Hi there and thanks for the welcome and all the great help!! I will bring the car in for them to check out the tranny prob!!
I will also look into a set of 19's for my winter trips....

I was recently at my local dealership, and saw a new 7 series with optional 21's!!! Apparently they arent avail. for X5 applications, i'm assuming offset, and /or weight might be an issue, but they looked great...I will try to upload some pix of these tonight. Anyone seen these wheels yet??

thnx again....b