Great pics. Thanks.
A few more questions:
1. How solid does the rack feel with two bikes on it?
Perfectly solid in my opinion. The whole rack and the bikes shook a little bit when I hit a pothole, but the longer I drove, and the faster I went, the more confident I felt that the bikes were supported solidly.
2. In your opinion, does this rack look like it's designed to be put on the car permanently?
In my opinion, no. The rack consumes a LOT of additional rear space, which in my opinion makes it even more challenging to park and/or safely reverse the vehicle. Also, when the rack is installed, the rear camera sensor is disengaged. So I'm extremely careful when backing the vehicle with the rack and bikes loaded.
In other words, if it's not designed to be put on and then taken off repeatedly, could there be any damage if I do so, even though that's easily done in one minute?
I'm not convinced that even a "mechanically inclined" person can install/uninstall the rack "in one minute."
It takes longer than that for me (I'm not mechanically inclined, and I've only installed the rack twice; so it took me about 30 minutes. The next time will be even easier, though).
Re: damage, just use common sense and I think you'll be fine. Read the owner's manual and slowly and deliberately practice loading the rack and the bikes. Removing the tow covers is easy, but at first I was very nervous about scraping or scratching them. Best way I like to remove the tow covers is to use my fingers--i.e. no screwdrivers or tools. And be sure to place a towel on the ground directly below--they can get scratched when (not if) they fall to the ground. And one other thing: keep the tow covers protected and stored while not in use. The dealer installed my rack initially and lost the tow covers. It was a PAIN to get the dealership to send me new ones at zero cost, since they tried to say I "mislocated" them. They cost the dealership about $100 to replace. Treat them like an expensive pair of sunglasses! The rack itself is extremely easy and pretty much self-explanatory. Once you screw it into the tow outlets, it's very difficult to mess anything up.
3. Did you buy the rack from BMW through the dealership, and are you aware of any other potentially cheaper vendor that carries it? I searched for it online and was not too successful finding it other than at BMW.
The rack seems to be highly proprietary and limited as to buyability. Our BMW sales guy threw it in as part of the negotiation process. We asked him if he could throw in a bike rack for zero cost, and that's how we got it. I had no idea how expensive or well-built the rack was until I started researching it (after our X5 purchase). T
he only way I can personally think to acquire the rack cheaper is to find one pre-owned.
I'm really considering this rack and had all these questions about it that I couldn't find answers to online, and surely not at my dealership, so I'm extremely glad I came across your postings about this rack.
Thanks again. I tremendously appreciate your help.