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I would be more worried if it doesn't leak oil because that means there's probably no oil in it at all.

Do more videos with Mitch! You guys are brilliant together and his knowledge is amazing

Mitch seems like a stand up guy...that's a great trait in a car repair scenario.

I miss my XC90 V8 from 2006. What a fun car that was. Safe, reliable, lots of smile / mile. Same size engine, even a bit more power. Nothing beats a V8 roar when you power sliding in the mud :)

A great change from new car reviews. This format was so interesting to watch with the master mechanics input and all the great detail covered. This is very relateable to anyone who drives an older vehicle. One of your best Mat.

A lot of this stuff is DIY-able. Go on Matt, do it. BMW quoted me £1,265 for discs and pads for my X3. I did it myself for £350 in parts.

Should do more videos with this guy, great chemistry between you both

Hi Mat, super nice vid, make more of this format please! The rear bushings can be bought separately OEM and pressed in quite easily. Recently did it on my E65 730i. Saves you €2000 on parts! I could fix your car properly for half that bill...cheers!

This account is so awesome! My dad owns an X3 from 2012 and it has been with us till now. It has 565'000 kilometers and it already needed 2 engines rebuilt. Classic BMW 😂

Good to see an Aussie representing BMW in the UK. Keep up the good work mate! Cheers

Found a gem in 2020…2002 X5 3.0d, all the options, no dead pixels, 30k miles and showroom clean. Previous owner even had carpets specifically made for the rear sliding load tray.

I think it’s awesome that BMW sanctioned this with one of their master techs. It’s great seeing how it’s not only new cars they’re interested in scalping you for but older classics too! But the enthusiasm Mitch shows for this E53 demonstrates that despite the real world costs associated with owning older premium brand cars, they can still put a smile on your face when you mash the accelerator! I had one of these, same motor, same issues, and I loved it!

My old car 😉

Looks like a fun project car! Would be nice to see some more content on it as you sort through some of the repairs.

Love the E53. Had one myself but with the 6 cyl 3 liter petrol engine. Was a good and solid car for me.

Couple months ago I saw a fantastic example of these. Same spec, black, 4.4i, pre-facelift. Absolutely stunning inside out, and it was slightly cheaper than yours. May also have been slightly better condition than yours though haha the body work was perfect, the paintwork untouched and interior completely stock. Look forward to your adventures with this car!

THe N62 will have all the leaks... for sure, but once fixed you'll be good for another 100K miles. More if you also fit a lower temperature thermostat.

Thanks Matt. We had a similar 2003 pre-facelift v8 from new for 12 years. Quality engine & paintwork. Yes we had to update the pixels & other parts per service manual, but otherwise great v8 vehicle. Looking back & comparing to current generation, it's the perfect size, similar to an X3.

Great car and great video, Mat. BMW Service always seem to have great staff. I had 2003 4.6iS in Australia and it was brilliant - 350bhp and massive wide wheels as option 295/55 20 front and 315/55 20 on rear. Gripped like anything. Had issue with the pixels on the display that I managed to repair with an ebay kit myself - surprisingly. Shame I had to sell it but the garage was full - something had to go! Running boards are the best and most practical I've had.

I had a 3.0d version and did 350k miles before I chopped it in but such a great workhorse across 10 years of getting kids, dogs and kit about. I so lucky I extended the warranty though as it was like triggers broom and was running like new when I sold it. As it would with everything having been replaced 😂

V8’s are never a mistake😂

As James May saying. Love that STANDARD geniune shop and the guy is so pro and calm. Shoutout mat for this video !

Mine is almost the exact same spec, 2001 4.4l black on black with Sport Package. I've had it since 2013 with 90km on it, now at 210km. I've done nearly every bushing and joint front and rear. Rear subframe bushings were in the worst shape. Replaced the front struts with bilsteins. Radiator problems are common (I've replaced it twice!), and so is the ABS module which I had remanufactured (highly recommend). Valve cover seals have been done twice, and will be done again soon. I tow a camping trailer with it and it always amazes me how well it tows. It's a great vehicle to drive, handles extremely well and still looks great in and out.

Love videos like this. Keep it coming Matt 👍

This was a really informative video. I would like to see more content like this. As a matter of fact you can make a video of the repairs , especially if you are going to keep the vehicle for a while.

Mat, just watched this and it made think about my own 17 year old Touareg and how it is not anywhere near the condition of this X5, so I'm going to email VW for their comments on mine vs yours. Fabulous video and what a great pick you made in getting this car. Keep up the great videos, very informative. Go Carwow!!

