BMW Gives Pope Benedict XVI a New X5 Sport-Utility Vehicle

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world's largest maker of luxury cars, said it's given Pope Benedict XVI, a German, an X5 sport-utility vehicle.

BMW, based in the German state of Bavaria where the pope grew up, presented the SUV at a ceremony at the Vatican yesterday, the carmaker said in a faxed statement today.

``We are proud to be able to provide Pope Benedict XVI with a BMW car,'' Michael Ganal, BMW's sales and marketing chief, said in the statement.

The pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, used to own a Golf car, produced by German carmaker Volkswagen AG, which EBay Germany auctioned off on line in May. GoldenPalace.com, an online casino, agreed in May to pay 188,939 euros ($227,889) for the 1999 gray metallic hatchback..

The German seller of the Golf, Benjamin Halbe, 21, bought the car from a dealer for 9,500 euros in January, not realizing it had belonged to the cardinal until he got the car's registration documents.

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Just what he needed.... to pick up the chicks...

Last time pope had a M class:

Maybe it kept breaking down

Funny...

I thought VW was going to get the popemobile accout.

Regardless, the X5 4.8is with 20" wheels is surely the way to go! Especially with the adaptive Podium seating option.

Me too! I heard they were making a modified Touareg for him.

It's strange how the German companies seem to be competing with each other to build the "Popemobile" - why? - is it to attract the Catholic market?

It does seem sad though that yet another long historic association with Mercedes-Benz has been broken - Mercedes-Benz has really lost a lot of its perceived prestige (in Europe at least) over the past few years. However, the long association Mercedes-Benz has with Third-world dictators still seems to be strong - demand remains high among the corrupt rulers of many of the poorest countries in the world - thank goodness DCX can still rely on their loyalty

LOL

When I first read the story, I also wondered what happened. I thought the Pope wasn't really that bent on getting a new car. That said, maybe BMW just sort of offloaded it on to him as publicity of sorts. And it doesn't say it's a Popemobile, right? They might have given it to "Pope Benedict XVI", but more than likely it will end up as a Vatican car pool vehicle for everyone else.

quandt family are catholic, don't expect the pope to rid in protestant mercedes anymore,

VW needs the publicity. That said, the Phaeton was used to ferry the Pope when he visited Germany a few months (or weeks, can't remember) ago. The A8 was used as well.