Hey mate,
I bought an 08 sv6 for my first car about 1yr ago (couldn't afford an SIDI as i just finished school and only had cash from a weekend job) and its been excellent and I highly recommend it. Its just ticked over to 160,000km and been extremely reliable. All I've done to it over the past 12 months were oil changes, a throttle body clean and new tyres (which were a bit pricey).
A couple of badge snobby mates of mine joked about my commo and bought similar aged Beamers (07 and 08) for their first cars, with half the km of mine and they have both been literally falling to pieces over the last 12 months, requiring thousands of dollars of repairs. I laugh at their snobbery
Anyway, when looking at the SV6s make sure that you get one that has been looked after and regularly serviced (check the logbooks) as these engines have a tendency to sludge up if the oil is not changed regularly (15000km is the very max between changes, personally I looked for 7-10k between the changes). As said above, the 06 and 07 models had timing chain issues so that's why I went for the 08, but the odds are that the 06-07 ones would have been fixed by now anyway. A good way to check is to start the engine, open the bonnet and listen carefully to the engine. If you hear a loose chain rattling, sort of like a bike chain when its not tight enough, the timing chain is stretched, so don't buy that car.
The 08 models also have some niftier features not in the 06/07 ones like the aux in on the stereo to connect an mp3 player and the Bluetooth handsfree (which was an option till 08 I think)
Also with regards to the previous guys' post about the 3.0L SIDI, personally I'd avoid that engine as it feels gutless compared to the Hi-po Alloytec in my car despite seeming more appealing on paper with similar horsepower but better efficiency (test it yourself, you can notice it), the 3.6 SIDI tho is a killer engine, if you can afford it, pick one up.
Happy buying (Y)
