Thanks all! What a warm welcome! I can see that you have spent some time on the ridiculous freeways here in Japan Bozo5521! We make a weekly haul down to the local Costco in Yokohama every weekend using the Yoko-yoko route. Looking forward to having a slightly more Costco compliant car than my 318ti. Hard to fit the 50 roll pack of toilet paper in the shoebox trunk of the ti. :-)

I bought a Japanese spec model so the wheel will be on the right side which I prefer when driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. :-) One interesting point, in Japan the X5 comes pre-configured with the ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) system. There is a transmitter/receiver built into the rear view mirror. When one approaches a toll booth on the freeways here, the ETC unit 'talks' with the toll system mounted above the lane and pays the proper toll. Similar to the EZ Pass concept in the US except in Japan they decided to make it an active system based on IC card technology (one has to have an IC card inserted into the unit in the car in order for it to work) here in Japan. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this feature as it speeds up travel time and they give you a discount on tolls for using it depending on what time of day you are on the road. They claim that once everyone gets ETC that 90% of the traffic jams will be alleviated here. I'll believe it when I see it.