BMW X6 in the deep, deep South (+photos)

BMW has billed the X6 the world's first Sports Activity Coupe. Photo / Supplied

The mother and daughter that run a petrol station in a South Carolina city named after a soldier in the 1775-1783 revolutionary war between Britain and America don't care much for 2008 tourists and niceties.

They were bunkered down inside the service station, suspicious of a visitor clearly confused by the workings of a petrol bowser that preferred credit to cash. The visitor was getting impatient and waving his arms.

Perhaps it was the New Jersey number plate on the visitor's 5-Series BMW station wagon. Damn Yankees. Can't be trusted.

The women's reticence coulda' come with the territory around Greenville too. A sign on the shopping mall up the road said: "No concealed weapons permitted inside". Nothin' about visible weapons. Mighta' been the other sign on rural land: "Howdy. Now git." A local way of saying "No trespassing".

The inference was clear: folks with a funny accent who git ornery with a gas pump can't be trusted, ain't that the truth.

Mom seemed irritated by the $20 cash payment in the first place. She was busy with a computer game. "Could I have a receipt please," said the visitor.

Mom looked to the heavens, produced the receipt, and said: "Y'all jist pull on the lever."

Daughter in too-tight stretch slacks and an overalled fellow wearing a God Bless America baseball cap were stacking shelves. He sniffed a lot. She was chewing hard on some gum.

Coulda' bin brother and sister. Mom mighta' had an uncle/auntie/brother named Cleetus up yonder in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where Confederate Flags hang on verandas. Wasn't Deliverance filmed near here?

After the visitor sought help for the third time, daughter slowly, very slowly, ventured outside. "Y'all got to pull the lever."

The visitor had had enough. "I keep pulling on the damn lever and nothing happens."

Daughter shook her head, flipped down an innocuous plastic elbow on the bowser itself, and returned, mumbling: "Y'all got to wait awhile for the pump to start," to the shelter of the shelves. The elbow was the lever.

The visitor filled up, pulled out past the rusted 1968 Chevy pick-up truck covered in beer stickers at the back of the gas station and on to Highway I 85 towards Spartanburg, where Germans called Hans and Tomas make the new BMW X6 alongside Carolina workers called Billy Joe and Bobby Ann.

Spartanburg, too, was named after soldiers the Spartan Rifles, who helped defeat the British during the Revolutionary War.