Is It Weird That I'm Lusting After An Early BMW X5?

CTzens: it’s confession time. During one of my recent trawls through the classifieds, I found myself looking at early first-generation BMW X5s. Brought on partly by seeing them crop up a surprising amount of times in shonky films that spend one week in theatres before appearing on Netflix, I now haveuncomfortable feelings for the SUV.

A lot of it is to do with the way the older X5s look. SUVs seem to be becoming ever more blingtastic, but in comparison, the ‘E53’ X5 has a pleasantly chunky, utilitarian aesthetic to it. It’s another of Chris Bangle’s designs that seems to have aged rather nicely over time, while also losing its reputation for being a car bought solely by pompous douchebags.

If you want, you can have one of these with a 315bhp 4.4-litre V8 for a useful 7.6sec 0-60mph, or if you spend a bit more, a ‘4.8is’ that’ll do the benchmark sprint in just 5.8. But me? I’d be happy with the considerably less powerful, silky smooth 3.0-litre M54 straight-six.

The E39-based SUV first came along in 1999, with an emphasis on providing decent on-road manners as opposed to Land Rover-style all-terrain domination. SUVs that drive like actual cars are available in abundance these days, but back then the X5 was nothing short of revolutionary. So it’s largely responsible for the modern car buyer’s fanatical SUV obsession, but that still doesn’t stop me liking these things.

Despite their age, early X5s aren’t going for peanuts, but they’re not exactly expensive either. Take this 3.0-litre example, which is yours for £2495. Not bad at all for a car with a reasonable 100,000 miles on the clock, but it will inevitably be more painful to your wallet to run than to buy. And that doesn’t put me off either.

So what’s the verdict, readers? Have I gone mad, or do you see the appeal? Let me know in the comments…