Scotty im looking at a 190k mile 2006 BMW X5 3.0i AWD 4dr. Its 4500$. Im tired of walking everywhere in town with my cane and this came my way. Is it worth it? Outside is very clean and inside looks mildly lived in. Vin 5UXFA13506LY45991. Dealer. {black}:excitement:
I hate to break it to you, but there will most likely be a ton of maintenance items and repairs at that mileage. Basically a money pit. I owned a 2007 BMW with high mileage, and I was fixing something all the time. And it wasn’t cheap.
Buying a 17-year-old BMW X5 is the fast-track to being financially crippled. Added to that, being sold by a dealer is a big red flag right off the bat. I'd run away screaming from that deal.
Welcome new member,
@kaizen and @chucktobias are right. Very likely it will need a lot more invested to make it a reliable car. When you buy a used car, you always have to ask yourself why the previous owner is getting rid of it. At that miles, I guarantee you something very expensive is broken or about to be. BMW is notorious for being expensive to fix and not DIY friendly.
Scotty is well known for recommending Toyota and Honda, and recommending against the European luxury brands [every time he says "endless money pit", an image of a Mercedes or sometimes BMW appears over his left shoulder]. That sentiment is repeated here as well.
Or to crib from another prominent YouTube channel, on the TFL scale of "Buy it, lease it, rent it, or forget it", BMWs top out at "lease it". Under no circumstances should you buy one that old if you are going to depend on it.
