Well my X5 is back with me! The jobs are done so I now have vents with the 'paddle' lever bits in the rear. The fuel cap opens first time and the best bit of all is the tailgate no longer rattles! The jobs were done by wednesday evening but a driver could only bring my car back saturday first thing.
The technician said it sounded like I was driving with the boot open all the time and I can see why. Are the joy of silence.
As promised a couple of pics of the X3 (I will linl a thread to this in the X3 forum too as I will post a few bits and bobs I felt, having had it since tuesday.
A quickly grabbed pic when I met up with the driver to swap cars:
Also here is the interior - the colour scheme I was not too keen on if honest:
So what did I like / dislike:
Firstly, I wasn't overly keen on the colour scheme, in particular inside but that is personal preference so I'll leave that there.
I like the look of all the 'X' cars and so thought this M Sport version looked good. It did seem small after a few weeks in the X5 which came as a shock to me as it isn't a small car! It's amazing how quickly you get used to things I guess.
The 'new car' smell was still there with only 1600 miles on the clock and added to the 'fresh feel' was the lovely steering wheel and, of course, as I mentioned before the up to date iDrive screen.
The engine seemed very 'perky' with good low down pull and far lively and punchy then the 2 litre d I had previously in my old E91 320d Touring. From what I can see there isn't loads of bhp or torque more than what I had driven around with for 2 years but it 'felt' far more, even though I'd imagine the X3 was heavier. I do, however, still find stop/start technology disconcerting and can't imgaine it being that good for a turbo either come to that!
I (personally) didn't think the car needed or was the right type of car for paddle shifter's but they were fun to play with a few times and were ergonomically very good. The ride/handling were exactly what I'd expect and they left a good impression.
I was also impressed with the look of the newer iDrive screen but prefer the less cluttered look of the older style, without all the buttons round the controller. The 'overview' picture on the screen when the pdc is engaged wasn't as clear though, again imho.
The materials seem that little bit better in the X5 though, even though mine is a '58' plate compared to this X3 on a '62'.
The boot size was ample, although the fully opening (ie non split) tailgate was heavy to close and hard to reach for my youngest child. The doors however felt very light to shut - I kept slamming them to hard ::)
I am pleased to have my X back but this left me with that
double underlined feeling that I made the right choice of going for an X car for my families and my needs and that the X5 was spot on for us.
Thanks for following all my waffle - hope there was something of vague interest in there for you!
X Box
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surprised to see one in that combo TBH. Yes the new screen is great. Mrs chompers new car has the 8.8" screen which looks very good compared to my Business nav screen on the e61, perspective view is also rather nice too. Glad you have your 'X' back and sorted and even nicer that feel your purchase was spot on 
Never anthropomorphise computers. They hate that.
