Gene

if that's your pool/crib...let's go....

Gene

For the college students....finals start or done? Anyone walking/graduating this spring?

flyingpuck

OUR MODERATOR FOR TONIGHT......GENEATALS...Lets give him a big thank you!

EuroCarFan

Fairmont Mayakoba in Cancun/Playa Del Carmen?

I was there!

John Photography

could be, i got the pic from google!lol

looked refreshing, it's gonna be in the 100's here the next few days!

EuroCarFan

I'm 99.9% sure it is. They have 2 infinity pools and that's the one that over looks the ocean.

EBMCS03

You have not... lets see the pics. With people in it... and people of the opposite sex of you.

rodybmw

Not much activity here for the last few days.......

So I guess we can talk about anything in this thread,.....

We got a 2008 X5 for my wife a few months ago and it is both slower and uses more gas than her old 2001 X5. Both are 3.0 I6's, the 2008 weighs more, but also has more power.....yet it is noticeably "lazy" in acceleration while the 2001 was quite peppy. I installed a Sprint Booster in it and it helped, but it's still not like the old one. The gas mileage is also at least 1-2 MPG LESS than the old one, although that's with the Sprint Booster installed in the new one. My wife is a social worker and makes 3-4 house calls a day, which means a lot of city driving which results in really bad gas mileage. So a couple of weeks ago she suggested that we should get a "work car" for her that would have better gas mileage and also save the X5 from being driven so much (her old X5 had 175,000 miles when we sold it). Not wanting to get a "boring" car and wanting to have great gas mileage didn't leave us many choices. We decided to get a MINI Cooper S with a manual gearbox (thanks for the info again Eric ). Boy, these cars are hard to find. I wanted one with NAV since my wife has used the NAV in the X5's for work all the time, but there were only 2 in the entire US, one was a Steptronic which we didn't want and the other was in Texas. So I gave up on NAV and just had them search for a Cooper S manual in three possible exterior colors. Again, only 2 available in the SoCal area. I am very surprised that manual gearboxes are soooooo hard to find on a car like the MINI Cooper S .

Anyway, here's what we ended up leasing. It is one of the most fun cars I have driven and I keep finding excuses to take it on a spin. A great amount of the fun factor for me is being in a manual gearbox car again as my 545 SMG is the first car I've ever had that is not manual (yeah I know it is manual, but no clutch pedal, etc.). As much as I like my SMG I really have missed driving a manual and I'm 90% sure that my next BMW will be a manual again. I don't mean to imply that the only fun thing about the MINI is the fact that it's manual. The whole car is great fun. I'm sure I wouldn't have felt the same way had we gotten a manual Honda or Toyota, etc........the MINI is just great fun

So the MINI is giving us twice the gas mileage as the X5 (uses half the gas), but at the end I'm not sure we'll have any net savings as we do have to pay for the MINI lease and insurance, but the insurance for the X5 should be less as it is now considered a "pleasure car" by the ins. co. The X5 will also depreciate less because it will be driven only about 10,0000 miles a year vs. the previous 25,000 miles.......so the MINI should save the X5 from being driven so much and keep it from having 175,000 miles on it when we sell it like the old one did.

Gene

Looks good, congrats...my wife kinda of wants to get an x5 as well, but we both like the older model more. Think we are leaning towards a tahoe. Does your wife work for the city? My wife works for a private adoption agency, wonder if they have crossed paths?

flyingpuck

I have never seen such an adorable School Bus in my life!