Agree, poorly advised.

But one other thing (which I'm sure you are aware of, and I'm sure BMW is already on top of it), is tires. Make sure you have an ok rating for higher sustained speeds :thumbup:

Definitely poorly advised. As long as your tires can handle high speeds you won't have any problems. I've been driving mine in Europe for a year now and consistently drive between 110-130 on the autobahn and have no problems.

Actually i heard that the USA versions of X3 and X5s get a different X drive system. It fuctions the same but the diffs are different and they handle sustained high speeds better than ours. Ive heard this by more than one person. But if this is true than yours is a euro version anyway and would not have that problem

really why would BMW go through all that trouble?

My X3 is a US spec version that I bought here in Germany through the US Military Sales program and I don't think that BMW would go through all that trouble to make different diffs for different regions but who knows.

What trouble are you guys talking about. All they have to do is bolt up a different differential. IT doesnt really entail anything outragous. You can swap a differential in 3hrs if you wanted to yourself. IT wouldnt cost BMW any more time to install a different differential in the first place. Its not like they put in one and then take it out and put in the other version. And the reason why they would do it is to save money. Maybe they make more of a profit because of it, who knows. Its always about money. But as far as this being a pain in the ass to do for BMW, it wouldnt be at all. In fact every US version Bimmer differs from euro spec in some way or other. The E36 M3 US spec had a different differential than the Euro spec M3. I know that for a fact. Ive heard this from many different sources about the X3 and X5 and allthough i dont know 100% for sure it is definately not the first time BMW has done this and wont be the last. Not sure why you would think this is so unbelievable. By the way its not that the US diffs cant handle hiting 130mph. Its that they cant handle sustained cruising for prolonged periods of time at 130mph.

I'm jealous of you guys who can legally drive at such high speeds all the time - I wish we had a US autobahn...

Me Too. My next BMW will definately be euro delivery for sure just so i can drive on the autobahn

At speeds of 112 mp/h and above, the X3 is powered exclusively by its rear wheels. It's not a 4 wheel drive anymore ...

Don't they have something like that in Montana?