Ok guys, I have to tell you this and maybe it will help some of you when choosing your options.

I had to drive my husbands '02 325i the other day. Nice car and bit more fun than the X3 as far as driving is concerned. However, I quickly realized how much I depend on the added features in my X3. First, is the park distance control. Most of the parking spaces in Europe are designed to fit a Ford Ka, if you don't know what that is then imagine a mini cooper sized auto built by Ford. Then, it was the heated seats. When the car has been sitting awhile, in the cold, it takes a few minutes for the air to heat up. Yet with my X3 the heated seats provide the warmth I am looking for in less than a minute. On my way home it started to rain, but intermittantly (sp?). I never realized how much I loved my rain sensor until I had to continuously adjust the windshield wiper control!

Just thought I'd share. The only other option I wish we would have splurged on would be the navigation. We got lost the other night trying to find a restaurant to meet friends. It wouldn't have happened had we had the navi. Another great option is the auto dimming mirror. It didn't come into play the other day when I was in hubby's car but I suffer from night blindness at night and it makes a HUGE difference when someone is behind you.

Thanks for listening!

Re: NAV. Have you considered an aftermarket, portable unit. You can move it from vehicle to vehicle. I just picked up the Garmin StreetPilot 2610 (it has a $100 rebate through 1/15/2005). Added two 512MB compact flash cards and I'll be able to store virtually everything I need. You can select software with maps of Europe.

Garmin 2610 link (http://www.garmin.com/products/sp2610/)

Actually we did look at a portable GPS unit. I just couldn't see paying $1600 for nav that would only be available in my car. What we ended up doing is buying a new laptop. We purchased the Dell 300M, very compact, Bluetooth compatible and all the other toys that new laptops come with. We use Autoroute 2004, European edition right now and it really works great. The total cost was around $1800, more than the nav would have been in my car alone but with so many other options. It's slim and the extra battery we got is good for 6+ hours. Plus, the screen is really easy to read and the software is easy to use.

Our friend has a new '04 Volvo S60R, NICE ride! Anyhow, the reason I said I would've liked to have nav in my car was because he found this restaurant (in the middle of nowhere) using his nav on his car. It listed all these restaurants that subscribed to his software. It's a mexican steakhouse; I know it sounds odd for Germany but this place has the best Angus beef I have ever had. The problem is there would be no way we would have known about it without his nav. We ended up finding it, eventually. I tell you what, the X3 was built to climb a hill... :cool