Mini update.

The big news is this San Diego, CA vehicle is now a Boulder, CO vehicle as I have recently moved. The 1,000+ mile drive through CA, AZ, NV, UT, and CO was awesome and the X5 was a champ. Loaded to the gills with tools, belongings, bikes etc. it returned 22-23mpg on the drive which may not seem that great but with speeds between 80-90mph and elevation eclipsing 11,000ft through the rockies, they are satisfactory numbers. For reference the wife's Q7 4M with a few suitcases and 2 dogs, no cargo box or aero drag, only mustered 19mpg.

Also, now that I live in a fairly flat area the X5 is poised for MPG greatness. I am 1/2 way through my first tank of fuel in Boulder with mostly urban driving checking out homes for sale and I am sitting at 28+mpg which includes some spirited canyon driving and overtaking. By my calculations ~30mpg for a tank of fuel should be the new norm. Impressive considering the altitude and the fact I would get 21-24mpg per tank in CA.

Here are a couple better pics of my exhaust system as well as the "cool" X5M trans pan and differential heat sinks.



Apparently the X5 with the KWs installed couldn't get aligned on the Hunter machines? Techs say that the machine needs to have weight added to the back of the vehicle to read specs and they weren't able to do this. Kind of a bummer since I paid for a lifetime alignment via Firestone and essentially it's now useless.


Fresh oil change for the drive out to CO and knowing I won't have my tools available for the first few months out here.


Some pics on the drive East