Thanks for all your insightful thoughts! It is really great to get different points of view when considering a change.

I really do enjoy driving my X 5 and as you say Vendetta, the seating position is awesome, however, my X5 has been fairly troublesome and frankly I am not enjoying the amount of time my X has spent in the shop - the good news is that she seems to be running great now, but it has caused me to consider moving into the 5 series touring - after all BMW has decades of experience tuning cars and only a few years experience with a vehicle like the X5 - no wonder we often have issues!

I have considered the 530T for the reasons mentioned above, in my opinion it is a very attractive wagon that has all wheel drive; it has the latest in BMW technology, seating room is essentially the same as the X5 and it has more storage room than the X5 - my lovely mate can touch a button to move the back door up and down and it is much easier to load and unload, etc

I drove the Touring last night - it is a very nice ride. it drives like a BMW as it felt solid and nimble and certainly handles very well - yes, you do not get the seating position of the X5 and it does feel like there is less space, but the space is relatively the same, just packaged differently. The powertrain was flawless and smooth whereas i find the X5 often struggling with the power and weight of the X5 - in terms of transmission.

The Touring is an awesome practical and sporty car, especially for our Alberta climate - by the way, they do not sell well in North America, but sell like crazy in europe!

Again, thanks for your thoughts.