I 100% agree with everything Propeller said above. I've had these on my X5 for almost a year and my assessment is exactly the same in every way. The first few closures I thought "damn, now I really have to use some muscle to close this thing". Now it is so easy and doesn't seem like effort at all. I just put my hand on the Roundel and give it a firm 'thunk'. Having arm loads, pressing the trunk button on the remote and having it open by itself is absolutely priceless. As silly as it sounds, it is one of my favorite things that I have done to my E53.

Side Note: I love how jealous my Mom is when she seems my trunk automatically open and she has to lift her X3's up herself (insert evil laugh)!! The company says that making them for an X3 is impossible due to the strut size. Sorry Mom!!!

I'm in. Just ordered mine. for $40 CAD, its worth a shot. If I find its too stressful on my closing mechanism then I'll remove a coil or two, or them in total.

I would love to see pics of the rubber washers you installed, can you post some pics?

Ha I was going to install a rubber washer too to avoid scaring the black tube of the gas shock. Seems like a smart idea and the rubber washer would keep the spring at the end of the polished rod so its not sliding up and down

I installed mine last night, I bought some rubber washers from my local Lowe's hardware store, I also painted my springs gloss black with enamel paint, they look awesome. I too used my original struts, I can confirm that the ball mount will unscrew from the factory struts.

Awesome. Thanks for the confirm. I bought the springs based on the fact I could unscrew my OE ball mounts so thanks!

Sure.
I had these rubber washers laying around, which outer diameter matched the springs almost perfectly. But the center hole was too small to fit over the rods, so i whacked them with a 6mm hole punch. And it was a perfect fit.

Thanks for the pics, I went with some thin rubber washers, I believe it was mentioned in an earlier post, but the annoying rear hatch rattle is gone. I had gotten rid of mine by about 90%, by updating to the newer spring loaded bump stops and by adding some cushion pads to the upper latch. Now it's completely gone, so that's a side benefit of installing these springs.

Soooo.... If my gf is behind the car and pops the trunk from the trunk trigger, is she going to be mistaken for domestic abuse? I see these things just fly open.

When mine pops open, the first 15-20 cm goes pretty quick, but nothing scary. Then it seems to want to pause for a split second, and from there on the struts normal function pushes the hatch open.
Still, i would'nt want to be whacked in my front teeth by that hatch, no matter how slow it goes.
And if you stand very close to the back of the car and don't pay attention to what you're doing, that could propably happen.