ChrisThomas
Senior Member
So I am in SA for 6 months of the year on and off, for now. I am looking for a car while I am here, I am not super fussy but I don't want a bread box. I have never had an SUV and thought what better time to try one out.
I very impulsively went to buy an X5 yesterday. It was a 2011 with 250k on the clock, 3.0 diesel and the dekra report was super clean, just a couple oil leaks which hey it's a BMW that's par for the course... It looked mint, and was on really expensive Pirelli's which to me was a good sign that someone hadn't cheapskated their way through ownership. Full service history too. However someone else obviously knew it was a good deal too, because they got there 2 minutes before me and bought it in front of me lol. (Was it fate?)
I am not under the common illusion most people seem to be that cars are not money pits, I also don't expect 100% reliability, that's life, cars go bang - especially when they are this age.
So what I wanted was anyone else's experience with these, I assume consumables will be mortgage expensive, like tyres and brakes and that, I assume it will average around 11l / 100km and not be super cheap on insurance either.
What should I look out for besides the usual? I usually, on BMWs or diesels in general, check for vaccuum on the oil cap, check for smoke on startup, oil mayonnaise etc... I am not afraid of high mileage usually, especially if they were highway miles, I have had more problems with all my "low mileage" purchases and have known a few very high mileage BMWs to be completely reliable (touches wood)
Anyways, rambling over, am I being dim, is there a better alternative for the money, I was looking around R150k
I very impulsively went to buy an X5 yesterday. It was a 2011 with 250k on the clock, 3.0 diesel and the dekra report was super clean, just a couple oil leaks which hey it's a BMW that's par for the course... It looked mint, and was on really expensive Pirelli's which to me was a good sign that someone hadn't cheapskated their way through ownership. Full service history too. However someone else obviously knew it was a good deal too, because they got there 2 minutes before me and bought it in front of me lol. (Was it fate?)
I am not under the common illusion most people seem to be that cars are not money pits, I also don't expect 100% reliability, that's life, cars go bang - especially when they are this age.
So what I wanted was anyone else's experience with these, I assume consumables will be mortgage expensive, like tyres and brakes and that, I assume it will average around 11l / 100km and not be super cheap on insurance either.
What should I look out for besides the usual? I usually, on BMWs or diesels in general, check for vaccuum on the oil cap, check for smoke on startup, oil mayonnaise etc... I am not afraid of high mileage usually, especially if they were highway miles, I have had more problems with all my "low mileage" purchases and have known a few very high mileage BMWs to be completely reliable (touches wood)
Anyways, rambling over, am I being dim, is there a better alternative for the money, I was looking around R150k
