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European Delivery Write up and Pics

22K views 39 replies 25 participants last post by  Bavarian Beast 
#1 ·
OK, as promised here is the full write up. Gustav...please post on the M5 side if you want...wasn't sure if I should post on both sides, so go for it if you please :)

Edit: Gustav...I think I posted in the M5 side on accident...can you move to the M6 side please lol


Day 1:
We left Charlotte, NC as our home is not far from there on a direct flight to Munich on Lufthansa. We did the BMW 2 for 1 deal (which saved us only about $400 compared to a normal ticket), but was unable to upgrade to business class. At first I thought this would be horrible, as coach on long haul flights is usually miserable. Well, I was very wrong! This flight was actually not bad at all, and their food was half way decent for airline food. They even gave us free champagne, beer, liquor, whatever you wanted. Also tv's in each individual seat, blanket, pillows, etc. If every flight in the US was like this, there would be no use for business class :) However, I didn't sleep that much due to the excitement of getting the car in less than 12 hours.









When we landed we went directly to the Welt from the airport. It was our first experience with the autobahn, and wow was it a good first impression. Right out of the airport we hit 200-220 kph with the taxi cab driver! We did arrive at the welt in about 20 minutes from the airport, paid him his 55 Euro fee and 10 Euro tip and headed inside. From the first entrance it was overwhelmingly nice. They took our luggage, stored it for us (later to be put in our car for us), and lead us up to the waiting area. The waiting area, had all kinds of nice food, drinks, leather seating. Very first class service. Just outside the door was the car. Sitting there spinning just waiting for us to get down there. After arriving at the welt at 9am, we waited until 10:30 for the actual delivery. As we walked down to the car my smile couldn't be wiped off my face. The car was stunning. Something about the Alpine White color with black top makes this car stand out much more so than the black 2007 we had. All the updated features from the 2007 to 2010 model really makes me wonder how I did without all these new gadgets:1: The new I-drive I love. Much easier to navigate around, and much faster as well. The 3-D maps are awesome also. Well, after the minor explanation of how things worked (since we already knew quite a bit having a 2007), we drove it out of the welt and on our way to the Hotel in Munich for some much needed rest. We did go out into Munich town center after some rest and found a nice restaurant and some local beer to try out. Still jet-lagged we didn't do a lot in town and headed back to get up early for our drive to Stelvio Pass and Venice!


















Day 2:
We woke up at 5am and headed for Venice. The stops along the way were Neuschwanstein Castle and Stelvio Pass. The drive to the castle was very similar to the drive's around home. Souther Germany looked incredibly similar to home. Very pretty country as well.











After the castle the drive to Stelvio! What an amazing drive. The roads were indescribable. Best I have ever driven. Stelvio itself you can not drive very fast and is not really that great. The curves are completely blind as you enter them and it is really meant to be a 1 lane road with 2 ways of traffic! It is really cool to look at though from on top of the mountain. The other roads leading up to it is what was fun. What was NOT fun was the detours around rock slides in the MUD and dirt and gravel!!! You can see by the pictures the car was filthy! However, it was worth it in the end, just look at the pics. Watch the Video's too, I am not sure they will embed themselves here.





































































































After Stelvio, we arrive in Venice! It was a pretty cool little place. Lots of stuff to see, and we didn't even get lost which is amazing, considering we didn't have a map. Everywhere inside Venice looks the same. We did eat at a local pizzeria restaurant outside of venice town, and it was great. Probably the best Pizza I have had anywhere...and I like my pizza!:1:



'












Day 3-5:
We left Venice on our way to Rome. The driving through Italy was pretty crazy. At this time I am still trying to keep within break in procedure, so I didn't go over 170 kph (106mph), and that was VERY HARD!! The Italians drive very fast, and speed limits do not matter to them. I suspect I get about 20 tickets in the mail as I saw about 20 flashes of lights along the route haha. I was doing 100 mph and people were still passing me like I was not moving. The Aston Martin wanted to play, but I couldn't since I had so little mileage on the car. When we arrived in Rome it was night, so we stayed in and got up early the next day to visit the Vatican. After taking another 1000 pics we headed back to the hotel and some other restaurant. We winged every dinner plans we had and everything turned out to be good. I guess it is hard to find bad food in Europe! That night we went out for some "night" shots, but they didn't turn out good because we had a crappy point and shoot sony instead of our DSLR.









































Next day we visited Ancient Rome and saw the usuals. What an amazing site it is to see things from hundreds and thousands of years ago. We left that evening on our way to Oviglio, Italy, and a "castle" where we stayed the night. However along the way we stopped in Pisa, had dinner and took a few photos.
























