Buying X6 - Weird Carfax - Need advice

[pGtab]

Hey all,

I'm really interested in a beautiful X6 with M Sport Package and nice 20" wheels. Car looks outstanding.

It's a 2016 35i with only ~8.5k miles on it. So almost brand new for $39.900k.
No BMW warranty anymore but would buy extended warranty.

Anyway... I just checked carfax and found a couple of weird things, I think. Would like to get your thoughts / opinions on this:

Car is from TX. 2 Owner. Both considered as personal use.
First drove ~1200 Miles within 13 months and second owner drove ~7.4k in almost 3yrs

Here's the Carfax data:

10/21/2015 - First Owner reported
09/19/2016 - 898 miles Vehicle serviced - Oil and filter changed
12/01/2016 - 1,220 miles
Vehicle serviced - Maintenance inspection completed, Emissions or safety inspection performed
12/05/2016 - Auto Auction - Vehicle sold
02/21/2017 - 1,239 miles - new owner reported
08/29/2017 - 3,850 miles - vehicle serviced:
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Oil and filter changed
- Air filter replaced
- Cabin air filter replaced/cleaned
12/19/2017 - 4,030 miles - passed safety inspection
02/01/2019 Registr. issued/renewedloan/lien reported, passed safety
11/27/2018 - 4,263 miles - Vehicle serviced:
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Brake fluid flushed/changed
- Oil and filter changed
- Battery/charging system checked
- Body electrical system checked
11/28/2018 - 4,277 miles - Failed safety inspection
11/29/2018 - 4,294 miles - Passed safety inspection
02/01/2019 - Registration issued or renewed
03/29/2019 - 7,620 miles - vehicle serviced:
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Battery/charging system checked
04/12/2019 7,889 miles - vehicle serviced:
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Emission system checked
05/07/2019 - 8,239 miles - Vehicle serviced
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Battery/charging system checked
10/07/2019 8,672 miles - vehicle serviced:
Maintenance inspection completed
- Battery/charging system checked

To me it looks like there might be something wrong with the car. It doesn't passed safety inspection once and has been in the shop pretty often regarding something with battery/charging. Don't know what this mean.

Everything was done by a BMW dealer.

What do you think?

THX.

[pennsiveguy]

Originally Posted by pGtab

Hey all,

I'm really interested in a beautiful X6 with M Sport Package and nice 20" wheels. Car looks outstanding.

It's a 2016 35i with only ~8.5k miles on it. So almost brand new for $39.900k.
No BMW warranty anymore but would buy extended warranty.

Anyway... I just checked carfax and found a couple of weird things, I think. Would like to get your thoughts / opinions on this:

Car is from TX. 2 Owner. Both considered as personal use.
First drove ~1200 Miles within 13 months and second owner drove ~7.4k in almost 3yrs

Here's the Carfax data:

10/21/2015 - First Owner reported
09/19/2016 - 898 miles Vehicle serviced - Oil and filter changed
12/01/2016 - 1,220 miles
Vehicle serviced - Maintenance inspection completed, Emissions or safety inspection performed
12/05/2016 - Auto Auction - Vehicle sold
02/21/2017 - 1,239 miles - new owner reported
08/29/2017 - 3,850 miles - vehicle serviced:
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Oil and filter changed
- Air filter replaced
- Cabin air filter replaced/cleaned
12/19/2017 - 4,030 miles - passed safety inspection
02/01/2019 Registr. issued/renewedloan/lien reported, passed safety
11/27/2018 - 4,263 miles - Vehicle serviced:
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Brake fluid flushed/changed
- Oil and filter changed
- Battery/charging system checked
- Body electrical system checked
11/28/2018 - 4,277 miles - Failed safety inspection
11/29/2018 - 4,294 miles - Passed safety inspection
02/01/2019 - Registration issued or renewed
03/29/2019 - 7,620 miles - vehicle serviced:
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Battery/charging system checked
04/12/2019 7,889 miles - vehicle serviced:
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Emission system checked
05/07/2019 - 8,239 miles - Vehicle serviced
- Maintenance inspection completed
- Battery/charging system checked
10/07/2019 8,672 miles - vehicle serviced:
Maintenance inspection completed
- Battery/charging system checked

To me it looks like there might be something wrong with the car. It doesn't passed safety inspection once and has been in the shop pretty often regarding something with battery/charging. Don't know what this mean.

Everything was done by a BMW dealer.

What do you think?

THX.

I don't see anything alarming here.

Safety inspection will fail for things like a light being burned out or (in some states) a small crack in the windshield. It passed a second inspection the next day, having been driven 17 miles, so it must not have been anything major or it would have taken more than a day to fix.

