[5String43]

We've got an '03 5-series wagon, bought it new. It now has 115,000 miles on the clock. It is by far the best car we've ever owned. It is, however, not inexpensive to maintain, so I'd suggest a really through PPI. For example, the steering arms have rubber bushings that deteriorate, so these need to be replaced at about every 60k miles. $600 or so. Brakes can be spendy. We chased a couple of oil leaks, thought got spendy as well. But the thing has been far more reliable than the several MzB's that we've had. Plus it's comfortable and for its size, handles really well. It gets 19 mpg or so around town, and 26 out on the Interstate - not at all bad for a car this size, I think.

I'd buy this car again in a heartbeat. If I could afford it today, which I can't, and if BMW was still building wagons, which it isn't.

Oh, and one more thing: I don't think these cars are worth much more than $7000, $8000, especially with 100k miles on 'em. But you can check that.

One final thing - it's really easy to pull the nose off these cars. You pull into a parking place and the air dam gets caught on the parking bumper that is intended to stop your front tires. You back out, bingo, the whole front bumper is dangling. Ask me how I know. So you might want to check this, and if you proceed, you might want to be watchful of this.