Name your car.
 

Actually, the S4 may fit the bill too.

Name your car.
 

May be a non-factor. Turns out, he's not a stick-snob anymore. Color me agog and aghast. (I discovered this from a conversation ten minutes ago --- sorry.) Says it's because he's tired of Mom saying she can't drive his car,* but I think it's that he's sixty and feeling like his manual years are behind him --- if past experience is any indication, he may have this car until he's 74 if he likes it and buys out the lease.

He seemed intrigued by the A6 quattro, and I think he tends to agree with me that German styling is unparalleled. (Sorry, Sebby, he and I both think the E90 3er is gorgeous --- I look at that car and want to hump it.) So I guess I'll be looking into automatic configurations of the 3er, the A4, and the A6 in his price range. He might still like the TL in an auto, too, although the body styling was less interesting to him, or maybe I'm projecting.

*Actually, she probably still can if she tried, but she's being difficult.

Name your car.
 

It's the best way to buy a BMW. I'd tell you tales if you were interested.

But, as mmmm845023 says, you're just picking up the car in Europe--they don't offer other options. And it's not financially sensible to buy an actual european car and ship it back (except, perhaps, if you're in the military, because they may enjoy some exception for cars they purchase while stationed there).

Name your car.
 

Or, he doesn't have the tits that will help get him out of a tick . . .

uh, never mind.

Name your car.
 

Yeah, I know a military couple who did just that. They bought the car at the beginning of their time there and had it shipped home two years later. I don't know what options they have on their car that you couldn't have gotten here, but whatever they are, they enjoy the fact that nobody else has them.

Unfortunately, the BMW is already in the family, and when we buy the family truckster this summer it won't be a vehicle for which European delivery is feasible. I considered and dismissed the Saab wagon and the 5 series wagon is just too spendy, as is the Audi S6 or whatever they call the bigger one. (Mama wants a new kitchen, sans formica.)

Name your car.
 

Cars don't last forever, at least. So there's always the replacement in a few years. By then, BMW may have introduced a minivan.

Name your car.
 

We were just talking about the other day. The local BMW dealer has a Toyota Sienna for shuttling folks to the metro, and I said, you know, even if they made one, who would drive a BMW minivan? Even the X3 and X5 seem to defy the point of having a BMW -- I'm not going to corner in that thing the way I do in the sedan-- and even the point for most suburbanites in having an SUV - there is hardly any cargo room in those things.

Name your car.
 

No argument here. But porsche and bmw seem to have discovered an entire market segment for whom solely the badge on the hood matters. I hadn't realized there was that much room in NFH's garage.

Name your car.
 

I posted the link to an article about alleged BMW concept of a people-moving-salon (volksbeweglichersalon?), but the linked page was part of a pay site (I don't know why I had access but others didn't). A BMW board member said there was a demand for moving people from one place to another in total comfort, and we shouldn't be ashamed of that. Apparently others within BMW say "nein."

When a German executive says “We are already working on the solution,” it is definitely time to worry. See also.

Name your car.
 

You'd be surprised. They don't handle like Suburbans. More like a car. Especially the 4.4. That one's been over 100 many times.

Name your car.
 

It's not the speed but the control. It may have gone over 100, but how fast will you take the ramp in it? Not as quickly as in a sedan, and you won't feel as close to the road. It's just not as much fun. I'm not saying it doesn't have some driving advantages over other SUVs; I'm saying it's not really the essence of a BMW.

For pure people-moving functionality
 

Nothing beats a Toyota or a Honda. Think Pilot.

For pure people-moving functionality
 

I've done that thinking, and the inevitable associated *sighing*

Name your car.
 

My dad traded in his '99 Carrera 2 for an X5 a few years ago due to having to get new tires every five thousand miles, and he hasn't regretted the decision. He's a Porsche driver from the 1960s (with the exception of the '91 Q45 years, which I'll have to admit, were much better than expected), and I think he wanted to save face when his knees started to protest getting in and out of the Carrera. The Cayenne hadn't come out yet when he was looking to make the switch.

I much prefer to drive the X5 than my own Ford Explorer.

Name your car.
 

I'll own that thing in my '92 5.0.

[IMG]http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=mustang+5.0/v=2/SID=e/l=IVS/SIG=13i36rmvo/EXP=1117655112/*-http%3A//www.vanhary.org/Galleriat/Kerholaisten_autoja_osa_1/Ford_Mustang_5.0_GT_Convertible.jpg[/IMG]