch again, best I ever got on a run was 24mpg and because we used to do lots of short journeys it was always averaging around 16mpg and I never ever drove it hard either so they are expensive but we do miss it and if I were in a position to buy another then it would definitely be a 3.0 again as it is a decent engine that doesn't have the potential repair bills of the bigger ones, the 3.0 has been around for years and in plenty of models so a used engine would be easy to find if anything major did go wrong.

[Turks]

You won't get a well specc'd diesel in a facelift for that money so it is well worth looking at the petrol models. 3.0i is a capable car and as others have said, it has the tried and tested BMW straight 6 under the bonnet which makes servicing and maintenance a little easier. But as above, don't discount the larger V8's either.. mpg won't be much different and they tend to be well specc'd cars too. People buying a 4.4, 4.6 or 4.8 from new must have some cash behind them so a few options didn't really hurt them! That is the reason I went for the 4.8is, really high spec and cheaper than the lower specc'd diesels of a similar age and mileage.


Turks.

[Sit]

Cheers Turks - I am thinking of going for this one and running round in it for a year, if all goes well will look to change into a V8 next year perhaps.

Taking my wife out to look this afternoon and also have a closer look at some bits and pieces.

Where would I find the amplifier odor has updated audio fitted?

Sat nav hu says 'television' on it, when you press button it just shows a snowy picture - does this need to be activated or something?

Did all X5 come from the factory wit tow bar receptacle and it was down to original purchaser whether they specced the attachment? How can I tell odors prepped for tow bar?

Cheers

Si