About a week ago a friend of mine decided to get a "new" winter beater. His 1997 Honda CR-V just finally gave out. Now, he's a lawyer, has a ton of dough, but is pretty cheap. He went looking for a Highlander or RAV-4, deciding to go Toyota this time.
Somehow during his search he ran across a 2004 BMW X5 3.0. At about 2/3 of the price of comparable RAVs or Highlanders, he figured it looked like a crazy good bargain. And at the low price he paid, if something fails completely, he can send it to the yard and start again.
It's a one owner unit, the original owner finally tired of it. The service/repair bill stack is about the size of a NY City phone-book.
He had in the shop today to have some stuff done (oil change and a couple minor things) and I drove him to pick it up. It's in gorgeous condition, looks new. The exterior and interior have worn really well, held up fantastically. Still looks expensive. For under $5K, it's stupidly nice. But of course, I prefer to think of it as a time-bomb.
On the way home we acted like kids and did a couple stop-light drag races and a few roll-ons on the freeway. To both our surprise, the Highlander WALKED AWAY from the BMW in both instances. I mean just plain smoked it. Given the similar specs, I expected them to be neck-neck, but nope, the HL just left the X without difficulty.
Didn't see that coming.
