If your handy with a die grinder I am sure it can be fitted.

I installed my hitch Sunday. Ranchhand's pics were completely accurate. The hardest thing for me was popping out those reflectors! With the oval tips on my exhaust, I found it hard to get up in there but I finally coaxed them out.

The instructions with the kit were excellent. They did short change me 2 25 amp fuses though. Oh yes, I did turn that fuse chart in numerous circles before I finally figure out what was what for installing the wiring on the backside!

By the way, the plastic rivets for the fender extensions were actually 69, not 89 cents. They look just like a rivet but have a larger stem that wouldn't fit in any of the fittings of my rivet gun. I just held the rivet down with a upholstery trim tool, took my large vice grips, grabbed the stem and pulled by rolling the pliers over. It tightened the rivet up and snapped off the stem just fine.

I will be taking mine in next Monday for the reprogramming. If you look at the instructions, this is done at the end after installation. The reference to the beginning is to make sure that any updates are installed prior to the installation. If mine needed any updates being brand new, oh well!

They really just need to come up with a better way to integrate the hitch so you can't see anything. This isn't a pick-up truck. Even a Tahoe looks better with it cut out of the bumper but only enough for the hitch, not a big chunk like out of the X5.

And the Tahoe you'd expect to have a hitch, it's a truck. BMW I expect more from....

Dealer programmed mine today. One half hour. AOK!

I forgot to ask about painting back of the muffler black.
Next time I am in town I'll try to remember.

I aggree- they could have done a better job designing the installation.

It's the roughest of all theSUVs.

Glad it worked for you Randy.

I was short the fuses also. There were two items , pointed on both ends
that went unused.

hey ranchhand,is the hitch a class 3?i'm wondering if it will pull my boat wich is about 4500 pounds.

Gross towing weight of the hitch is 6000lbs with max tounge weight of 600 lbs.

Determine what your X5s max towing weight is. Don't exceed that!!

the boat is not that heavy so i should be fine,i just got a black on black x5 today and i'm picking it up tomorrow so i have to start shopping for a hitch,how much was the bmw hitch and did you get it from the dealer or a website?thanks

I bought from the dealer and paid $500 for hitch and trim kit.

I wanted it covered by the warantee as the hitch also includes an
anti sway module and connects to the X5 bus.

If you go third party you will probably need to buy a wiring kit in addition
to the hitch.

The BMW wiring kit lists for $235 and includes,
Control module, wiring harness, 7 pin trailer connector, 7 to 4 pin adapter
and hardware kit.

i'll stick with the bmw hitch,i have a friend that works at the local bmw dealer and hopefully he can get me a deal today.