Our BMW X5 plays a lot of roles in our life — daily driver, tow vehicle, household hauler, etc. — but the most important is Mommy Mobile and road trip car. The X5 makes a great long distance cruiser; it comfortably eats up the miles in comfort, with plenty of room for the family and [...]

It’s only been about 6 weeks since I got my M3 back from the paint shop after my stupid accident. I have been really happy with the new look of the car, and it certainly turns a lot of heads now so other people seem to appreciate it to (or they think I’m insane for [...]

Up until now I’ve stayed away from adding flat out performance parts on our BMW X5. Unfortunately, as the car ages, you can’t help but have that slight nagging feeling that there are so many newer, nicer cars out there. When you start reading the magazines and see what the new BMW X5 is capable [...]

I will admit it… I have a carbon fiber fetish.
I love the look of carbon fiber — the not-quite-black color, the textured finish, the interesting pattern you see as light hits it. I know it’s irrational. I know it’s expensive (even with Chinese knock-off parts). I don’t care — I love the idea of carbon [...]

I’m on a mission to black-out much of the exterior of our BMW X5. I started by blacking out the badges on the car, and plan to follow up by tinting the windows, installing gloss black grilles, and installing smoked lights. To darken the headlights on our truck I purchased Lamin-X’s new lightly tinted 3M [...]

From the first day that we bought our BMW X5, I’ve hated the wood trim in the interior. The car was such a nice ride — sport package, great colors, and a great price being that we were buying it from a friend — that I overlooked the lack of a navigation system (a must-have [...]

With the other recent changes I’ve made to my wife’s BMW X5, I’ve decided I’m going to start cleaning up the exterior of the truck. My plan is to first tint the windows in order to darken the exterior look just a bit. Then, a much bigger project, is to paint all of the black [...]

After 6 weeks of waiting, and a ton of grief in trying to deal with getting the repair done properly while taking the opportunity to upgrade a couple of things, my M3 is finally done. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the M3 was damaged in a stupid fender bender, necessitating a complete re-do [...]

My wife, Erica, is spoiled.
She’ll admit it. It’s not a surprise to her or to me. As my obsession with cars has grown, she has always been the recipient of some pretty serious hardware. When I upgraded in 2000 from my very heavily modified BMW 328i sport — full Racing Dynamics body kit, track [...]

Fact #1: Inattentive drivers are more dangerous than drunk drivers.
Fact #2: It is impossible to see around a car with blacked-out windows when you are in a low-slung sports car.
Fact #3: Wet roads take longer to stop on when it’s raining, even if you have gigantic red racing brakes.
Combine those three facts, and accidents happen. [...]