My European Delivery Story. Long, but uniqe
11-21-2004, 01:44 PM
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I have never posted my European Delivery story,but it's a rainy day in Connecticut and not much else to do, so I thought I would take the time to relate it. It could be helpful to others on the same mission in the future, and what better place to tell it than this very educational board.
My wife and I arrived at Munich's European Delivery Center the morning of May 3 of this year. Though we have been to Europe many times before, this was very exciting, in that we were about to take delivery of our Silver Gray 545ia that I had been saving up for the last couple of years.We were treated first class all the way by the friendly and helpful staff in at the center. We had the rest of the day before us(we planned to leave for a two week vacation in France and Italy the following day)we decided to drive around the country side. After driving the Autobahn for about 50 or 60 kilometers we eventually found ourselves on a two lane winding mountain road in the town of Kochel. We passed many groups of motorcycles,(this road was full of them).We came around a sharp curve in the road to find one of the bikes passing another on the turn a bit down the road.As he hit the gas he lost control of his motorcycle and left the seat and both he and the bike seperatly came screaming across the road right at us.I pulled to the right as far as I could, but there was nowhere to go. The bike came sliding into the side of my 545i that I had just taken delivery of 3 hours earlier.The biker rolled directly in front of me in my lane at the same time leaving me only a split second to react.My choice was to either run directly over him, or take the car into the rocks of the mountainside. Needless to say, we were able to avoid him and slam the car into the rocks. The biker had a leather suit and helmut on that protectd him and he only suffered some cuts and bruises.My wife was shook up and got the brunt of the hit on her side of the car, but the seat belts held us fast. The car was damaged on the lower part of the drivers side from the impact of the bike and the front pass. side when we hit the rocks.Most of the damage was to the underside of the car. The front axle was bent and the transmission was frozen. the front wheel was pushed back a few inches and was jammed into the body of the car.The biker spoke English and felt terrible about causing the accident and thanked me "for giving him his life" as he put it. As bad as the incident was, that made us feel better.The police came and were really terrific and helpful. We were taken to an Avis Rental office and got a 318i BMW diesel wagon and decieded to go on with the vacation. They decided the car was to be considered a total wreck, I am sure it never would have been the same if they forced me to have it repaired with all the damage to the undercarridge. It seems there is a law in Germany that if a car is less than a month old, and has less than 1000 kilometers on it (we had about 120 kilometers) and sustains a large amount of damage the guilty parties insurance company must pay for a new car. Luckily the biker told a very truthfull story of the accident which made things a lot easier, and after a few weeks of faxes and numerous phone calls the case was settled and I was able to order an identical replacement 545ia from BMW. The folks in BMW Munich were terrific, as was the BMW lawyer assigned to the case and my salesman Steve at BMW Darien Ct, a great dealership.They all helped to hurry things along and push the deliveryof the new car along to bring the nightmare to a happy ending,and believe me the moment it happened it was like a nightmare with our beautiful car of three hours being wrecked. I have a 1997 BMW 528i with 290,000 miles and a ''93 BMW 325i with 176,000 miles on them without an accident, so this was ironic to say the least.
Anyway BMW was nice enough to arrange for delivery of the new car to my dealer in Ct. and I received it on July 15. I broke even on the cost of the car, including the rental and everyone involved at BMW made sure that would be the case.Thanks again BMW. You really cared.
BMW even did a short piece on the incident with a picture of my wife and myself being presented the ill fated car in Munich three hours before the accident. If you care to see check BMW Magazine of quarter 3/2004 page 14.
Anyway, for those taking European Delivery, it is a great idea. I just hope you are luckier than we were, and watch out for those bikes, they can be treacherous.