Day 6:
We stayed the night at this really cool castle in Oviglio and headed out the next day for Montreux, Switzerland, but had a stop in the mountains near Mt. Blanc. We ate lunch in what turned out to be about the best food we had on the trip. A local French restaurant in the mountains. (Watch the vid if you want). Also went through the Mt. Blanc tunnel...which I didn't know would cost 35 EURO!!!! I couldn't believe we had to pay over $40 to go through a damn tunnel lol. The toll roads in general cost us about $200 for the whole trip, but I guess that is just part of driving in Europe!























































Day 7:
Arrive in Montreux the night before, had a great dinner at the hotel actually overlooking the Lake and Mt. Blanc. Very Romantic setting with candles, the whole thing. Really haven't had a dinner experience like that anywhere in the States. If you get a chance to visit Montreux, do it! Well worth the amazing views, walks by the lake, and great food.

We left this day on our way to the Ring. We had to stop in Stuttgart for our 1200 mile service before the ring. They even had a cool BMW Scooter for 6k Euro lol.




We leave for the ring! I am pumped! Well guess what....we get to the ring and it is CLOSED!! I feel like crying...did all that driving leading up to the best part and they are closed. They were not supposed to be according to their website but something came up last minute I suppose, or a bad wreck, something...anyway, I was dissapointed. My wife did say one encouraging thing though. "since you didn't get to drive on the ring this time, our next car will be a ED car and we will make sure we stay at the ring for a few days so you can get your driving in". That sealed the deal for me and I didn't feel as bad. After waiting an hour to 2 to drive on the ring and decided they were not opening it back up, we went to eat at Pistenklause which was a must! Best steak I probably have ever had and it was awesome to be able to cook it how I wanted in front of me. Wish we had a restaurant here like that! After eating we left that night straight for Munich as the flight was the next day and I didn't feel like staying at the hotel we had planned on the ring if I didn't get to drive on it. Was just too much of a dissapointment lol.












































So that pretty much concludes the trip! I did get to hit 170 mph until the limiter kicked in (after the service of course). I am sure I forgot many things so please ask as many questions as you want. I hope I didn't post too many photos:thumbsup: We took a total of over 2000 pics on the trip so it was hard to choose which ones to put on here haha. If anyone gets the chance to do this, it is a must. Every BMW we buy from now on will 100% be a ED. This is something no one could ever forget!
 
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#2 ·
that was an amazing write up!
 
#3 ·
wow
great pics...thanks for posting.
 
#4 ·
Thank you for sharing. wonderful pics and it looks like lasting memories. I hope to do the same one day.
 
#8 ·
What was the cost to ship it back? Were there import taxes?

all that is included in the ED price. you dont have to take care of shipping on your own, you can drop it off at of at one of many ports and BMW takes care of the rest.
 
#9 ·
i think there's about 10kph of lee way with the speed - but how the hell did you not see them coming up :dunno: they're pretty much all advertised beforehand and they either on the naked overhangs(mostly :biggrin:) or in the same little concrete outhouse :grinyes: {fwiw - the GPS' you buy at the store in italy comes with AUTOVELOX that gives you the locations of the camera :eek:h:}

either way i doubt bmw would forward you the tickets - i sure didn't get any {rental}


also for the autostrada tolls etc - those have got to be worth every penny - for roads that straight and that even :noSMG::M5eyes:
 
#12 ·
Glad to hear that you two are back home safely after a great trip. Brings back lots of memories of my EDs. Thank a lot for the photos and videos. A vicarious ride for the rest of us!

Didn't know if anyone would watch the vids, but some of them have great scenery. I should have bought a Go-Pro like you but I didn't. So my wife videoed. That is why you see it shaking like crazy hahaha.

Hope you have fun on your trip. Take all the pics and vids that area allowed! I wish I was going with you on that one too lol
 
#14 ·
Thanks for the writeup. Sounds like you had loads of fun. Super happy for you. I can't see the pics though. "bandwidth exceeded". I guess i'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them.
I just upgraded to photobucket pro...so should work now. Let me know if it still is not showing the images
 
#15 ·
Didn't know if anyone would watch the vids, but some of them have great scenery. I should have bought a Go-Pro like you but I didn't. So my wife videoed. That is why you see it shaking like crazy hahaha.

Hope you have fun on your trip. Take all the pics and vids that area allowed! I wish I was going with you on that one too lol
The GoPro does not have a view finder or screen so it's point and pray if hand held. I thought your videos were fine. Tell your wife she did a great job. We will blame the shaking on the driver and mountain roads!

You can probably still go to the M Experience in France if you really want to. It would give you something to do while you wait for your baby to get to NC.

