New '05 X5 owner here, sayin hi and have some questions.

[xe0s]

Howdy from Texas everyone! Just wanted to drop in and say hi and ask a couple questions.

I just bought a white '05 X5 3.0i a few days ago and am loving it! This is my first BMW and boy, I had no idea what I've been missing out on! These things drive like a dream. I've driven some nice cars in the past, including one with about 4x the horsepower but even my modified supra didn't handle or drive this sweet. I'm in love!

So with that out of the way here are a couple questions I have...

1) I can hear a high pitched, allbeit quiet, noise coming from the engine when accelerating, almost sounds like a turbo spooling (cant be tho, no turbo .. and I'm wondering if that's just normal for a BMW engine? This is my first so I don't know all the sounds yet. The car had a very thorough inspection before I bought it and everything checked out with flying colors, but I'd like a second opinion from another X5 owner.

2) I'd like to replace the single, down facing exhaust tips with the sportier dual-tipped exhaust that points straight back. Is that something I could do myself? Or do I probably need a BMW professional to do it? I'm pretty handy with cars, built turbo charged engines and performed exhaust system swaps in sports cars.. etc. so a little dirt and elbow grease doesn't scare me.

3) I'd like to install a Bavarian Soundwerks iPod/iPhone integration kit and am wondering if anyone has ever tried one of these or knows of any reasons not to do so?

4) I've read that the X5's can have some reliability issues and I'm wondering if there is anything inparticular I should watch out for or if there's anything I can help avoid by performing any specific maintenance on the car.

Thats pretty much it. Everything else on the X5 appears to be flawless, it looks basically brand-spanking-new inside and out. Whoever owned it before me must have worn a feather-suit around it, it's like they never touched the thing. I'm in car-heaven right now.

Thanks all!

-Matt (xe0s)