IrvRobinson

My name is Irv, and I work for Motorwerks dealership in Barrington, IL, as you can see it in my signature as well. I've been helping customers with the European Delivery for the past 5-6 years, but I have never experienced the ED trip myself. I presented to my managers the idea of me going on a trip to Europe and learn about the process of picking up the car, driving it around Europe, and then drop it off. Basically, I wanted to feel the thrill that everybody was talking about, and since I've never been to Europe, I knew this will be a challenge for me as well. My manager felt this is a great opportunity to help our future customers by explaining in my own words what European Delivery is. I will let you read my story about the whole trip, story which has been posted on my ED website that I decided to create after I came back from Europe, www.edBMW.com I felt that by putting a good website together, it will help the people learn more and understand ED.

Anyway, I will copy and paste my whole story from my website, and also I have a story about Spartanburg Performance Center where I went back in May as well. I will post that story in a different thread. Thank you.

"It started as an idea, about 4 months before I actually picked up the car. I thought it would really help me to understand the entire process of the Euro delivery if I could somehow go to Munich. experience the delivery and drop the car in a different country.



The dream became a reality when I was told to spec out a 750LI, because I was being sent as a representative of Motor Werks . I chose

to pick up the car near the end of May, since World Cup Soccer was going on the whole month of June, and everything would have been too crowded for me. This extra time also allowed me to plan what I thought would be a well rounded trip including a factory tour at Dingolfing, one of BMW?s most advanced plants in the world, which is only available on Tuesdays and Fridays. I also made a reservation for the Munich plant as a backup, so once I was confirmed for Dingolfing, I cancelled the Munich plant tour.



I left on a Tuesday , about 4:30 pm and arrived Wednesday around 8:30 am?.just in time for breakfast at the airport and to take a picture

standing in the giant BMW grill in the hallway in the airport. Then instead of the usual cab to the Hotel, I thought I would be a bit more adventurous and ride the train and find the Hotel on my own. I wasn?t picking up the car till the following day. I really didn?t need it in Munich , only when I was leaving town. After finding my Hotel, dropped my suitcase, and ventured out to explore Munich, by foot, by train and by bus. Ate in some really great restaurants, drank some fine beer and hung out at the open air market and people watch.

Today, Thursday, was my pickup day and after a big breakfast and great directions, took the train to the delivery center. I was surprised

to find the location in a residential neighborhood. It was pretty low key from the outside, nicer on the inside. I was greeted promptly, told it would be a few minutes while forms were printed, the car detailed and brought up into the garage for delivery. They don?t want to get them completely ready until the customer shows up. I went upstairs to the caf?, signed in the book, and had a sandwich while I waited. A short time later, they called my name and I went downstairs and signed the paperwork. I didn?t need anyone to go over the car, so I plugged the Hotel into the Navigation, and in a short time, I was back at the Hotel and was able to arrange for underground parking nearby so the car would be safe.



I left Friday morning about 8:30 for Dachau and from there, headed to Dingolfing. I knew the plant tour was at 2pm and couldn?t be late, but I had plenty of time in between and actually arrived at Dingolfing early so I hung out at their gift store and took pictures of all the workers leaving and all the workers on the second shift starting. One of the most amazing things I noticed was that was once we were inside, I really didn?t see that many workers. Most of the work stations would have about 10 robots to one worker, so I still wasn?t sure where everyone disappeared to, but it is a five story building that resembles a giant movie sound stage and the production line was humming. I believe that Dingolfing should be a mandatory stop on your journey if you are in the area when the tours are offered. If you love the cars, you?ll be amazed at the process. The tour ends at 4:30 , so it was time to head to Salzburg ,Austria????.



After stopping at the gas station on the Autobahn to get my Austria road sticker and vest, I cruised into Salzberg about 7:30pm , found the Hotel and a great garage inside of a mountain which was around the corner from my hotel. Took a walk and a block party wine tasting going on, so I mingled with the crowd and had some of the wines they were offering. Saturday morning took a narrated bus tour and a short walking tour and then left about 11:30 am headed for Prague in the Czech Republic.



Crossing the border into Czech Republic, there was a currency Exchange store, so I pulled in and gave up some of those Euros for the Czech currency. The Navigation was flawless, not only did it take me right to the Hotel every time , this time I wound up with a parking spot directly in front of the Hotel which was on a main downtown street. The name of this hotel is The Adria , on Vaclavske Namesti 26 phone 420 233 920 118, 119, 139 or 141 . The reason I?m mentioning this Hotel is because the location was awesome and the room better than most, but I walked all over Prague and took many pictures of the amazing architecture that was all around me. Signed up for a two hour walking tour the following day.



