A 10 year note on a boat is normal it's a recreational craft. Having 8 years of car payments you are throwing good money towards a depreciating asset on top of spending $ to maintain it--not a good move. :yikes:

He's already had to rebuild the boat engine twice, maintenance, and though it might not be depreciating at as high of a rate as an automobile, its sure to depreciate...

You believe what you want and I'll believe what I want. As far as maintenance goes, your going to have that on ANY vehicle, new or used, unless you live somewhere with great public transportation, if thats the case you don't even need a car. With BMW, most maintenance is included for the first 4 years, and you can add on an additional two. So in the end your only liable for 2 years of oil changes. Please don't count tires, etc, because you'll need that stuff on whatever you drive...

This has gone quite a bit off topic, I was just stating that in my opinion, leasing isn't such a bad option for some. I've yet to lease anything, but I almost leased said M3 I previously posted about. My ZHP was purchased 37 months used, CPO'd, and it should be paid off in the next 12 months, about 12 months early. Had I not gotten ahead on payments, in the end I would have a paid-off 8 year old car. All I was getting at was the fact that I might have preferred to purchase a used car from myself. In that I could have leased an e90 for 36 months, then financed the remainder for 60. Check out e90post.com, with the recent downturn in the economy, some purchasers that did just that were able to negotiate even more $$ off their balance owed at the end of the lease because BMWFS didn't want to flood their dealers with e90's at such a bad time. One guy did very well, in the end somewhere around $8000 off between initial negotiation and pay-off negotiation. Sure some leasing fee's and interest expense will offset that savings, but those cost are associated with any purchase that is not paid for in cash...

Comparing owning a boat vs. a daily driver car is apples vs. oranges. And yes there are good deals out there now on cars but also money is shrinking in other areas such as 401ks and home values--it's all cyclical. In the end leasing vs. buying is personal preference. Any solid financial advice you get will not be to pay 8 years on a car--you might as well finance a new one, pay it off in 5 years and the last 2-3 years with no payment be paying yourself back. Anyways, back to the topic at hand--the X5M . . .

did anyone catch this ?

Although the 555 hp is distributed between all four wheels, the intelligent all-wheel drive system has been especially set up in the BMW X5 M with a rear-wheel drive bias to provide typical M driving characteristics. This means that, depending on the situation, less drive is directed to the front axle which enables controlled drifting for the first time in an all-wheel drive vehicle. In extremely dynamic driving situations, the vehicle can also be steered with the accelerator.

drift ?! :excited:

If I understand the concept correctly, what they're saying is that they're allowing you, the "driver", to plug in different DSC levels?? So you can play it completely safe with a higher level of computer intervention on the 4 wheels and keep nose forward at all times....., OR you can essentially turn this thing into a Sidewinder snake and wag that beautiful X5///M ass all over the place....to your heart's content....Not sure if I would want to do that on the NJ Turnpike during a rush-hour thunderstorm though....

stan you are my new friend.. that's awesome.. my new mission in life is to do the " Sidewinder snake " in the M

Makes 2 of us, have my list of specs started but nothing confirmed except the color. Monte Carlo Blue and Black interior.:D

Very tempting. I wouldn't mind have 2 M's in my garage. :D

I got a call yesterday from my bmw guy and he said (this coming Monday) it's time to pick out the options! :boogie::dance:

I am informed that 2010 X5 M will be in showrooms before regular X5s and production of X5 M will start any day now in July.