“You Don’t Take Pictures With Your Toaster” - thats a line in an old Mercedes-Benz ad. Pretty astute, if you know what they mean. I have never been super-crazy about Merc’s (no offence to Malik in Dubai); however that ad line always stuck me; and I always keep that in mind when buying a car. No Toasters for me, thankyouverymuch.
Some of you on GS may remember, a while ago I was asking recommendations about a 7-seater SUV. Considered XC-90, Pilot, Sequoia etc etc. Didn’t like any of those. Finally we bought Mazda CX-7, which was a 5-seater, but my wife absolutely fell in love with its styling. Been going great.
But that still left us with the 7-seater problem (parents/guests visiting etc).
So two weeks ago, I finally gave up my 7-series, and here is what I got. Drum Rolls pls
My new ride - BMW X5
These pics were taken in Mountain View (California) on Sunday. View from across the street where the car was parked.
From the front. Much better than the older styling.
I just love their new tail-lights.
The car is full of gizmos. After playing around with the iDrive for 2 weeks, I think its the best thing since the proverbial sliced bread. Bluetooth and iPod integration is just amazing. Two screens that are fully customizable. Car comes with life-time live traffic - pretty awesome feature, once you get used to it.
This unique shifter is just fabulous. BMW’s offers Automatic, Sports shift (Auto with longer holds and sports tuned) and regular tiptronics. It also has Auto-Hold, where you don’t have to keep your breaks pressed when the car is on a traffic stop.
Steering is pretty standard with audio controls, voice activation, phone controls and two programmable buttons. iDrive also provides six more programmable buttons for easy access to most-used features.
… and the biggest thing for me, three rows of seating (3rd row is just for kids, BTW). Yayy!!
ps. By the way, I did take pics with the car, just decided not to post them here. Will proly post 'em on FB 
These pictures look like they WERE taken with a toaster 