Decided to stop in Cologne over night, on the way to Amsterdam. I arrived in Cologne about 8pm Sunday, found a nice place for dinner, just by wandering aimlessly and went back to the hotel so I could get on the internet and check in with my family. Monday morning a took a walk to find the Chocolate Museum and after a very long walk, I did find it sitting in the river, but the closer I got, I wasn?t seeing any activity there. I read the sign and it said closed Mondays, so I guess I wasn?t going to see their Chocolate fountain or taste any of the goodies. I did manage to go around to a side door and went in to just peek. I introduced myself to someone and they explained that it is always closed on Mondays, but they did give me a brochure and I took a few pictures inside and when I was leaving, saw a group of school kids coming to see things, but they didn?t know it was closed either.


Monday afternoon, left for Amsterdam . On the autobahn there must have been a major accident somewhere up ahead and the Police were directing cars off the highway. Once I had a chance to pull over, I reprogrammed the Navigation to avoid highways and it immediately started me on some beautiful back roads. After about twenty minutes, I switched it back to find the highway and was able to get right back on, avoid all the traffic and crank the speed back up.



Got to Amsterdam about 1:30pm and after dropping the suitcase at the hotel, reset the Nav for the drop off location which turned out to be another 30 minutes. I was nervous because I knew they closed by 3:30 and I didn?t want to have to come back. Once I found it, the paperwork took about 30 minutes, they called me a cab and I took a few more pictures of the drop off process.



Amsterdam was my final city since it has so much diversity and beauty. I first took a canal boat tour , but later bought a 24hour pass for about 17 euros and was able to get my bearings pretty well and not be nervous walking around absorbing the sights and smells of the city. I went to the Riks museum to see the Rembrandts , and the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House. I took the most pictures in Amsterdam , perhaps because I was there the longest.



Had a 7am flight out of Amsterdam to Frankfort and a 8:30 am flight from there back to Chicago, I arrived around 1:30 pm, tired, but anxious to be home to see my family.


All of these places were not only chosen for their beauty, but their history and their proximity to each other. It seemed like the average distance time wise between all the cities was three hours, maybe it helped that I was cruising a high speeds, but the cities really aren?t too far apart and the highways and autobahn are much smoother than ours are. All I can really say after this is ?European delivery, what a trip?

For more pics, you can go to my gallery: www.edbmw.com/photos

Rudy

Nice write up Irv. Thanks for sharing it with us...

cjbryce

Interesting account, thanks for that.

I'm a bit baffled though - why is ED so much cheaper than normal dealer delivery in the USA and yet it seems that BMW provide air tickets and a hotel stay (one night only I guess?) and then ships the car to the USA for you.

Or have I got it all wrong?

EDIT - And, if I have it right can I order a UK spec car for ED via a US dealership. It would save me a large fortune

EBMCS03

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Thats great! I wish more salesman were like you taking the time and effort to really know about the product you sell.

Hope you stick around the board.

IrvRobinson

I think what BMW tries to accomplish with this is to bring people to Europe to really experience the Ultimate Driving Machine on Autobahn, which is the main reason why a lot of people wanna go to Europe. In the end, a BMW is all about the driving experience, and what's better than a driving on a highway with no speed limit.

About the tickets, BMW has an agreement with Lufthansa, where you buy one ticket and you get one free, but unfortunately there is no free room, not even for a night. They do have a contract with a 3 and 4 start hotel in Munich where you can get a really discounted rate.

And I would have to say NO again, you can not order an UK spec car for ED via a US dealership. The European Delivery process applies only for USA.

And btw, this is a great question that I'm going to add it to my FAQ on my website.

cjbryce

Thanks again. Just as a matter of interest an you order a UK spec car for US delivery at all? For example if you were working there for a year or so but wanted to get the UDM at a GREAT price then that would be a very cost-effective way of doing it - the cars seem to be a whole lot cheaper in the US than the UK - another "rip-off Britain" (and rip-off Europe too) story, no doubt <_<

IrvRobinson

it's true it's cheaper here for us, but hey, when you come over for shopping in the US, who's got the power then?

cjbryce

But now I just want something bigger on my shopping list. And I could always do some of the blues and jazz clubs in Chicago whilst you prep my new toy

IrvRobinson

true, our blues and jazz clubs here are amazing.

if, in the future, we'll be allowed to this, you're more than welcome. Or you can move to US

cjbryce

Could do - except for:-
1 Green card issue
2 Your pres is even dafter than our PM - you'd have to get Martin Sheen and his crowd to actually run the country (and their script writers )
3 Having said that, your taxes are a lot lower, so maybe the Green Card lottery beckons