XSeries-forum

I understand the OP's take on things.

A cat D that is really just a bit of panel & has no structural or mechanical damage can be a good buy if ur keeping it a while and resale is not too much of a concern.

Prices have been falling slightly, but remember its coming into winter and people start getting twitchy, dealers indy or otherwise know this. It is a face lift, OP doesn't say what spec is like, and that can easily influence price by 1k even on this age of car.

Depending on what OP wants, can and would do themselves to the car helps them to put their value on it. Get it cheap & fix it up over time vrs paying to get it done for them ??

I've been here before myself and tended to go down the DIY route to save on costs, but deep down always wanting something better, I suppose its in the human nature

Not seeing the car in the flesh, driving it yourself, checking history etc, makes it harder as well to furnish OP with values. But I'll throw in my 2p worth.
@ 121K
A1 unmolested example (not this one ) £8500-10,000k (Depends on spec)
This one fixed (& done right) £7250 max
This one as it is £5500 - £6250 (top price if all else, ie spec, driving, history...ok)

A face lift X5 is still some machine and easily beats some newer cars in its relative price bracket. Though if ur not in a hurry, it pays to shop around.

There is no right and wrong answer & only OP can make the decision that suits them, hope my 2p advice helps

i would totally disagree as ive come accross so many damaged repaired (non recorded) and clocked cars that are highly priced lemons, at least high miles, cat d or cat c are honest from the start, if you can get them a chunk cheaper at the start and you sell them a chunk cheaper 3 years later, also worth bearing in mind that the older and cheaper they become the less people start to bother with fbmwsh or cat d etc, mine isnt a cat c/d but i wouldnt hesitate in buying one, as dirtymonkey says his x5 was 13k which makes that cat d fully repaired 5k cheaper!!!, so when he wanks 8k in 3 years you only need 3k which you would easily get and more!!

If you want a straight facelift 3.0D then I might be selling mine soon depending on whether the wife lands her company car?

53 plate, black, £12k worth of options, 112k, FSH etc......

Well, I went down to see the car again today...and ended up buying it!

I popped over to my brothers work (Subaru & used car dealership) first thing this morning who are selling a Silver 2006 X5 SE 3.0D with 50k for £18,000 (with no intention of buying it), apart from the wheels, SE interior and SE alloys, it looked exactly the same as the CAT D one. I had a nose around and came to the conclusion that there was not an £11,000 difference between this 2006 SE and the 2004 Sport I had driven the day before.

All last night I scoured the net for a similar age/spec/mileage car to the CAT D one, and each example I saw was at least £9500 for a base spec model with most of them way over £10k. And as mentioned above, some cars that were £7000 a few weeks ago are now up at considerably more than that now, presumably due to the harsh weather the last couple of weeks

I called my insurance co and they verified that they are happy to insure the car, the premium isn't affected either, but confirmed that in the event of a total loss; they will only pay out the value of a 'CAT D' X5 at the time, which is fair enough. I was told that if this did happen, I would need to find some CAT D comparables to prove the market value of the car at that time.

This time I saw the car, I took a mate with me who specializes in body repair as well as my brother who is a mechanic at Subaru. I had pre-warned them both that the damage was pretty bad and shown them the pics, but as soon as they saw the car, they were both surprisingly optimistic about it, and even in my own head I had pictured it a lot worse than it actually is.The photos I took yesterday were all 'extreme close ups' of the damage and actually looked a lot worse in those pics than it does in the flesh!

My brother bought along his diagnostic equipment and plugged in into the car to have a nose at what's being going on. I was happy to see no fault codes and that the airbags had never been deployed. I was also happy to discover it has full BMW service history up to 110k.

After some tough haggling we reached a price that we were both happy with (after me actually walking out of the dealership saying "i'll leave it then" and being called back for some further negotiation )

I won't reveal the price I paid on here since I will be selling it again one day, but compared to the Pre-facelift Blue 2002 110K base spec SE model I posted the link to on here a few weeks ago that was the same price, i'm pleased with the deal and feel I've got a much better car for the same money, even if it is a CAT D

The two front tyres are also ok, but I do need a couple of rears, so that will be my job tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the project of fixing her up and will certainly post some pics of the progress

Thanks for all your help and advice chaps, i'm, now part of the fold

[quote=""n1k85""]Well, I went down to see the car again today...and ended up buying it!
[/quote]

Well done

I had a sneaky feeling you might go back and do a deal, walking away obviously helped. Garages are there to make money and they prob still made a wee turn on it, but kudos to you if u got it at a price u are happy with. I'm sure with the technical help of ur bro & mates it'll be a nice car for you.

Remember the pics

& go on, tell us the price, we all love a bargin

like somebody said as least you know the car at its worst state, no hidden surprises......the only way is up now and at least you know the repair will be done to a good standard.

Regardless of anyone's opinion including my own, congrats on your purchase and welcome to the club lol. Your deffo braver than me and I hope you get your monies worth without any hidden nasties. Does it have the nav/tv screen? I know you mentioned knackered pixels. A member on here has a full nav set up after his upgrade if your in need. Kkodal is the fella.

[quote=""n1k85""]Well, I went down to see the car again today...and ended up buying it!

I popped over to my brothers work (Subaru & used car dealership) first thing this morning who are selling a Silver 2006 X5 SE 3.0D with 50k for £18,000 (with no intention of buying it), apart from the wheels, SE interior and SE alloys, it looked exactly the same as the CAT D one. I had a nose around and came to the conclusion that there was not an £11,000 difference between this 2006 SE and the 2004 Sport I had driven the day before.
[/quote]
Firstly, big congrats and welcome to the club. I sense you got good value in your purchase. Time will tell, but welcome to the club!

Going slightly off topic. I may have read this wrongly, but you seem to be implying with the SE comparison that the SE is better specced than the Sport? To be clear, the reverse is true. In 2006 the Sport was ~£2k more expensive than the SE (£39k vs £37k respectively). Specifically re. the items you mention, the SE came with 17" wheels (vs 19" for the Sport, but "your" car appears to have 20" - even better! Were these standard [a £1,210 option!] or added later?).
Further, The Sport has a sports steering wheel, sports seats (electric adjustment, with electric steering wheel adjustment (again I believe SE was manual for both)), sports suspension, Black high gloss exterior, colour coded door handles and Anthracite headlining, over the SE.

Anyway, tell us a bit more about your spec. and options - maybe contact BMW for the factory spec. if you dont have the docs? [there is a premium number - probably on here if you search].

Incidentally, I am pleased to hear prices are holding firm of late (or even rising at this time of year), but £18k for that 2006 3.0D SE seems relatively high IMHO.

Once again, good luck and welcome aboard!
Brewer