ChrisO

So after 2.5 years with an S4 pissing me off constantly due to half-baked features, I am back in a BMW. Picked up a 2021 X5 40i fully loaded with the exception of no traffic jam assist package because we have no real daily rush hour commute to deal with. The car had to be ordered to spec because people usually make poor decisions when they order these things, so nationwide dealer search showed literally nothing that matched exactly what I wanted. Crazy fast turnaround time since X5s are being built in North Carolina now and not shipping over on a boat, so it took about 3 weeks from the time of order until pickup at Umansky. 
Initially I went to IA since they were close, just to test drive and figured deals would be competitive regardless of what dealer I talked to because we're talking about a new car which levels the playing field quite a bit compared to the used market. This was just as big of a mistake as any one of you reading this would expect. Total horseshit. The sales guy we talked to was 3 months into the job, younger guy, unfortunately did not know about the bad reputation that IA has. I sent my spec to them, came in to chat, and they basically just offered me the current BMW incentives of $3500 total. So the car was 79k sticker, minus 3500 leaving it at around 75.5 for the raw purchase price. I looked at TrueCar and found most people around me are paying 74k for a similarly spec'd example. I talked to the sales guy and explained several things which I thought were well-reasoned arguments to lower the price. The first being that the going market rate is 74k, not 75.5. Also, they tell me they can't keep X3 or X5 on the lots and most of their sales are order/pickup. I said ok but you have 3 X5s on the lot right now as we speak, plus an X5 50i in the showroom, plus 2 of 2 allocations waiting to go into production this week that are not yet spoken for. That's 6 X5s that you don't have sold. Who is to say that your 2 allocations get built and don't also sit on the lot? You have an opportunity to lock up a sale right now for one of those if you would just be realistic about price. Plus I'm giving the dealership the financing kickback. So the sales kid goes back to the manager and as you would expect, the manager wouldn't budget at all because he's a piece of shit. Refused to even bother to negotiate in good faith.
So I called Umansky and immediately they got me a quote for 73,600 on the same car. I mentioned it to IA just to let the sales guy know that I wasn't wrong or blowing smoke up his ass when I said the car would be had for closer to 74k, and he was asking if he could talk to his manager about this offer from Umansky and try to earn my business. I said no, now you get to the learn why it sucks to be a sales guy with a shitty manager, because I already gave that jagoff a chance to negotiate in good faith and I presented fair reasoning in regards to your volume-based business. There is no more opportunity. I'm just going to buy the car from Umansky because they didn't try to jerk me around. 
So anyways, onto the X5 itself. The G05 generation is an insane jump up from the prior gen, and very much needed for BMW since they were starting to fall behind in the mid-size SUV race. The G05 really steps it up and puts it back on top as the overall best choice. I watched a ton of reviews and cross shopped it a bit and while the XC90 offers more luxury, the performance driving dynamics are not there compared to the X5, and the Mercedes GLE doesn't have the driving dynamics that the X5 has, nor the quality of infotainment. This thing feels really good and offers enough customizability in the transmissions, steering, suspension, and engine that it's fun for me to drive as well as the wife. The tech works way better than my Audi. Gesture controls and voice activation are spot on, the fit and finish and upgraded leather are supple, the massaging seats are way above what I got with the audi, comfort access actually works unlike my S4 which 60% of the time it didn't, the kick-trunk feature actually works here...and the list goes on.
In general a huge reason I went with the X5 is because BMW is still using a lot of obvious tactile response buttons that have satisfying clicks, not everything is behind a touch screen. I have a huge problem with how so many cars these days are trying to behave like a smartphone - I don't want to scroll screens and try to tap shit while I'm driving. BMW is still doing a good job of keeping real buttons in the mix for core functionality inside the cabin. The wireless carplay is really good, doesn't cut out like other cars I have heard of that drop connection. I had to order it with M-sport because obviously I had to order it with M sport... and I am very happy that there isn't any M badging on the exterior of the car. I added the "M" brakes which is separate from the M-sport package, and that's the only place you see any M logo badging on the car. I appreciate it because it's not trying to appear to be something it's not. I did get the 21" wheels which unfortunately come with summer tires only, 275 front, 315 rear, so the last week or so has not been driven at all. But with the air ride option, M sport, extended shadowline and the right wheels, it looks really good with the factory drop on air. 
I do intend to keep this car for a long time so I bought it instead of leased, and I paid $5800 for the extended BMW warranty which is 7 years or 100k miles. I thought that was interesting when you look at the cost of the car, and says a bit about how much they expect to go wrong. If you wait like 2 years into ownership and try to get the warranty, BMW will charge you almost 10k for it, and I did some rough math in my head and if you figure most people driving 10-12k miles a year, at time of purchase the 7 year/100k warranty makes sense to be cheaper, but add 2 years of time and you're still on the 100k mile limit, but now you have 9 years total ownership into the car with warranty coverage instead of 7. They are definitely banking on shit breaking after 7 years or roughly 70-75k miles, and none of it will be cheap to fix.
Overall I'm as happy as I can be I guess for what a modern BMW is these days. I do feel like the X5 is still pretty good in terms of balancing luxury with driving dynamics. Steering is appropro weighted in sport, and the car feels relatively precise even on air suspension. The B58 speaks for itself and the zf8 tuning is as good as it gets in an automatic transmission. Again, much better than my Audi, which thankfully will be leaving the stable in June.





 
Lowered in Sport mode:

 
 
 

@P_Roloff is right, m3 seats and vert seats are identical with the exception of the folding lever. They're all interchangeable though, I have vert seats in my coupe for example.