They won't let me take squat for photos/videos, so I may or may not even take the GoPro. But I will take my DSLR just 'cause its a vacation for me (for some reason my family that is staying behind is not nearly as excited about this as I am). :rolleyes: BMW M did say that they will take a photo of you at Miramas.

Looks like Gustav will be there to. That will be fun and will ensure a full report.

I could tell in the mountain videos that you were short shifting due to break in RPM limits. Been there, done that on the Autobahn and in the Alps:

"Baahhhrrrooommm", click, "Baahhhrrrooommm"

vice that shrieking roar/scream up to red line after break-in.

European Deliveries are like dope, once you've had a taste you have to do more :cheers:

I can't believe the 'Ring was closed. I felt so bad for you when I read this. But your plans for next time should do the trick.

Aloha
 
#16 ·
The GoPro does not have a view finder or screen so it's point and pray if hand held. I thought your videos were fine. Tell your wife she did a great job. We will blame the shaking on the driver and mountain roads!

You can probably still go to the M Experience in France if you really want to. It would give you something to do while you wait for your baby to get to NC.

They won't let me take squat for photos/videos, so I may or may not even take the GoPro. But I will take my DSLR just 'cause its a vacation for me (for some reason my family that is staying behind is not nearly as excited about this as I am). :rolleyes: BMW M did say that they will take a photo of you at Miramas.

Looks like Gustav will be there to. That will be fun and will ensure a full report.

I could tell in the mountain videos that you were short shifting due to break in RPM limits. Been there, done that on the Autobahn and in the Alps:

"Baahhhrrrooommm", click, "Baahhhrrrooommm"

vice that shrieking roar/scream up to red line after break-in.

European Deliveries are like dope, once you've had a taste you have to do more :cheers:

I can't believe the 'Ring was closed. I felt so bad for you when I read this. But your plans for next time should do the trick.

Aloha
Yea she did a great job, no complaints :) At least I got some videos ;)

I would love to go to the M event, but I have to get some work in. Problem with being self employed is that you get no vacation time, and when you leave work you are not getting paid, but also spending money that week haha. Maybe in the future they will invite me to some event like that .

Short shifting was so hard during break in. I wanted to rip up those mountains like I do at home shifting at 8250 rpm and feeling the power. But I behaved before the 1200 miles. Even after break in service was done I still short shifted to the 170 mph mark. about 6-6500rpm. The highest RPM I have had it is 6th gear there at 7k or so. The manual says you can hit top speed while passing...hope that is fine LOLhiha

The ring being closed was a bummer, but I guess that is what happens when you plan 2k miles in a week lol. No worries though as I am sure we will be back for more. My wife really enjoyed it, so maybe we can make this a usual thing from now on (but not so many miles lol). I wonder if Mercedes and Audi do a similar program?
 
#17 ·
Thanks for the post, what an amazing write up! Im glad you had a good time, and maybe not being able to go on the ring was a blessing in surprise, that place has ruined a lot of peoples days!! Although I am going in October! lol
 
#18 ·
Thanks for the post, what an amazing write up! Im glad you had a good time, and maybe not being able to go on the ring was a blessing in surprise, that place has ruined a lot of peoples days!! Although I am going in October! lol
I actually told my wife that. Many things were off that day including accidents on the way, traffic, the dealer in Stuttgart not even knowing what a 1200 mile service was, etc. They took longer than expected due to this and having to call and find out how to do it. Oh and on top of that BMW was supposed to cover the service for me, but I ended up paying 500 Euro for it too...they obviously didn't get that message lol. So when we got to the ring, things were not as planned. As you say, it's probably a good thing, as you never know what could happen. Would have been bad to put the beast into a wall or something there at the ring!!!

The next time will be better...I just have to convince the wife to buy a PS3 and play GT5 on it for a year hahaha
 
#19 ·
woow amazing pics and very interesting scenery.
i love the colour combinaation of your car


thanx for sharing
 
#20 ·
I just upgraded to photobucket pro...so should work now. Let me know if it still is not showing the images
I can see them now. Beautiful places you drove through. Congrats on the purchase and ED.

By the way, the wifey is definitely a keeper if she's telling you "the next ED we can stay an extra few days for the ring".
 
#21 ·
I can see them now. Beautiful places you drove through. Congrats on the purchase and ED.

By the way, the wifey is definitely a keeper if she's telling you "the next ED we can stay an extra few days for the ring".
+1!!
 
#23 ·
Thanks for sharing the amazing pics and vids! What a great trip!! I did however notice the trend at meal time...You=meat & taters....Wife=leafy greens. hahaaha Thanks again for sharing.

Mike
LOL yea, you see how thin she is...and if you looked close enough you would notice the belly on me hahhaha. Also my cholesterol is probably through the roof :biggrinbounce:
 
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