Thanks everyone!

bugbyte- I am loving the location, especially since it is much more natural to drop my hand by shifter for controlling music instead of up. (Almost as convenient as steering wheel which could be achieved as well with bluetooth to CANBUS adapters.) The X5 also looks like a spaceship at night which is very tasteful to a geek like me! To answer your questions.....

Location- The relocation took me about 5 hours. You have to remove center console then remove trim. The trim frame is very strong steel considering its role and you have to dremel into the $80 trim piece....



After you are done fitting, you will have to fabricate sides so the MID matches the contour of its new home. I used thin plastic which was easy to trim, only 10 min/side....



You will have to vinyl wrap to cover your trim modification then you will have to cut away a small piece of plastic in center console so it fits and voila! You can get away with doing this without extending or cutting wires. That was a nice break


Brightness: The screen is 1280x800 @ 400 nit brightness. This surpasses many aftermarket stereos at 300 nit and I find it brilliant in any light but direct hit from sun. Even then, as evident below, it still is legible. Voice navigation and my buttons may have helped but I have not had to shroud the display once.

Picture of screen with direct hit from sun, exacerbated from fingerprints ....



TerminatorX5- no more real cigarettes since I started smoking e-ciggs back @ New Years. I'm not really bragging about it though, nicotine is a terrible drug!

Thanks again for the support everyone