Charging problems could easily be due to lots of short trips, which is corroborated by the low overall mileage. I believe this vehicle was covered by the same Service Bulletin as mine, where they replaced the battery at my first scheduled maintenance.

[pGtab]

Ok...

What you think about the fact this car went to an auto auction after the first year? Why does the owner has not sold it to a dealer or private person? Just curious to understand possible reasons.

Why does someone drive only 1k miles a year? I found another car... a X5 where the previous owner drove only 385 miles. The car was a BMW certified car. Don't understand why people buy cars and don't drive them

[pennsiveguy]

Originally Posted by pGtab

Ok...

What you think about the fact this car went to an auto auction after the first year? Why does the owner has not sold it to a dealer or private person? Just curious to understand possible reasons.

Yeah, that's puzzling. Hard to know how to interpret that. Maybe they bought it and just hated it, and took it back to the dealer and got a 5-series...? I've heard of that happening, multiple times. Even heard of one where they bought the car and got it home and found out it didn't fit in their garage. You truly can't make some of this shit up.

Originally Posted by pGtab

Why does someone drive only 1k miles a year? I found another car... a X5 where the previous owner drove only 385 miles. The car was a BMW certified car. Don't understand why people buy cars and don't drive them

I'm with you there, at least in the case of a non-investment grade car that you wouldn't own other than for the purpose of driving it. Kinda like bringing groceries home and letting them spoil.

[201]

For around 40k you can get a 2016 CPO with around 25-35k miles with atleast a year of warranty for the peace of mind and for 2017 CPO models they're around 43-45k. Mathematically speaking since you were looking to get extended warranty you'd be saving money by rather going with a CPO not sure what type of extended warranty you plan on getting but it definitely can't be BMW's considering the original warranty has expired on that car.

[pGtab]

I see. But a year CPO is like nothing for a car with just a few miles on it. I aim for 4 or 5 year warranty as I plan to drive it longer than just 1 year. That's why it seems to me that a car with 9k miles on it with a 4 or 5 year warranty is probably going to be a better deal in the end

[quick]

Have a line on a 2012 X5M with 40K miles and 54 months exclusionary warranty with 0 deductible for 37.... in case you were interested

[EdgyE36]

Charging problems could easily be due to lots of short trips, which is corroborated by the low overall mileage.

This was my first thought. Never go off Carfax for car service, get the BMW warranty printout.

Just FYI, if you buy a CPO you will immediately be pitched (or given option based on perspective) to add another year of coverage for additional $$.

[NYC_X5]

If it’s from a bmw dealership ask for an internal repair order, it will give you more details on what was done to fix the vehicle. Definitely gives more info that the carfax.

[ComasF15]

We bought a 2015 that came off lease, offered as a CPO then to auction. We bought it from a AutoNation. It has one option, back up camera. 32k miles in almost 4 years. So far has been flawless except for the battery. We replaced it and bought a CTEK charger.

As mentioned get the printout from BMW to give you details.

[Kdawg1966]

I see nothing to be alarmed about. It obviously wasn't the first owners cup of tea. They could have traded it in to a dealer who knew that that type of vehicle wasn't going to move on their lot, so they sold it at auction.

If it was exactly what I was looking for, I'b buy with no hesitation.

[turboawd]

It could be as simple as the x5 was someone's second or third car and never drove it. Or it could have been badly wrecked, sat in the body shop for a while, then sent to auction.

[pwrdbym]

There's nothing out of the ordinary here. The battery/charging system checked is a common entry during servicing-all it means is the tech checked the battery charge as part of the service checklist.
Overall it has a decent service history, much of it done on time and not mileage.
A vehicle going to auction is not a concern either; dealers will send cars to auction for a variety of reasons; possibly the inventory was too high on SUVs, sat too long, had too high of a loan and needed it gone, etc. The multiple owners could also be dealerships, many times they register as an owner when all they did was put it in inventory and then auction it off.

[pGtab]

What I wonder is why the car was 2019 4 times in service even though it was hardly driven. I was also wondering about this: Body electrical system checked

But maybe I'm just over concerned.

[turboawd]

Originally Posted by pGtab

What I wonder is why the car was 2019 4 times in service even though it was hardly driven. I was also wondering about this: Body electrical system checked

But maybe I'm just over concerned.

Maybe the battery kept dying from lack of driving. Have you seen this car? Take the vin and go to a dealer and ask for history. They can't give prior owner info, but if they're nice enough, they'll tell you what was done.

[pGtab]

No, have not seen it. Needs to be transferred first. Good idea regarding the Vin, thanks