BMW X5 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?

[LGriffiths88]

Yeah. Daft as it sounds. I'm not fussed on Mpg. My work commute is 3 miles at the moment. Then we will have the odd trip to family in Manchester and Ireland.

I do like the XC90. The Q7 seems dearer than similar aged BMW.

I was looking at the zafira well Mrs was.... But I'm not sold on them. At all. Haha

[LGriffiths88]

keith333 said:

I have a 62 plate X5 3.0 M Sport. Ride is firm, but I like that and the performance is fantastic. Over 45,000 miles I have consistently averaged 28-30mpg.

Tyres are expensive £220 for fronts, £280 rears and a set does around 22-23,000 miles.

Maintenance hasn't cost too much yet, but as it gets older I expect the bills will mount. I decided not to renew the BMW warranty as I feel that they inflate repair prices to make the warranties look good value.

I think its a reliable, great looking and performing car.

I'm quite used to firm rides. Had a 04 z4 on run flats for a while. Don't mind that ride all that much. I won't be doing many miles a year id imagine in it. But need that extra row.

I'm.

[LGriffiths88]

bmw320ci said:

just throwing this barge into the mix

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

R Class Merc 4wd 7 seater 33,811 miles £10k bargin with the badge

I have looked at them. Saw the 2+2+2 variant. Very different. A lot of car too. Not a very common car either.

[LGriffiths88]

How are the higher miles q7's. Looking at them, they are a lot more expensive than the x5 whilst having more miles.

Is the x5 and q7 all wheel drive?

Do they still do the e class in 7 seats? I thought it was the early 2000s model that had that option

[LGriffiths88]

Daft question

Are all x5's 4 wheel drive. Or is it just the xdrive that have 4 by 4

[LGriffiths88]

dave_s13 said:

All X5s are 4wd.

I'd be interested to know what you chaps end up getting and how it pans out as I'm also looking at the same sort of stuff.

List so far, in order of preference:-

1. Merc E350 CDI (with 7 seat option)
2. Audi A6 3.0tdi quattro (no 7 seat option but might squeeze em in)
3. Audi Q7
4. BMW X5 (@with 7 seat option)
5. Volvo XC90

I really don't want an SUV, I'd rather have an estate, hence the merc is top of my list at the moment. I also don't want an MPV,/people carrier. I want something that drives nicely.The main hurdle is finding the right car, with the right spec, with the right cost to change.

I don't know why car manufacturers can't offer versions with 3 proper seats in the middle row. There must be many thousands of 3 kid family's that are restricted to what they can get based on the usually compromised middle seat. An no, don't link to one of those multimac bags of ste....I don't like them

I was looking at the mercrdes. But when having the rear seats up you lose a lot of boot space as the seats are bench ones unlike those in the x5 q7 and XC90.

XC90 was near the top of my list. But the power output on them just seems weak compared to the x5 and q7.

Q7 for me is nice. But much prefer the styling of the BMW. So that's edging if for me at the moment. Plus the split tailgate is neat. No idea if the q7 or XC90 have it.

Going to look at a x5 this weekend hopefully. Not one I want but it's a 7 seater. So can get an idea.

[LGriffiths88]

Gonna go look at a x5 7 seater tomorrow. It's a LCI model so not within my budget. But just wondering is the interior the same.

Reason I ask is that I need to see if my son can get into the back of it okay and how the middle row of seats move forward. Are the individual or 60/40 split.

[LGriffiths88]

Went to look at an x5 7 seater yesterday. Wasn't in the best of conditions and the garage was wanting 16k for it. It was a 10 plate m sport 3.5d.

Inside wasn't cleaned at all and there were little chunks out of the door cards missing. Sat nav screen was scratched to pieces. Rear nearside light was in awful condition.

One positive it did give me an idea of now the 7 seats are. There seemed to be plenty of space between drivers seats and middle row and then in the rear most seats I was ok. Like mentioned, Ideal for kids.

Mrs keeps saying it will be hard to get rear access to the back due to having a high back booster on one side. And the seatbelt going with it when moving it up. But surely all cars with a 3rd row are the same?

Guess onto looking for a better priced one.
Is it possible to upgrade the idrive to the LCI software?

Any other must haves for the car?

[LGriffiths88]

IIIRestorerIII said:

I own an X5 but a few of my friends (one even an ex-car trader) have gone for the Q7 as a 7 seater over the X5. I think there's still a decent amount of space to store luggage with all 7 seats up.

As mentioned above though, I find the Q7 are very spec sensitive in the looks department.

Edited by IIIRestorerIII on Thursday 6th July 11:33

yeah from the pictures I've seen the Q7 does seem to have the bigger boot with all seats up. they do seem to be the more expensive too .