My 4.8 is my daily driver and my commute is about 18 miles each way during a normal week, with mixed speeds (30-40mph on most sections about 5 miles at 60+), but for the last two weeks I have been running closer to 75 miles each day with a 50/50 mix of local and highway.

I understand the basic issues at hand (I play a mechanic on TV, but in real life I sell yachts) but fall back on the issue that if you look at who's driving the average SAV/SUV and it's real world usage, I am not out of the norm (well, those who know me would probably argue with that) with my usage.

My father-in-law was just in town, and I gave his truck (Diesel GMC 2500 heavy duty) a quick clean up on saturaday as well, and when i popped the hood guess what I saw, two batteries and TWO alternators. Due to electrical loads and the "heavy duty" tag, the truck had two systems. Now, I look at that and say hmm...do you think BMW could have thought about all the loads being put on the electrical system (since even the glove box uses an electric switch for chirstssake) and thought about the fact that maybe a large number of these vehicles will be driven by the likes of me and my wife and NOT see huge amounts of daily travel time, and may have issues with keeping a charge on the battery??

I can only imagine if i lived up north (where my in-laws are from) and was running the rear defroster, heated seats and actually drove in conditions that prompted the intervention of ABS/DSC and other elctronically driven safety nets...perhaps I'd be forced to get a battery tender....

...but to be told I opened the doors too many times in a two hour peroid while i washed the car (so figure half the time they're shut as I don't actually wash the interior) after a week of above average highway commuting is just wrong.

FWIW - although my invoice says nothing about the battery charge, they did flush the brake fluid, yet forgot to reset the service indicator as it popped up again today!!

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