BMW touts its merchandise as “Final Driving Machines,” and right now’s Good Value or No Cube X5 has definitely performed quite a lot of driving. Let’s see if its worth drives a tough cut price.
The 1977 Chevy Malibu we checked out yesterday was dressed within the livery of a Bobby Allison NASCAR racer. As properly performed because it was, that look actually doesn’t have a lot significance or attraction exterior of Bobby’s house turf of the South. A $11,999 price ticket proved even much less interesting, pushing the Malibu to the restrict with an enormous 96 p.c No Cube loss.
I discovered a statistic on-line claiming that lower than one p.c of all offered automobiles will finally make it to 200,000 miles, with an much more minuscule .03 p.c managing to soldier on to 300K. These stats got here from the web site for Kiss 95.1 FM, an grownup modern radio station serving the Charlotte, North Carolina space, and have been unsubstantiated, so take that with a grain of NaCl.
In accordance with the article’s creator, the highest 5 automobiles more than likely to hit that magic 300K marker are all vans, with the record made up of the Toyota Tundra and 4Runner, GMC’s Yukon, its sister, the Chevy Suburban, and Ford’s Expedition. Nowhere on the record is any type of BMW sport utility talked about, and but, in line with its advert, the 2001 BMW X5 that we now have the pleasure of assembly right now rocks a stable 296,750 miles on the clock.
Why would anybody drive any automobile that far? Effectively, this X5 occurs to be the uncommon beast that has been optioned with the driveline combo of BMW’s silky clean 228 horsepower M54 3.0 liter straight six mated to a ZF-sourced five-speed guide transmission. Naturally, that combo feeds all 4 wheels, because the X5 was designed by BMW after the corporate acquired into such issues following its buy of Land Rover.
Amazingly, the heady miles don’t appear to indicate on this SUV in any really noticeable means. The bodywork is straight, the black paint moderately clear and glossy, and the headlamp lenses are free of serious yellowing. Even the Fashion 69 wheels, which look to be unique, present no considerable put on for thus a few years and so nice a distance travelled.
It’s a lot the identical story within the cabin. The leather-based upholstery seems to have held up surprisingly properly, as have the plastics and the smattering of burlwood trim. The one jarring observe in right here is the oddly giant and weirdly formed boot for the five-speed stick. That appears like a bat that has mistaken a plate glass window for a cave entrance.
By all appearances, it might all stand a superb cleansing, and there are items of tape caught randomly to the sprint, more likely to safe an influence twine for a radar detector or one thing. Apart from these minor points, it seems like a pleasant place to name house whereas piling on the miles.
The advert additionally claims the X5 to be mechanically sound, boasting that it “runs and drives nice.” One other perk is what’s described as an “Up to date OEM Navigation” system. Sadly, no different info is supplied. There’s no upkeep historical past, Carfax information, or perhaps a Magic 8 Ball “Ask Once more Later” to placate us with some sense of the automobile’s present state. At the least we’re advised that the title is clear.
Maybe to make up for the brevity of the advert and the contrastingly extreme studying on the odometer, the vendor has set a $2,950 asking for the automobile. That’s pocket change within the current day and age—or apparently a few Huge Mac Meal Offers, from what I’ve heard. Would it not, nonetheless, make for a clever funding on this X5, all issues thought-about?
What do you assume? Is $2,950 a sufficiently small ask to roll the cube on a reasonably uncommon row-yer-own BMW SUV? Or do the miles and the shortage of information within the advert make even that paltry quantity appear a dangerous transfer?
You determine!
New Hampshire Craigslist, or go right here if the advert disappears.
H/T to Invoice Rice for the hookup!
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