E70 Buying advice

[LGriffiths88]

evening all.

looking to buy an e70 to shuttle myself the wife and 3 kids around. the prices of the x5 seem to of dropped. i'm after the 7 seat variant. it will be doing the odd trip to ireland to see family.

got a budget of around £10k. so gonna be looking at the high milage options. around the 2007-2008 age seems to be within my budget.

is there enough room to be able to slide the middle row of seats forward whilst still having a forward facing connected? or with isofix seat attached

looking round, the amount i'd have to pay on road tax varies from £300 odd to £500. this leaves me a bit confused... i could understand if it were cheaper for later models, but the variance seems to come from cars of similar age and engine size.

any watch outs for the cars? should I consider any other car for similar price? always liked the e60 touring in m sport... but not sure if i could fit 3 kids (12 year old, 2 year old in a forward facing seat and 6 month in rear facing).

how many is too many miles for the diesels?

Edited by LGriffiths88 on Monday 26th June 20:47

[thegreatdogwood]

LGriffiths88 said:

evening all.

looking to buy an e70 to shuttle myself the wife and 3 kids around. the prices of the x5 seem to of dropped. i'm after the 7 seat variant. it will be doing the odd trip to ireland to see family.

got a budget of around £10k. so gonna be looking at the high milage options. around the 2007-2008 age seems to be within my budget.

is there enough room to be able to slide the middle row of seats forward whilst still having a forward facing connected? or with isofix seat attached

looking round, the amount i'd have to pay on road tax varies from £300 odd to £500. this leaves me a bit confused... i could understand if it were cheaper for later models, but the variance seems to come from cars of similar age and engine size.

any watch outs for the cars? should I consider any other car for similar price? always liked the e60 touring in m sport... but not sure if i could fit 3 kids (12 year old, 2 year old in a forward facing seat and 6 month in rear facing).

how many is too many miles for the diesels?

Edited by LGriffiths88 on Monday 26th June 20:47

I can help here as have run my 2008 SD for the last 7 years and am up to 152k miles of which I have done 130k

Basic maintenance is OK value but parts are expensive on these so finding one that has been properly maintained is key. Some things to look for;

Stone chips - the side of the car is barrel shaped and the wide wheels throw stones at the bottom half of the doors and especially around the rear wheel arch. Some cars can be badly chipped if you look carefully

Rear lights - the seals were badly designed and are £300 each to change. The tell tale sign is water inside the lense

Rear suspension - I have had the complete rear air suspension changed on mine. Air bags, compressor and wiring loom. The air bags are a known weak spot and this is a very expensive job

Tyres - always wears on outside on fronts and inside on rears because of steering geometry. Check the rears carefully as the inside edge is hard to see and can be down to cord whilst the outside edge makes it look less than half worn. Also be aware that geometry changes are expensive

Calipers - are prone to seizing with age. Feel the temperature of the alloy after a test drive to sense if they are sticking and obviously check disc for wear and scoring

Servicing - you get a lot of smaller services on an E70 than some other cars (oil, inspection, brake fluid) so check what is needed and when. Brakes are based on countdown system by mileage and whilst the IDrive may say there are only a few thousand miles left to needing work, they might be barely worn if you do motorway journeys and don't use the brakes as much per mile as say town driving

Alloys - as per most BMW's, they start to corrode around the centre hubs first. Also had the odd cracking problem. Check tyres are fully matched and similar tread depth or these are prone to transmission wind up which can be expensive to fix

In my case I still run the car under full BMW extended warranty which is super rare for age / mileage but again would be a good indicator for a buyer that it has been maintained fully. I'm still on original engine and turbos and pulls like a train, so buy on condition / service history not mileage. It's been a good car for me, just be aware of the list above and that most of these items occurred beyond 100k miles, so finding one that is fully "sorted" could save you a lot

Hope this helps