I thought I'd post a few pics and give a fairly brief synopsis of my trials with this magnificent vehicle slapped together by the fine folks in Dingolfing, Germany.

I picked up my car in Munich on Wednesday, March 23rd and turned it into Harms (shipping company) on Sunday, March 28th with around 1250 miles tallied.

I did a small tour of Munich on Wednesday and then "did the tour" in Dingolfing on Thursday.

Thursday/Friday was some time in Rothenburg at the medieval walled city. Friday/Saturday was Luxembourg...a city everyone must visit. It is perhaps the cleanest, richest city I have ever seen. O yeah, and every single woman I saw was gorgeous...no foolin'. I'm going back there when I have more time.

Saturday afternoon/evening was a fun but long drive through Belgium, France, and dinner in Zurich, Switzerland, before making a midnight dash back to Munich for the drop-off.

All in all, it was a fun-filled, but exhausting 5 days hiking around 6 countries.

HUD rocks, 152 (according to HUD) mph was my max that I was able to hit 3-4 times on Germany's wonderfully smooth autobahns. The NAV is great with lots of different views. Even though I live in California, the seat warmers are a very nice feature to have. They can warm you up without having hot air blowing at you. Kind of like underfloor heating in your house if you have it. Active headlights worked great with some of the late night twisties we encountered and the active steering was superb in the narrow and tight parking garages found so often in the larger cities.

All in all, it was a wonderful experince to drive a BMW in its homeland. It will be a shame to keep the car under 100 mph in the US....

 

Who said you had to keep it under a 100 in the US.


Interesting that your max displayed in the HUD was 152, that was my max in my HUD when had a chance to "Check it out" in AZ.

P.S. Congrats on the car, and thanks for the ED notes.

 

Hey Hey! Check this pic out. Same car same place in July last year.

Did the Dingolfing tour require a lot of planning? We had to book in advance to get a Munich tour which sucked. Old factory and we couldn't see final assembly.

I want to do ED again with a 550i in 2007 or 2008.

Nice burn at 152mph.

 

I was there around the same time last year. The weather condition was not so great. Constant rain, snow, occassional hail. I also find the autobahn congested in many parts of area to be going at high speed.

You're lucky that the weather and road condition allowed you to hit over 150 mph in March.

 

Belguim - France - Zurich - AND Munich - in one afternoon/evening???!!!

E60 or TGV??

 

It can be done. You don't see anything, but you can do it. You can get from one side of Europe to the other in a day if you push it. East to West.

 

?gent99,

Wow! Sounds like a fun and successful ED of your new Bimmer

Congratulation,

Fellow Bay Area [freed0m]

 

Wow, you were in Europe? When was this?



I think I saw you in Metz?

 

The tour at Dingolfing just required a couple of emails and that was it. It was excellent and amazing to see how they can turn raw aluminum/steel into a full-blown car. They had boxes of parts everywhere...I was thinking to help myself to a few bolts and "knick-knack" here and there. The tour guide even showed us a box of shift knobs...they looked the same except one was much heavier than the other. One was for a petrol engine and the other was for a diesel engine...the diesel, due to vibration, required a much heavier shift knob.

 

Yes, no doubt that we hit very slow spots on the autobahn. Some were due to roadwork and others were due to accidents but most of the slow down was just plain old traffic...especially near the larger cities.

Still, we had mostly dry weather and some very nice, clear straightaways where I was able to just floor it. It is scary doing 152 mph but exciting, too!