Buying our new X5

[jmm_ca]

We finally got our new X5 35d a week ago, and maybe some of our experiences will be useful for others in the market for a new SUV. We were looking for a 3-row upscale SUV to replace our 6-year-old Honda Odyssey. The Ody is a fine, spacious, and practical car, but my wife and I wanted something a little more fun.

We looked at and drove the Acura MDX, the Audi Q7, the BMW X5, and the Buick Enclave. Our search began in earnest last March, and I initially expected that we'd end up with an MDX: it's highly rated, reliable, easily available, and competitively priced. What's more, at least in our area, you can get it for hundreds below invoice. As you'll see, it just didn't work out.

Reviews of these cars often say that the third row seats are "best for kids," but I wonder if anyone tests these seats with actual children. We have 5-year-old twins and an 8-year-old, all a little small for their ages. Being small was a liability for them in the MDX, though. The ceiling-attached seatbelts were too high, so the twins would need to be in booster seats for years before the seat belts would fit properly across their chests. Unfortunately, two booster seats in the middle row make the back row inaccessible, and fitting all three in the middle row was a tight squeeze if two are in boosters. Only the right-side middle row seat folds forward. What's more, the third row seats are so low and the windows so small that even our older child couldn't see out very well. These may seem like minor issues, but they make an otherwise-fine car fairly impractical for a family with smallish kids. The X5 was better, though the third row is still a dungeon.

The Buick was the best of the lot as far as rear seats go, with plenty of room and cleverly-designed middle row seats that fold out of the way for third-row access. But, the Buick wasn't any more fun to drive than our Odyssey, and the interior looked cheap. We decided that if we were going to splurge on a new car when our old one was running just fine, it ought to be something we'd really enjoy. So both the MDX and Enclave were off our list.

The X5 was tight in back, but it fit our kids better than the MDX, and of course it was a blast to drive. At this point we were ready to buy an X5 35i. We'd looked at (but not driven) a Q7 and thought the rear seating wouldn't work. In April I placed an order at $500 over invoice for a 2012 model and put down a deposit. A few days later, the dealer called and said he'd made a mistake; he'd used the 2011 order guide when he quoted the price and hadn't intended to take only $500 over invoice. The new price was thousands more. Needless to say, I called that deal off. (We later read on yelp that they'd reneged on another deal earlier in the year--one week before scheduled delivery!--with the even lamer excuse that they just weren't making deals like that anymore.)

So we took another look at the Q7. It had the next-biggest interior after the Enclave, and the kids liked it the best. The rear seating was more practical than we'd thought, once we'd figured out how to move the seats. There's an Audi dealer close to our house, and I've bought two A4's there in the past. (Our current second car is a 2009 A4.) However, the Q7 was in short supply when we were shopping. The local dealer only had a used one for us to drive, with an older (non-supercharged) version of the V6. We liked it pretty well, though the engine wasn't thrilling. We figured we'd order an S-line model with the 333 hp engine. The local dealer wasn't offering very good pricing, but another one said he'd order it for $1000 over invoice. With a $2000 Audi loyalty credit, that looked like a good deal. Unfortunately, we just missed the 2011 model year cutoff, so Audi declined the order. We could have converted to a 2012, but no pricing was available, and it wasn't clear that we'd get the loyalty bonus on the new model year.

We were willing to wait, since we didn't really need a car. Still, I got to thinking about the X5 again. We went back to the BMW web site, and I ran through the options again. We'd driven both a used diesel and gas powered X5 originally, and I thought the diesel was too noisy. But the $3500 eco credit made the price very attractive, and I was starting to think that it would be more fun to get a car that wasn't another Audi. Or maybe I was just mesmerized by that spinning-propeller logo. So I convinced my wife (who was leaning toward the Audi) that we'd like the X5. The clincher for us was that the X5 was available in a beautiful vermillion red, while the Q7 color options are pretty much limited to white, black, and several shades of gray (though there is a dark blue, which is what we tried to order).

