Considering X5. Opinions appreciated please

[pushthebutton]

Hi all,

I'm going to be doing a fair bit of commuting and I've come to realise that my current car isn't at all practical. So, I decided a few weeks ago to have a crack at bangernomics. I did lots of classifieds research and decided on an 'S' plate 523i. It was fairly cheap at £1500ish and seemed like a great idea. Then I got bored...

So, I've settled on a 2004 onwards X5. I've always fancied a go in a obscenely large 4x4 and so it's time to scratch an itch. I don't want to go above £15k and the car will do between 15-20000 miles per year. The 3.0d seems like the obvious choice, but then there's the 4.4 V8. I'm slowly starting to convince myself that the V8 could be a good idea. I want the car to be fully loaded with comms pack etc.

So, who's owned one? Is the V8 a possibility? I've developed my own pros and cons, but I'd like to hear everyone else's.

Thanks

P