Mitch is definitely right about the rattle. I have both an 02 e46 and 03 e53. The e53 is as quiet as it gets, except for the slight rattle rear passenger door cards give when the car is at an incline due to some of the glue wearing off off the door (easy fix if Im not so lazy). Other than that, zero rattling. The e46 on the other hand has so much rattling from the engine bay, to the interiors, to the bushings, that I just dont bother anymore. I just learn to live with it. Tbf though, the e46 have double the mileage of the e53.

Brilliant video. Perfect car, matts banter and an aussie mechanics banter. The little sly dig at the labour charge of the badge fitting 🤣🤣

Now get a cost together of all the same work done at an independent garage + use second had parts for the door mirrors etc. I'll bet you can get the bushes for the swing arms too, they will just have to be pressed in and out.

I found that really interesting. The technician was really honest and its good that bmw have the faith to stand by their products. Matt has bought an interesting car which made a great video.

Great to see and really interesting, a welcome change from only new car reviews, especially considering it’s what most viewers have to consider when keeping their cars road worthy. Here’s a thought , how about you getting the work done, might as well do the paintwork on the front wing too, and give it away to one of the viewers, do this once a month with these type of cars (blast from the past) ps make sure the cars are always ULEZ compliant so people will still be able to use them Cheers - Hope this idea brings you lots more viewers!

Got an E53 3.0D myself. Really love it, despite having had a few problems but if I could start the process again I'd have bought a V8 as the economy is not that much worse than the diesel. And has V8 noise... Also, absolute revelation with the spare wheel carrier.... I've probably lifted mine in and out about 10 times now. Always been quite a challenge...

Love these kind of videos. More Mat!! My weekend car is an L322 Range Rover with this M62 engine. Lovely! 👌🏻 and yes I’ve done the rocker cover gaskets as mine were leaking too. 😂

As someone looking to buy and older BMW myself, this was a great review. Mitch was a great guest. His knowledge was👌

Enjoyed your content,very professional and easy to follow so well done,I had a brand new x5 3.0d sport in 2004 and had it 7 years and did 200,000 miles with just regular maintenance,a really solid car,never had one since,had an M3 then M5 then a 640 cabriolet which I still have now and will probably keep forever as i now do very little mileage,keep up the good work 👍

I’ve got a 2001 E53 4.4 which I’ve had for 10 years. Can’t find anything to replace it with that offers the same drive, rarity and value for money so it’s staying with me. Ace. I’m looking forward to seeing the repairs that aren’t needed. All I would would be to service the transmission and change the engine oil then use it. Subscription added.

HAHAHA I love you, Mat! Cheeky roast of the BMW labour at the end was brilliant! His uncomfortable face during your shock at the costings was priceless. Please never change

I had one of these - 3 litre turbo diesel. Great car but had loads of issues with alloys cracking. Still did 100,000 miles in it without any major mechanical issues. Great to drive.

I love your reviews . Especially of this car, my favourite car. Great review this way, with the mechanic next to you.

Nice to see older cars getting a look in. Good purchase Mathew

A refreshing and honest way to look at "real" car ownership. There was some x-certificate stuff, like the sub 20 mpg, but all the major issues covered and I for one was relieved that Mat had got himself quite a bargain there. Nice to hear a Midlands accent as well. I've had my fill of know it all southerners boasting how they have just "stolen" a car "off of" someone who was a bit vulnerable.

The BMW chap was good content.. he knows his stuff 👍

I've seen enough of these over the years to always check the front axle shaft rubber boots. They're almost always cracked. $25 for a new boot and $500 for the labor in putting it on per side. The V8 is the one to stay away from as they have timing chain guide issues when they're over 100k miles and also leaking coolant transfer tubes and blown PCV valve issues. Hopefully this one has had these looked at already. The E53 6 cylinders are pretty bulletproof.

I used to hate this generation of X5 when it was relatively new but i kinda like it now. My uncle bought one of those when they first came out around 2001 i believe, he still owns it today with nearly 290,000 miles on it and counting, he's retired and uses it to travel from Los Angeles to Las Vegas frequently.

Hey Matt love your videos on this channel keep them up.👍

I have a manual 6 cylinder X5 this is the one to get it is very short geared which makes it very lively under 80kph and it is very surprisingly quick it will spin the wheels for 2-3 metres if you want to drop the clutch, the manual is the fun one.

I just love this man! so funny and yet, at the same time, giving good informations in his videos!

Great video, you clearly used all your years of experience when picking this one out. I wonder how BMW feels when the tech basically says "This issue was common back in the day"!

