Our Cars

Since my last update there have been lots of changes to my fleet.

- Steve Hole

Overnight I went from five cars to three, but I’ve restored order a little by acquiring a really nice MG TF from eBay for £770, but more on that in a future report. There really is a bit of method to my madness!

The missus and I were out one Sunday morning when I suddenly had a ‘eureka’ moment. My epiphany resulted in the decision to get rid of my Audi A6 and BMW E53 X5. I concluded that an upgrade to a Mk2 – or, in BMW-speak, an E70 X5 – was the way to go. I’d driven a few of them, liked them a lot and knew enough to identify exactly what I wanted.

We decided to divert to the nearest BMW dealer for a gander. I quickly realised that they only want to sell secondhand examples with no miles, nothing older than a 63-plate and for a price that began with a ‘3’, with four further numbers following. That was totally out of my price zone.

What I needed was well-maintained five-year-old example without galactic mileage. A trawl on AutoTrader revealed plenty of leggy examples of unknown origin. That wouldn’t do either, to be honest. I like a bit of power, so an XDrive 3.0d M Sport would be the one for me. It uses the M57 diesel engine that, in standard guise, produces 232bhp, only with an additional 50bhp and some unique styling cues: different grille, body-coloured wheelarch extenders, etc.