New Wheels (of the four-wheel kind)

I wrote that we were getting the X6-M previously.  It finally arrived in all it's 550 bhp glory!   The car is a looker (he said in his best grandpa Wheeler voice).  Don't know if that is due to the color, the car's shape or the fact that they are very rare in Seattle, but we do get quite a few head turns.   This was the first time we were offered the option to "wrap" a car to protect the paint job.  Usually when you go into the finance manager's office they try to sell you a bunch of stuff that most people say you should decline because it is a huge markup for the dealer and you could have done (or had done) yourself for less $.  This option though, was the only add-on people said was valuable (yes, you could also have this done yourself, but given the potential to make the car look like crap, I decided to go with the dealer's installer and associated install warranty).   The wrap material comes in many different names:  StoneGuard/ClearMask/Ventureshield/Durashield.  It is difficult to install flawlessly so a professional is recommended.  I had heard about this process in the past, but only in the context of covering smaller areas such as the car's front end, the first 3rd of it's hood (together commonly known as a clear bra), and as door edge guards.  I had seen a couple of these applications and hated the line in the hood where the material ended and worried about "yellowing" of the material over time.  Research showed that yellowing wasn't really a problem with the modern materials and most have at least a 5 year warranty.   Also, because the material is applied much like window tinting, most of the higher-end materials can supposedly be removed without affecting the underlying paint job to allow new material to be applied.  Because I wanted the entire front-end covered including the front fenders and the entire hood (known as a 1/2 wrap which also included door guards, side-mirror guards, headlight lens guards) we needed one of the materials which came in large enough rolls to cover the hood in one piece...Durashield in our installer's case.  The result is fantastic even on our non-metallic paint which shows every little flaw.  The cost was fairly expensive but not when considering how much it would cost to re-paint a panel (which never looks as good as a factory paint job) and now I don't have to worry as much about paint chips.

Car comes with all the latest and greatest in auto-technology including integration with Google maps.  Coolest new electronic gadget:  the heads-up display.  Wouldn't have ordered it had it not come as part of some other package, but now that we have it...AWESOME!  Use it all the time.  Thought it would annoy me at first, but it definitely blends in to to the background unless you make a conscious effort to look at it.  But you don't ever have to look down.  Pretty cool.