My wife and I arrived at Munich's European Delivery Center the morning of May 3 of this year. Though we have been to Europe many times before, this was very exciting, in that we were about to take delivery of our Silver Gray 545ia that I had been saving up for the last couple of years.We were treated first class all the way by the friendly and helpful staff in at the center. We had the rest of the day before us(we planned to leave for a two week vacation in France and Italy the following day)we decided to drive around the country side. After driving the Autobahn for about 50 or 60 kilometers we eventually found ourselves on a two lane winding mountain road in the town of Kochel. We passed many groups of motorcycles,(this road was full of them).We came around a sharp curve in the road to find one of the bikes passing another on the turn a bit down the road.As he hit the gas he lost control of his motorcycle and left the seat and both he and the bike seperatly came screaming across the road right at us.I pulled to the right as far as I could, but there was nowhere to go. The bike came sliding into the side of my 545i that I had just taken delivery of 3 hours earlier.The biker rolled directly in front of me in my lane at the same time leaving me only a split second to react.My choice was to either run directly over him, or take the car into the rocks of the mountainside. Needless to say, we were able to avoid him and slam the car into the rocks. The biker had a leather suit and helmut on that protectd him and he only suffered some cuts and bruises.My wife was shook up and got the brunt of the hit on her side of the car, but the seat belts held us fast. The car was damaged on the lower part of the drivers side from the impact of the bike and the front pass. side when we hit the rocks.Most of the damage was to the underside of the car. The front axle was bent and the transmission was frozen. the front wheel was pushed back a few inches and was jammed into the body of the car.The biker spoke English and felt terrible about causing the accident and thanked me "for giving him his life" as he put it. As bad as the incident was, that made us feel better.The police came and were really terrific and helpful. We were taken to an Avis Rental office and got a 318i BMW diesel wagon and decieded to go on with the vacation. They decided the car was to be considered a total wreck, I am sure it never would have been the same if they forced me to have it repaired with all the damage to the undercarridge. It seems there is a law in Germany that if a car is less than a month old, and has less than 1000 kilometers on it (we had about 120 kilometers) and sustains a large amount of damage the guilty parties insurance company must pay for a new car. Luckily the biker told a very truthfull story of the accident which made things a lot easier, and after a few weeks of faxes and numerous phone calls the case was settled and I was able to order an identical replacement 545ia from BMW. The folks in BMW Munich were terrific, as was the BMW lawyer assigned to the case and my salesman Steve at BMW Darien Ct, a great dealership.They all helped to hurry things along and push the deliveryof the new car along to bring the nightmare to a happy ending,and believe me the moment it happened it was like a nightmare with our beautiful car of three hours being wrecked. I have a 1997 BMW 528i with 290,000 miles and a ''93 BMW 325i with 176,000 miles on them without an accident, so this was ironic to say the least.
Anyway BMW was nice enough to arrange for delivery of the new car to my dealer in Ct. and I received it on July 15. I broke even on the cost of the car, including the rental and everyone involved at BMW made sure that would be the case.Thanks again BMW. You really cared.
BMW even did a short piece on the incident with a picture of my wife and myself being presented the ill fated car in Munich three hours before the accident. If you care to see check BMW Magazine of quarter 3/2004 page 14.
Anyway, for those taking European Delivery, it is a great idea. I just hope you are luckier than we were, and watch out for those bikes, they can be treacherous.
11-21-2004, 02:01 PM
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Originally Posted by netjazz' date='Nov 21 2004, 06:44 PM
I have never posted my European Delivery story,but it's a rainy day in Connecticut and not much else to do, so I thought I would take the time to relate it. It could be helpful to others on the same mission in the future, and what better place to tell it than this very educational board.