Then it was time to email all the BMW dealers in the area (except one...) for quotes. Nobody was offering better than $2000 over invoice, which seemed about $1000 too high. I spoke to several salesmen over the course of weeks but couldn't do any better than that. Fine, I'm patient. If prices are rising during the spring, I'll wait for winter. At last I tried a couple of dealers a little farther away. One had quoted the second-best price when we'd tried to order the 35i, but he was out of allocation when I contacted him after the deal fell through. The other was two hours away. Both came in around $1200 over invoice. Time to make the deal! We ordered from the nearer dealer on May 24, and the car showed up less than a month later. This was actually a little too soon for us, because sales tax and car registration in California went down on July 1, decreasing the total cost by 1.5%. The dealer really wanted to book the sale in June, but we made him wait and saved over $800. A week later, we're enjoying the car a lot, and I'm just about done learning how to program all the gadgets. The diesel noise isn't as loud as I remembered it, and I like the distinctive growl. As much as people gripe about the iDrive interface, I think it's a little better than what our A4 has.

Overall, I think we could have been happy with either the Q7 or the X5. It just came down to timing and finding a dealer who could get the car we wanted at a reasonable price.

The Odyssey took good care of us right to the end. During the time we were shopping for a new car, its Blue Book value actually increased! And even after we spent several hundred dollars on minor body work and detailing, we got back more than half what we paid for it six years ago.

[WWONG]

This thread needs more pics of your X5

[jmm_ca]

The vermillion red is not a common color for this car in our area, but I really like it. The only other one I've seen was on the dealer's lot. It has a golden-orange cast in bright sunlight but is deep red in the shade. Very easy to find in the parking lot!

We got the cinnamon leather interior. It's a distinctive color, looks good with the red exterior, and should hide dirt pretty well. See the floormats? One dealer quoted a price and explicitly said they weren't included. I had never thought to ask! So when I got a quote from the dealer where we ended up buying, I made sure they were included. Then when we picked up the car, I forgot to verify they were installed! Got home and realized they were missing, but the dealer was kind enough to mail them to us instead of making us drive an hour back there to get them.

[mweisdorfer]

You may of saved the additional $1200 come sept/Oct as dealers get anxious about getting the old ones off the lot in order to get more of the new ones. I would of bought a 2011 and perhaps saved even more.

Fall is without question the best time to buy a car. You may have even picked up an 09 or 10 CPO with less than 24k on it just coming off a business lease.

[WWONG]

That red is pretty hot

[jmm_ca]

Originally Posted by mweisdorfer

You may of saved the additional $1200 come sept/Oct as dealers get anxious about getting the old ones off the lot in order to get more of the new ones. I would of bought a 2011 and perhaps saved even more.

Fall is without question the best time to buy a car. You may have even picked up an 09 or 10 CPO with less than 24k on it just coming off a business lease.

You're probably right that we could have saved some money if we'd waited another 4-6 months. I'm not so sure we would have found the car we wanted on the dealer's lot at the end of the year, at least not without a bunch of extras we didn't need. Even at year-end prices, unwanted options really jack up the cost!

The first X5 we drove was an '09 CPO 35d, fully loaded. Asking price was more than we paid for our new car. We could have got the price down some, but not enough to make it a good value for us. I think there must be more profit for the dealer in the CPO cars than the new ones.

[sbb]

Loved the story, it's almost the same as our story. Had an Odyssey too (06) that go side swiped by a plow. $12K of damages later, it got fixed but was full of gremlins since the plow took out all the electronics.

We got frustrated enough to start looking, did exactly what you did MDX, Q7 and X5. Q7 was a bit boring and felt like a boat although the seating was nice but we have two kids so the 3rd row is mostly for the once in a while occasion we need to carry more than our family of 4 + au pair.

MDX wasn't as fun to drive as the X5 and there were many things we didn't like about the way the 2nd row split and the low 3rd row.

So we settled on the X5 35d for the fuel economy, towing capacity and longevity... We plan to drive it for 10 years. I must say, it is a ton more fun to drive than my Ody, in all fairness to the Ody, I do miss it's spaciousness sometimes :-) Great color combo, we have Sparkling Bronze/Tobacco and we love it!