My wagon fetish is getting the best of me. I miss my Legacy GT wagon. The E36 328i w/ Sport package was one of my favorite cars I've owned. While I love my Suburban and we do use its capacity, I think I could make do with a 5 series wagon and my wife's Outback, probably by picking up a roof box to use for road trips when we take lots of kid or ski gear. The one thing we used the Suburban for that I didn't want to do with my wife's Outback is towing our boat 4+ hours a couple weekends each summer. This has been made a non issue by leaving the boat at the lake we usually use it at, and I'm OK with using the Outback to launch and pull it out of the water.
Been looking at 2006-2008 530ix wagons and the manual transmission option is rare but they are out there. Same for 535ix wagons, but I'm afraid of the potential repair bills that seem to be not infrequent with that engine. Is this an overstated issue? Seems like it's possible to get either one in good shape for $15-18k with 60-90k miles.
Autotrader's compare feature shows the back seat has a bit more leg room on the 5 series than my Legacy had. This is important to me, just a few more inches of leg room make it much more comfy when adults do sit back there. Though, we've got two kids under four so most of the time there will be car seats in it.
Would I love this car? Would (should) I worry about the next repair bill? Throbbing brain of GRM, give me your biased and unbiased opinions.