My wife and I arrived at Munich's European Delivery Center the morning of May 3 of this year. Though we have been to Europe many times before, this was very exciting, in that we were about to take delivery of our Silver Gray 545ia that I had been saving up for the last couple of years.We were treated first class all the way by the friendly and helpful staff in at the center. We had the rest of the day before us(we planned to leave for a two week vacation in France and Italy the following day)we decided to drive around the country side. After driving the Autobahn for about 50 or 60 kilometers we eventually found ourselves on a two lane winding mountain road in the town of Kochel. We passed many groups of motorcycles,(this road was full of them).We came around a sharp curve in the road to find one of the bikes passing another on the turn a bit down the road.As he hit the gas he lost control of his motorcycle and left the seat and both he and the bike seperatly came screaming across the road right at us.I pulled to the right as far as I could, but there was nowhere to go. The bike came sliding into the side of my? 545i that I had just taken delivery of 3 hours earlier.The biker rolled directly in front of me in my lane at the same time leaving me only a split second to react.My choice was to either run directly over him, or take the car into the rocks of the mountainside. Needless to say, we were able to avoid him and slam the car into the rocks. The biker had a leather suit and helmut on that protectd him and he only suffered some cuts and bruises.My wife was shook up and got the brunt of the hit on her side of the car, but the seat belts held us fast. The car was damaged on the lower part of the drivers side from the impact of the bike and the front pass. side when we hit the rocks.Most of the damage was to the underside of the car. The front axle was bent and the transmission was frozen. the front wheel was pushed back a few inches and was jammed into the body of the car.The biker spoke English and felt terrible about causing the accident and thanked me "for giving him his life" as he put it. As bad as the incident was, that made us feel better.The police came and were really terrific and helpful. We were taken to an Avis Rental office and got a 318i BMW diesel wagon and decieded to go on with the vacation. They decided the car was to be considered a total wreck, I am sure it never would have been the same if they forced me to have it repaired with all the damage to the undercarridge. It seems there is a law in Germany that if a car is less than a month old, and has less than 1000 kilometers on it (we had about 120 kilometers) and sustains a large amount of damage the guilty parties insurance company must pay for a new car. Luckily the biker told a very truthfull story of the accident which made things a lot easier, and after a few weeks of faxes and numerous phone calls the case was settled and I was able to order an identical replacement 545ia from BMW. The folks in BMW Munich were terrific, as was the BMW lawyer assigned to the case and my salesman Steve at BMW Darien Ct, a great dealership.They all helped to hurry things along and push the deliveryof the new car along to bring the nightmare to a happy ending,and believe me? the moment it happened it was like a nightmare with our beautiful car of three hours being wrecked. I have a 1997 BMW 528i with 290,000 miles and a ''93 BMW 325i with 176,000 miles on them without an accident, so this was ironic to say the least.
Anyway BMW was nice enough to arrange for delivery of the new car to my dealer in Ct. and I received it on July 15. I broke even on the cost of the car, including the rental and everyone involved at BMW made sure that would be the case.Thanks again BMW. You really cared.
BMW even did a short piece on the incident with a picture of my wife and myself being presented the ill fated car in Munich three hours before the accident. If you care to see check BMW Magazine of quarter 3/2004 page 14.
Anyway, for those taking European Delivery, it is a great idea. I just hope you are luckier than we were, and watch out for those bikes, they can be treacherous.
My wife and I arrived at Munich's European Delivery Center the morning of May 3 of this year. Though we have been to Europe many times before, this was very exciting, in that we were about to take delivery of our Silver Gray 545ia that I had been saving up for the last couple of years.We were treated first class all the way by the friendly and helpful staff in at the center. We had the rest of the day before us(we planned to leave for a two week vacation in France and Italy the following day)we decided to drive around the country side. After driving the Autobahn for about 50 or 60 kilometers we eventually found ourselves on a two lane winding mountain road in the town of Kochel. We passed many groups of motorcycles,(this road was full of them).We came around a sharp curve in the road to find one of the bikes passing another on the turn a bit down the road.As he hit the gas he lost control of his motorcycle and left the seat and both he and the bike seperatly came screaming across the road right at us.I pulled to the right as far as I could, but there was nowhere to go. The bike came sliding into the side of my? 545i that I had just taken delivery of 3 hours earlier.The biker rolled directly in front of me in my lane at the same time leaving me only a split second to react.My choice was to either run directly over him, or take the car into the rocks of the mountainside. Needless to say, we were able to avoid him and slam the car into the rocks. The biker had a leather suit and helmut on that protectd him and he only suffered some cuts and bruises.My wife was shook up and got the brunt of the hit on her side of the car, but the seat belts held us fast. The car was damaged on the lower part of the drivers side from the impact of the bike and the front pass. side when we hit the rocks.Most of the damage was to the underside of the car. The front axle was bent and the transmission was frozen. the front wheel was pushed back a few inches and was jammed into the body of the car.The biker spoke English and felt terrible about causing the accident and thanked me "for giving him his life" as he put it. As bad as the incident was, that made us feel better.The police came and were really terrific and helpful. We were taken to an Avis Rental office and got a 318i BMW diesel wagon and decieded to go on with the vacation. They decided the car was to be considered a total wreck, I am sure it never would have been the same if they forced me to have it repaired with all the damage to the undercarridge. It seems there is a law in Germany that if a car is less than a month old, and has less than 1000 kilometers on it (we had about 120 kilometers) and sustains a large amount of damage the guilty parties insurance company must pay for a new car. Luckily the biker told a very truthfull story of the accident which made things a lot easier, and after a few weeks of faxes and numerous phone calls the case was settled and I was able to order an identical replacement 545ia from BMW. The folks in BMW Munich were terrific, as was the BMW lawyer assigned to the case and my salesman Steve at BMW Darien Ct, a great dealership.They all helped to hurry things along and push the deliveryof the new car along to bring the nightmare to a happy ending,and believe me? the moment it happened it was like a nightmare with our beautiful car of three hours being wrecked. I have a 1997 BMW 528i with 290,000 miles and a ''93 BMW 325i with 176,000 miles on them without an accident, so this was ironic to say the least.