I recently purchased an E39 sedan in what appears to me immaculate condition. From the second owner, garage kept and serviced at the same dealer since new. I will be doing preventative maintance on the cooling system as well as plugs & coils. There's just something about these "old" types of cars that you can't get anymore in newer cars. I'm very much looking forward to the experience. As a car enthousiast, I think you'll love the X5 as long as it's working properly.

I think you might found something here!🎉 More videos like this pls! Very informative and entertaining😊

Love the E53! I have a LCI 3.0d with 370k kms (230k miles) and it`s still going strong!

When I saw this video I got very happy since I got a facelift 3.0d lemans blue sport edition. Great car and pulls strong. I think for the money you have bought a good one I wasn't so lucky with mine the whole suspension needed doing basically and now there's this annoying squeak from the front wheels 😒

Lovely purchase I remember when these used to be the top notch cars back in the day 👏

Good video this one and explains a lot about Park Lane BMW.

That car is Amazing. I bought that model, (facelift) a year ago. Incredible car and everything is ok : ) Hope you enjoy it.

you might say that spending that isn't worth it but a new one will depreciate while this won't and if you take it to a local garage it will probably have lower maintenance costs over time so you will still be spending way more on a new one so if you don't care about the latest tech i think this is still a good deal.

Yesss mattttt. Upload regularly please on this one 👌👌👌👌

The great thing about these old BMWs is you can do most of the repairs yourself. So many videos / blogs out there!

That's a very nice car u bought Mat,it's a proper drivers car,congrats cheers

Ayyyy! That's Autoalexs old V8 X5! I was wondering what he did with it!! Now I know!

I have a 2004 X5 v6, I know exactly what your going through mat, like you I need to fix a few things on it to make it as good as it once was, BUT & I have made the calculation it would cost more than what I've paid for it, so I'm conflicted, I'm trying to mend it to the best of my ability & let me tell you, it is a continuous personal suffering on an economic level. The thing is, I like my car & I refuse to give up on it regardless of everyone's advice to do so

Watching this today looking for diy video as my E53 4.6is belt decided to give up and reading the comments gave me life to keep repairing the car for as long as it lives

Thanks for explaining so well why old expensive cars end their life in the crusher even though they’re still repairable.

Never been much of a fan of BMW's but the original X5's always have a soft spot for me, great purchase 😁 My uncle has had one since new (or nearly new) and he still dailys it all these years later. Pretty sure his is a V8 too.

I borrowed a new one 4.4 V8 back in the early 2000’s , drove to France and back, very impressed 👌🏻😎

Really enjoyed this style of video Matt.

I love that X5! I would love to own the 4.8is Facelift of the E53 😍

That first generation X5 is a timeless SUV, and still has a nice presence on the road to this day :) Also gotta love that 4.4L V8~

Really enjoyed this video. Would like to see more featuring older cars.

I just sold my old X5 4.4i from 2002 after owning it for more than 10 years and still love that car. 😊

I remember arriving in the uk, and someone I knew bought one new for about £36k, the demand was so high he was offered more than he paid they typically made £38k used, which 20 plus years ago was a hill of money

I also bought one from 2001. But it had lots of problems. I've already spent about 4000€ on mine. The electrical problems have been the hardest solve. Good choice mate.

My first BMW was e39 and I loved it... Oil leaks are pretty common... I bought it at 220k km (real) and by the time it made 300k km it started to need a lot of grand repairs, which costed half of the value of the car - engine oil leak, gearbox oil leak, dashboard pixels, thermostat, some electric faults, etc... And I was still removing OEM BMW parts... So tbh, the break point of that generation of BMW seems to be that mark, which is not bad at all...

It goes to show main dealer servicing isnt always the best solution, im surprised some of the preventative maintance wasnt done/mentioned during the service interval

if everything does go wrong, I suggest you use what's left to engine swap something like a volvo 240 or a bmw e30 and race it against the GR yaris to see what happens 😁

I've got an E53 4.6iS, an E46 330 Vert, an E39 540i and a E38 735i and they each cost me about a months salary to buy and another months salary for parts and preventative maintenance. I could have bought one new povvo pack Kia with that money, but I don't think their options include heated real nappa leather, xenons, adequate power or timeless style.

Those parts prices bear no resemblance to the actual cost to make and to ship to the UK. When you add in the margin for the UK importer and then the margin for the dealer on top of that you are looking a a multiple of the actual cost. My tip is to buy OEM parts from Bosch, Hella and the like or good serviceable second hand parts from eBay.

Just a bit sad that it was baisic car inspection Nothing special about e53 Cause there is some problems with them Like prefl gearboxes needs remaping, that boot button and the plate lights are also very commonly damaged. Other then that, congrats! 🎉I bought the same one 3weeks ago, and now you did too. Looking forward seeing it more on the channel Take care!❤❤

I love these so much, I hope you fully restore this one.

