2014 BMW X5 35d

This vehicle was another non-typical scenario for me.

I was offered the opportunity to buy this corporate lease vehicle after it died on my colleague on his way home from work.  The dealership said the high pressure fuel pump had failed and that the solution was to give them $14,000.  Seeing as there were only 6 mo. left on the lease it didn’t make sense for the company to fix it; so I bought it.  Problems and all. How deep is this rabbit hole anyway? I’m about to find out.

I called around to a few independent shops in my area to get a feel fro what they would charge to get the Beemer back to road worthy condition. One was a no-quote, another was $12k and the third was a no-quote/referral.  I had done a fair amount of research and decided that at a minimum the high pressure pump and injectors would have to be replaced and probably a few soft parts like o-rings, gaskets and seals.  The rest of the parts could probably be cleaned and reused.  I figured this was going to run me anywhere from $4-6k in parts alone.  

So would it be worth it to do the repair myself and be able to sell the car for full market value? or could I make a decent profit for flipping the car the way it was and avoid the hassle altogether?  Seeing as winter was full-on and my small garage was occupied with a V8 Miata project, motorcycle, and other assorted stuff I leaned heavily in favor of the second option.

I posted the X5 for sale and my email inbox was soon overflowing with inquiries.  Many wanted to buy it for the same price I paid, others wanted me to educate them on why it didn’t run, but there was a third group who knew what it was and that it was worth more.  It was gone within 4 days of posting it for sale and confirmed that option 2 was a good decision.

Deal done, onto the next one.