Why I dream of the BMW X5

I have a nice car. It’s a Japanese SUV, which I bought after going around car dealerships over a period of 9 months. During those 9 months, my family got sick and tired of me dragging them along to these car dealerships and seeking their opinion about the cars. It doesn’t help having 2 daughters, who at that point of time were more interested in barbie dolls than discussing the benefits of head lamps switching on automatically.

But after 9 odd months, I bought a car, which was at that time the best of the lot and till this date, has served me very well, and is still as good as new. One of the reasons of it having done under 20K miles is the fact that my office happens to be across the street from my condominium. Add to that the fact that the Mrs and my younger daughter start getting nauseous as soon as we hit the stretch towards Genting highlands, has ensured that we don’t go for many long drives.

When I bought my car, it had all the bells and whistles one could hope for, at that point of time. Hybrid cars were still a fair distance away, with the only option available being the Prius (which I was and still am not particularly fond of) and the safety features which seem to have become a standard now, were only part of the car shows then.

But how times have changed. Today, most of the cars, with a reasonable price, have all these safety features. One of the strangest safety features is an animal detection system in one of the new cars. Now, people detection, I can understand, but animal detection is not something we see everyday on the roads. Maybe, that system was designed for countries like India, with several dogs and cows roaming the roads, or some Nordic countries, with the stray antelope crossing the road. But yes, from a safety point of view, they seem to have covered most the angles. In addition, plug in and normal hybrids have started making inroads. What with the government tax incentives and the parking facilities in the new (and some old) malls.

Which brings me to the X5. From the time I heard the price of the X5 hybrid, I have been yearning to take advantage of the huge tax rebate that is given on the car. Imagine, a 500K plus car, available for a little over 300K, just because it’s a hybrid. In addition to that, it’s a BMW, it’s an SUV, it has TV screens for the kids (maybe it will control the nausea too?), it has all the safety bells and whistles, and did I mention it’s a BMW? I have been contemplating spending 300K just to take advantage of the close to 200K discount for the past 3 years. I have test drove the car umpteen times, dragged the kids along to evaluate the car, almost dragged the Mrs to see the car, but I have not bought the car. While I would love to buy the car, I still love my existing car, and cant find the heart to change it, specially when it is still as good as new.

One day, I will buy the X5. Maybe 4 years down the line, when a new model has been introduced and the car can do 60 KMs on batteries alone (up from the current 30 KMs) and it has many more features than it currently has. The only concern I have it that then, maybe my kids will not need the TV screens at the back (busy in their phones), they might not be around to come with me for long drives and more importantly, I might not have the money to buy it, since I would be paying for their college tuitions… But, never say never and we all live in hope. So here’s hoping for my BMW X5….. arriving in 4 years…..