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SPARTANBURG, S.C. Friday night football and Sunday morning church services are taken seriously in this town of 40,000 people, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

If you want to find local shakers and movers on most fall Friday evenings, you’re likely to track them down at a football stadium hosting the Spartanburg High School Vikings.

If you’re looking for people on a Sunday, you’d be wise to know their religious affiliation. Spartanburg has many churches. A wandering soul needs a directory to find the right pew.

But ask anyone here or anyplace within a 30-mile radius of this town how to find the sprawling, $2 billion BMW global manufacturing facility and you’re likely to get precise directions to the plant’s doorway fronting a stretch of I-85. In these parts, BMW is family, and the people here take family seriously, too.

Perhaps that is why the 2007 BMW X5 Sports Activity Vehicle, a tall station wagon by any other definition is the least self-absorbed, most inclusive, most family oriented vehicle BMW has developed and built to date.

BMW executives shudder at the thought of calling the new X5, the second generation of that vehicle to be made here, a station wagon, minivan or by any other name that describes what it really is — an all-wheel-drive hauler of affluent and affluent-aspirant families.

BMW officials also rebel at the thought of portraying the new X5 as a traditional sport-utility vehicle, although that is how it began as a 2000 model. In fact, BMW is spending millions of dollars on advertising bashing traditional SUVs and telling everyone that their new X5 is different.

After driving the in-line six-cylinder X5 3.0si and the 4.8-liter V-8 X5 4.8i here, I concluded that BMW’s executives are right, but for all of the wrong reasons. They need to make their marketing people spend a month or so in Spartanburg to understand why.

People here are proud, but they aren’t accepting of haughty behavior or attitudes. They like things that are attractive, but are put off by anything foppish or over the top. When they go out, they often do so in groups, and that more often than not includes grandparents and babies. And if there is anything that elicits derisive comments or laughter from them, it’s a pricey vehicle that can’t handle any or many of their practical needs and wants — things like space for a couple of “big gulp” cup-holders.

The new X5, in a major break from traditionally snobbish BMW-think, can accommodate two “big gulp” drinks, right up there on the floor-mounted center console, which is where most Americans and South Carolinians want them.

Although BMW executives are afraid of using “family” in any description of their new X5, the vehicle itself screams the word. Now, it is offered with more interior space, enough for an optional third-row of seats suitable for small children. With the second-row and third-row seats up, enough space remains for a week’s worth of groceries for a family of five. With those seats down, the X5 can carry much of the football gear of the Spartanburg Vikings.

Getting that equipment into the X5 is a cinch. The seats fold down easily to form a flat load space. The lift-gate can be opened or lowered with minimum effort. BMW executives say they will soon add a push-button, power lift-gate option in a corporate effort to keep up with the Joneses — in this case, their rivals at Mercedes-Benz. But consumers should ignore that option — the standard lift-gate performs quite well all by itself.

There is more evidence of family-intent in the new X5 design. Unlike the predecessor X5 or, for that matter, the smaller predecessor X3, ride and road-feel in the new X5 are quite pleasant. There is no jarring brutality over poorly maintained thoroughfares. Tired people can take a happy snooze in the second-row seat, which is what I did for a bit in the X5 4.8i. And this comfort comes in vehicles equipped with standard run-flat tires, which often contribute to harsh, bumpy rides.

But advances in run-flat tire technology coupled with BMW’s decision to jettison front struts in favor of a more compliant double-wishbone setup now yield a premium sedan ride, without any compromise of handling or stability, in the new X5. I like that. Families like that. BMW’s driver-centric marketing people should learn to like it, too.