I have no idea what a fair price is, I have seen anywhere from $400-1000 for a set of seats
They appear to be identical to seats out of a e30 M3, although I could be mistaken
slide, recline, up and down adjustments all work 
both side folding adjustments work
Front bolsters adjust but the passenger side doesn't close all the way, and the bottom cushion appears to be sunk a bit. Im assuming some supports need to be tweaked
Leather has no rips or tears, but has plenty of wear as seen. Could be a good set to fill and dye.
I think that they are in pretty good shape, most of them I see have chunks of foam and leather missing.
Really I just have no use for them and would like to hear realistically what you guys think they are worth! I'm thinking $600ish but let me know if it sounds too high or low
Located in downtown Madison
Thanks



 
 

After talking with @MPW3RLee, he had suggested just having their wheel touch up guy at the shop take care of them after he got the tires mounted on the new wheels.
They came out great, look brand new. Saved me a ton of time and sanding working as well.

 

 

I’m really happy with the result. These feel much more appropriate on the car. I think I’ll even be able to run the center waffles if I want to.
I am still waiting on the rear set. But seeing as I’m going to be up north for a week, figured I’d get these now.

only 23 hours left of thinking!

Drilled and bolted in with lock nuts, the brake pedal is steel so it’s extremely solid. The gas pedal cover is just screwed in 

Graduated college and moved back to Green Bay for a month, then Ill be moving down to the Madison area!
Went to the local pick and pull today to get some parts for my Passat, and found a 99 vert out in the yard. It was 100% rust free and I managed to snag the x-brace, the guy behind the counter let me have it for free
It had a bit of surface rust so I cleaned it up with the wire wheel and sanded it down for paint

Painted it with some high temp caliper paint

Nice that the M3's have the mounting threads in the subframe already, and thankfully all the holes lined up perfect. Took maybe 15 minutes to put it in, start to finish

Pretty happy that I now have an x-brace and it cost me nothing and took little effort to put in!! I was also looking to get a x brace soon because when I dropped my exhaust I found that the OEM cross bar had taken a nasty hit at some point and wasn't even close to straight anymore

 

Looks great! I hope to see the car when you move down to Madison!

Graduated college and moved back to Green Bay for a month, then Ill be moving down to the Madison area!
Went to the local pick and pull today to get some parts for my Passat, and found a 99 vert out in the yard. It was 100% rust free and I managed to snag the x-brace, the guy behind the counter let me have it for free
It had a bit of surface rust so I cleaned it up with the wire wheel and sanded it down for paint

Painted it with some high temp caliper paint

Nice that the M3's have the mounting threads in the subframe already, and thankfully all the holes lined up perfect. Took maybe 15 minutes to put it in, start to finish

Pretty happy that I now have an x-brace and it cost me nothing and took little effort to put in!! I was also looking to get a x brace soon because when I dropped my exhaust I found that the OEM cross bar had taken a nasty hit at some point and wasn't even close to straight anymore

 

The ones i mentioned are not rubber. They are a copolymer polypropylene plastic. GarageDeck and GarageTrac are both made by RaceDeck as well. Just some info to help compare options. 

Damn, nice garage
I'd be worried about jack stands on rubber tiles not sitting very flat or slicing into them

Polished the insert and hit the rubber part with a coat of paint. Cleaned up pretty well. Needs to fix a couple spots on the insert before it’s complete.
Drilled holes in the trunk lid for the studs. It was hard to gauge how the spoiler would fit without being able to lay it flat on the trunk lid. Came out well, still need to drill or cut a hole on the underside of the trunk lid to access the far outside screws. I think I might use a combination of some double sided tape and foam tape(not exactly foam tape, but something of that nature) to close the gap at the ends. Guess will see how much the far studs will suck it closer to the lid with nuts on them. You can see how I tried to get the gap that ran the length of the trunk tighter. As a result of this, the radius of the spoiler leaves somewhat of a gap at the ends.

Just saw this sold for $32k I can't even wrap my head around that, beautiful car tho

It looks BEAUTIFUL. Just waiting to Zinc Coat the hardware. 
Shout out to @Bassboy3313 for the sticker*s. I may or may not have put it on the wrong way originally. :// 

Saw this 95 M3 being parted out on marketplace, check out that rust hole in the pan 😬

Oooooooo what lenses are we talking about? I've been a long time collector

All the cutting with the rotary is done. Next up is to do the M205 and Griots One-Step sealant with the DA. Also got the brakes bled. 
 
 

I have oem e34 m5 bumpers and skirts 👀

The weather has been great the last few days, not ready to hit the roads but I was able to pull the car out and give it a wash 


Super happy with how the car looks
Heres a shot of the black Bimmerworld pedals up close

And a closer shot of the shifter set up

 

I was checking out the pics and it looks like all of the rust problems are around roll cage plates, must have not been prepped good, gotten wet in the interior and sat forever

The weather has been great the last few days, not ready to hit the roads but I was able to pull the car out and give it a wash 


Super happy with how the car looks
Heres a shot of the black Bimmerworld pedals up close

And a closer shot of the shifter set up

 

Small update
Old shift linkage is out, new dssr and RTD shifter are in! This shifter is absolutely worth the money and it feels great 

I also wanted to make sure everything lined up good so I put in the poly trans mounts first. Really pleased that they only took about 5 minutes to put in


Crawling around under a car really takes a lot of energy 🥵
 last weekend I picked up the Max Velocity Evo front lip and will be messing around with that tomorrow 
 

Nice write up. Super slick way to keep the stock appearance and have the option to blast insane clown posse on demand. 

Nice touch on the license plate frame 👍