> but if you didn't have it, would you really miss its looks?

I haven't bought an X5 yet, but in looking at them and test drviing them a bit, the sideboard/step just gets in my way and, I suspect, will result in lots of road crud getting on my pants cuff in the Winter if I'm not careful getting in and out.

I can see that if one had a small child they might be useful to make it easier to get into the vehicle, but for myself, I would pay $300 to have them left off.

I'm 6' 2" and perhaps that has something to do with my finding the sideboards non-functional, and it might be different for other people.