For total of around 8K you get a very nice, comfortable and mechanically perfect car. Honestly I would drive the car for a month and then decide whether it will be mine till the scrapyard. If I like it, I would fix it all and enjoy it. For 8k you can buy newer car, but it will be coming with their list of issues and again nice fat bill to fix. I think it is time to start fixing and reusing, rather than buying new all the time and throwing away.

Aah lovely video a review of BMWs we can afford down here in zimbabwe honestly I love the e53 x5 though the e39 is in the deepest chambers of my soul..thank you Carwow really enjoyed the video

this was the BEST carwow’s video in a while! please make more affordable luxury SUV videos!!

I own this exact same car (in LHD) with nearly 150k miles, had it since it showed 43k miles. The list of repairs, almost all diy, is a mile long. Most critically: the torque converter failed taking the transmission with it at 93k, the ABS module failed (...twice!). The suspension has been refreshed at least twice and the engine has been out to replace all the seals and do the timing and Vanos at 130k. The front drive shaft splines let go at 149k. My kids drive this car every day and I put quite a few miles on it as well. It is a great drivers' car, just gobbles up the miles. Still love it despite owning a much newer and faster Cayenne as well. I think that having the E39 DNA is what makes this such a fun car to drive!

Matt: So if I need to smoke I'll just jump into the back. Master technician: Yes, yes, it's good for the kids.' Me: O_o'

So I bought a 118i 2009, under 60K miles, full BMW service history, pretty immaculate outside and unmarked inside. A real keeper I thought . Put a tow bar on it. Replaced the windscreen as there were some scratches. Just loved it for a few months, into covid shutdowns etc so put hardly any miles on it and then started to hear a little knocking. Decided to take it to local BMW dealership and paid for a diagnostic survey. Cost £90, got a report and video that said it needed further investigation but torque converter was probably the problem, plus a whine from the diff needed further investigation plus suspect wheel bearing. My local garage wouldn’t touch the torque converter but a local BMW “ specialist” looked at it and diagnosed cam chain problem and not torque converter. Paid £2k to have that done and the knocking noise was still there . Told my local garage about it. They looked at it and suggested it was No 4 big end. Took off the sump and stripped it down and hey presto! They were right. I had a choice. Keep going or scrap it. Yeah, I scrapped it and that paid my local garage bill! What have I learned ? Main dealership service history is no guarantee, you can’t trust BMW main agents perhaps and paying them to diagnose a problem is also no guarantee they get it right, BMW specialists aren’t any better and it turns out your local private family run garage is probably your best bet. I’m lucky I could afford to make the mistakes but for some folk wasting a few grand would be devastating.

Enjoyed that. I.would love to see that a bit more taking older cars in main dealers to get them assessed.... really interesting. Great idea.

Easy car to work on I have a e53 4.6

For a 20 year car it’s pretty decent let’s be honest , thought the body work has quite a nice shine to it 👍 I bet you can just polybush those rears arms aswell !

Great video love the older bmws 👍

Perfect timing, I am in the hunt for a e53 myself currently

I love that you have access to these extremely expensive modern cars but you choose to buy something like this. I’m in the same boat and I’m looking for a 15-20 year old car that I can fix over time as a project.

I’d be interested to know what a reputable BMW specialist garage would charge for exact same work, and also if the car is a keeper would it be wrong to spend the money and keep it?!! 😂 Loved the video.

Mitch is a class act, did a lot for my perception of BMW main dealers!

Nice decent looking car Mat! You're a driver so all the bushings and stuff needs to be done including the coolant. New set of tires and off you go..Turn the 2700 car into a 4000 car and drive another 100k. 4000 GBP sounds still a heap better than 7700 GBP. Today in our papers was BMW making a statement of how they should sell less new cars and make the ones they do sell last longer. Odd way of selling cars maybe but looking ahead.

12:25 "Is it going to be easy to fix..... or hideously expensive?" "Ummmm.... probably a combination of both" So it's not too difficult to fix, but they do tend to charge an arm and a leg for that one?

Love the e53 v8 X5 as having being in one they’re an excellent car although at 20 years old and clearly some deferred maintenance like the mirror on lhs the repair bill reasonable - great buy Matt

Great generation car and engine from BMW. Thought old mate was an Aussie. He's been over there for a while by the sound of his accent. love the video too by the way Mat!

"...that little bit of labour...that's 20 quid" LOL one of us.

This looks like the English version of Hoovie's garage 🤣