Max Blast

It's a wonderful package that you can't have in the states. Quiet, economical, roomy, very torquey four cylinder turbo diesel. This was the rear wheel drive version on studded winter tires on very slippery roads, and it had no problem getting anywhere. Packages and trim was akin to what we have in NA.
Not worth moving to Germany over, but still ridiculous that we Americans can't buy a MB family wagon that seats five comfortably and gets 40 mpg and hauls all your stuff.

ipp

Studded tires? Was it in the nordic countrys? I agree about the four cylinder diesels, they are very nice. Sadly the only have 5-speed autos (or six speed manuals), if the had the 7G-tronic I would have picked the bi-turbo E250 CDI over the 6-cyl E350 CDI.

X5_E320

I think the best combo is the E250, also a V4, 3sec faster to 60mph and you can get more mpg, but the best daily driver combo is the E350 4-matic, an E250 with 4-matic would be cool, my dad is thinking of getting one of them for my mom, not sure if we really need awd....

X5_E320

sorry, I posted before I read that, you are right, my dad got a 8-speed automatic in his BMW 530d GT (which will be replaced with a X5 40d) and the automatic is amazing, 5-speed is to less.....