Today’s X5 sports a rare diesel six but also comes with a lien against its title. That’s an annoying complication to its purchase, but its price be the ultimate driving factor.

When a company goes to the mammoth length of changing its name it’s oftentimes done as way to cast off some prior malfeasance that had tainted the outgoing title. Oddly enough, that wasn’t the case when Datsun became Nissan in the early 1980s. There wasn’t anything particularly bad associated with the Datsun name, it was just that in an increasingly global market, Nissan wanted to be known for its wares everywhere without the complications that a secondary in-market brand could cause.

That’s too bad because these days when you talk about cool old Datsuns like the we looked at yesterday, those out of the loop are likely to ask “Dat-who?” Of course we all know which side our bread is buttered (secret handshake) and also know what to make of a car branded as a Datsun. With a seemingly solid body and the prospect of a rewarding project to get that little two-seater back in driving condition, we also knew that $3,600 wasn’t an onerous price to ask. At the end of the day, that little Datsun made its way to a laudable 76 percent Nice Price win.

Speaking of names and reputations, what thought first comes to mind when you think Bayerische Motoren Werke, more familiarly, BMW? Most likely that name evokes images of sports sedans and coupes powered by silky smooth, rev-loving straight-six engines and a sport-oriented driving experience. It makes sense since those factors had been the company’s raison d’être for decades. It’s upon that solid backbone that BMW built its reputation.

With that in mind, allow me to present this . That’s right, this five-door is not classified by our modern societal cognomen creators as a car or a truck, but instead as the somewhat ambiguous and less emblematic term “vehicle.” Not only that, but it rocks a diesel under its hood.

Okay, so if you just so happen to have Rip Van Winkled your way through the last three decades or so you’d be in way over your head now. Thankfully we are all up to speed on BMW’s transition from just a maker of sport coupes and saloons (and bikes) to a company that makes damn near every kind of “vehicle” imaginable.

The X5 is one of BMW’s stable of SUVs and crossovers. It’s naturally a bit bigger than the X3 and X1 while a little smaller than the hulking and grille-forward X7. It’s still pretty damn big and at around 5,200 pounds it’s freaking heavy too. Heavy could also apply to the X5’s fuel consumption and that’s why the company offered a somewhat more efficient diesel engine in the model as an option.

That engine is the M57Y, BMW’s 2993cc DOHC straight six oil burner that features not one but two variable vane turbochargers, and direct injection. The iron block engine served its time in a number of the company’s models over the course of the first-half of this decade. Here in the X5 it offers up 265 horsepower and a staggering 428 lb-ft of torque. All that can move the big beast up to sixty from a stand still in under 7 seconds, and that can engender confidence when tackling on-ramps.

A six-speed automatic with Steptronic shifting backs that up and sends power to all four wheels via BMW’s xDrive AWD system.

This X5, in Vermillion Red over a black leather-clad interior looks to be in fine shape for its seven year and 114,000 mile working life. The ad says that the X5 comes with a number of upgrades, including BMW’s wonderful sport seats and a head unit that talks to your phone. It’s said to run and drive “like a charm,” and should get you mid-20s on mileage drinking that ooey gooey diesel.

It also comes with a lien against its title.

What does that mean? Well, that means that this X5 has been held as collateral against a debt the present owner has incurred and that the lien holder must be paid before the title can be transferred. For a prospective buyer, it simply adds a small bit of complication to the process as it’s up to the seller to settle up with the lien-holder and you know what it means to count on someone else to do something. Back in my day people just broke your legs if you welched on a loan, but then those were simpler times.

Perhaps it will still be a simple matter determining this X5’s value. The asking price is $13,500, and that’s a load off its original out-the-door which I’d estimate to have been around sixty-grand.

o you think that in its present state, and with its present title, it could be worth that $13,500? Or, does that price have you leaning nein?

You decide!

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