Anyway BMW was nice enough to arrange for delivery of the new car to my dealer in Ct. and I received it on July 15. I broke even on the cost of the car, including the rental and everyone involved at BMW made sure that would be the case.Thanks again BMW. You really cared.
BMW even did a short piece on the incident with a picture of my wife and myself being presented the ill fated car in Munich three hours before the accident. If you care to see check BMW Magazine of quarter 3/2004 page 14.
Anyway, for those taking European Delivery, it is a great idea. I just hope you are luckier than we were, and watch out for those bikes, they can be treacherous.
[snapback]58982[/snapback]
11-21-2004, 03:02 PM
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netjazz,
Sorry to hear about that. You made the right choice to go into the rocks because as a person, you wouldn't be happy with yourself had you hit that guy, and he should have been thankful because you did "give him his life".
Anyway, I'm am glad to hear that everything worked out and that BMW was so helpful. I hope your 545 lasts 300,000+ miles!
Sorry to hear about that. You made the right choice to go into the rocks because as a person, you wouldn't be happy with yourself had you hit that guy, and he should have been thankful because you did "give him his life".
Anyway, I'm am glad to hear that everything worked out and that BMW was so helpful. I hope your 545 lasts 300,000+ miles!
11-21-2004, 03:58 PM
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I'm glad to hear that you were able to go on with vacation
11-21-2004, 06:02 PM
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Netjazz, Good to hear that everyone was okay. Even better to hear that you knew what to do in the situation and that the BMW safety features worked as they are intended for.
11-22-2004, 01:17 AM
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Netjazz glad that everything went well after all.
Here we can see a story that even you are Schumacher, there is always people who are not and thats why seatbelts are so important. Otherwise everyones premiums go up.
Skaffa
Here we can see a story that even you are Schumacher, there is always people who are not and thats why seatbelts are so important. Otherwise everyones premiums go up.
Skaffa
11-22-2004, 04:27 PM
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I would like to thank those of you that offered kind words and good wishes in reply to my European Delivery story. At the moment that it occured my wife and I both had the same reaction, "this can't really be happening". Well it did, but it could have been a heck of a lot worse. We were both uninjured and the biker, a really nice kid, about 26 years old, got away with just some scrapes and bruises. He spoke English very well and he was concerned as much about us as we were concerned about him. After giving his very truthful discription of the accident to the police, he came over to us both once again to offer his sincere apologies and shook my hand very touchingly and said "thank you for giving me my life" as he expressed it. That really put things in the proper perspective, and we realized that it was just a car we lost and we were all OK. As I think back I can just imagine how he felt looking up at our car bearing down on him as he helplessly tumbled in front of us.It must have been freighting to say the least. God was with the three of us that afternoon, and the thought of running over him is to horrible to even imagine. Makes you realize the material things in life mean little at a time like that.
Again, thanks for your good wishes.....Netjazz
Again, thanks for your good wishes.....Netjazz
11-22-2004, 11:48 PM
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I'm glad everyone came out relatively unscathed. I commend you Netjazz for doing the right thing. My gf told me about the BMW Magazine article which also mentioned how grateful the motorcyclist was for your actions.
