I finally got in touch with the seller of the Montreal black '16 X3 35i with 177K km after I messaged him from AutoHebdo. Funny thing, the messages from Autotrader were going into his Trash. He thought there is no interest in his car hence he dropped the price to $12.9K this morning.
My message prompted him to check his Trash folder and he found emails from other shoppers. He jacked up the price this evening to $14.9K
He's not a car guy after all but he quoted from the invoices and perhaps what his mechanic told him. However, he said he did everything his mechanic (BM Workshop in Montreal) told him to do which is not a bad thing after all. He said he did some suspension work recently as well but he wouldn't know what it is. He's out of country till May 18 so will eventually find out more when he's back.
Car is black on black.... yuck
... but if it's at least Enhanced package (must), it was indeed well maintained and for the right price, I may still make an offer on it. Thinking $14K using the VMR Canada retail as reference and not too far off his current asking and above what he was willing to sell it for this morning.
I hate shopping for a used car with a gun at my head.