Thoughts on the BMW X5 (E53) facelift

[technicalfoamboy]

Hi

I'm looking at my next project car and I've always liked the look of the orginal X5.

I've not researched too much but has anyone got any real world experiences / thoughts you can share please?

My preference would be facelift (late 2003) 3.0 diesel sport. My max budget will be around £4k with no more than 150k recorded mileage.

Thanks

Edited by technicalfoamboy on Friday 14th January 11:43

[Gooose]

I’ve got an X5 2006 3.0d it’s lovely to be honest but all a bit dated now especially the radio CD player side of things.

Quite easy to work on really, recently did a transfer box actuator which was simple and cheap.

[Output Flange]

I had a 55 plate 3.0d a while ago, and really liked it.

There's plenty to go wrong on them, but they're not ridiculously complicated. Get yourself a good diagnostic scanner (INPA or similar) and you're good to go.

As it shares infotainment with the E39, E38 and E46 there are plenty of upgrade options around.

I seem to remember diff failures being reasonably common.

Overall, I prefered my E53 to the E70 that replaced it. Oh, and make sure you get it remapped - it makes a healthy difference to both grunt and MPG.

[Speed addicted]

I had pre and post facelift E53 X5s, the post facelift being better specced and without the worry of gearbox implosion.

I really liked both of them, they’re about the size of the current X3 so not massive, handle well for what they are and are fairly capable as long as you’re sensible with wheel size and tyres.

As above they’ll have the same issues as the E39 and dated infotainment, but there are a lot of options for stereos etc to get new tech in there.