New X5 35d Owner

[Michael-Dallas]

I partly blame Franklin Joseph on this one, but my fiancee and I are proud owners of a new 2011 Platinum Bronze/Nevada Cinnamon X5 35d! We traded-in my fiancee's 2005 Nissan Murano and picked up "PDizzy" (for "Pimp Diesel" as my fiancee names her cars) on Friday afternoon.

Long story short - I had originally planned on selling my E36 M3 and get a CPO Audi A4 -- something newer that wouldn't need work for a while and something that my fiancee could also drive (she can't drive a MT). After some soul searching, I figured it would have been a big waste of money to upgrade my secondary car since I drive my 996 80% of the time. Add to that, my fiancee's Murano was coming very close to 100k and needed $4k in work (scheduled major maintenance, tires, etc).

I remember when we test drove the Murano over 5 years ago, we were both awestruck by it. The X5 just takes it to an entirely new level. I've always loved diesels and I was ecstatic to that BMW was finally bringing diesel automobiles to the U.S. Needless to say, I am completely blown away by this engine -- diesels have come a long, long way since my father's 1984 M-B 300D turbo diesel.

The only bummers so far is our X5 does not have Comfort Access (my fiancee is used to Intelligent Key, the Nissan equivalent) and the tonneau cover is not standard. It's not a real biggie since the Murano's tonneau cover spent most of its life unused, but it's convenient when we need to conceal valuables.

And to think, just one month ago, I had helped a friend of ours test drive and evaluate a CPO Porsche Cayenne in the rain. We were both impressed by it, but she ended up ordering a 2011 Alpine White/Nevada Cinnamon X5 35i and took delivery last week.

Michael.