The "like to drive" theme is big in this thread, as it should be. I think there's been an interesting turning point in the past couple years. It wasn't too long ago that buying something fun meant a big engine and bad mileage, and environmental friendliness meant a heavily compromised vehicle. Like 30 Rock said, Prius is Latin for impotence. Now, maybe that's changed. The XC90 Type R, Tesla X, Mazda CX-9 - all are sporty, decent looking and have the potential for a lot of fun with small engines and low post-manufacturing impact. Even my wife's Explorer is bigger, faster and more fuel efficient than my E53 (admittedly, it drives like a battleship).
This isn't to knock the E53 and I'm in no rush to move on, but I can't help thinking it's points of differentiation are dwindling.
Side note, I do realize all the examples I posted cost 10-20x what an E53 does.
