My husband and I are giving our trusty ‘98 BMW 323is to one of our nephews; we need to get something a little bit bigger, and he needs a car that will not kill him insurance-wise (plus he has access to a BMW repair-expert-tech-wish-he-lived-near-us.)

Anyway, hubby and I each own a 2-seater; me, a Crossfire, and he a Jag X8 (yes, it’s a 2-seater - the back ’seat’ is only good for holding the map), plus we also have a ‘95 4Runner SR5 4×4 which has over 254k miles and we will never sell it. We are looking for something in the middle of our 4×4 and the two 2-seaters, and we do not want a sedan.

We loved the BMW, and even though the X3 and X5 are SUVs, we are leaning very sharply into them. Outside of the size issue, and the price, what, if any, differences are there between the 2? We would prefer the 3.0 engine in the X3, and either the 3.0 or 4.4 engine in the X5. It would pretty much be our ‘tall sedan’, used more as a backup on days we either can’t or won’t want to drive the other cars.

We are looking at used only, as well, as we do not intend to get a car loan, and hope to find something below $15K since we also need to take into account transporting the vehicle to our home near the Tx/Mx border. Mileage is not a big matter as much as documented maintenance.

From the surprisingly small amount of reviews I can find online about each vehicle, it seems that the X3, though smaller, is more expensive, and almost everyone decries about the lack of coffee cups in both models.

For those who have either the X3 or X5, could you please just advise as to what you find good and bad about the two? Are there preferred years or trims? We want an automatic transmission. We will end up with a BMW, as we have had great experiences with the BMW cars (first a 1998 Z3, then the 1998 323is), and we hope the same will happen with the SAVs.