[redbird1]

I drove my bosses X5 today. About 20 mile trip. WOW. What an amazing car. I was amazed by the grip. The steering response was awesome. The car was just asking to go fast on the e-way. I ran it close to 90 through some traffic at one point, just awesome for a sport ute, or even any car I've driven. After getting back to the office I checked a copy of Car and Driver, .83 G. Not bad. I cannot express how tight this car felt. Not that I'm any kind of expert, but the shock and bar settings felt great.
Quite a driving experience.
On another note. Part of my trip was through some of Detroits finest getto. In and around what's known as Jeep Truck Engineering. If any of you know this area you'll understand when I say. Spending time in area's like this is hard to put into words. You just have to see it. A crazy type of place. The decay is beyond words. It's a problem so big that I could never see this being overcome by man. It would take nuclear holocaust and a whole new start to fix it.
Steve

[tjZ28]

One of my best friends just sold his '95 M3 to buy a '02 X5 4.4 w/ the Sport Package (amongst others) and the 19"s. It is pretty peppy, and does handle amazingly for a big ute...

However, I went to the GM AutoShow in motion and absolutely beat on a SRX V8 (Cady). I have to say I was amazed it was as flick-able and seemed to handle nearly as good as the X5 (with a more performance tire like the X5 carries on its 19s I think it'd be even). Cady has come so far in the last 5 years, it's truely wonderfull.

But back on topic, yes the X5 is damn nice vehicle... but not worth the $ in my book. Nor the BMW headaches.

-TJ