European Delivery: The only way one should buy a German car

[dryicerx]

I'm not sure how many people here are familiar with European delivery, but just wanted to share how it works and a little bit of my experience. If you're in the market (or will be in the future) for a German car, European delivery is definitely the ONLY way you should do it.

European delivery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In short:

1. Negotiate and place the order for car from a US dealer.
2. Get a pickup date (about 1-2 months out)
3. Go to Germany (usually manufacturer will have special flight and hotel deals, like fly 2-for-1)
4. Be treated awesome and be united with your car (eg. at BMW Welt, it's like car heaven), visit the factory and tour where the car was born, etc.
5. Drive your car around Europe anyway you like it (you can do this up to 5 months, most people do for 1-2 weeks)
6. Drop the car off at one of many drop off locations in Europe
7. Wait patiently for 4-8 weeks until the car is shipped, customs, inspected, and meet it back at your dealer. (this is the most painful wait ever)
8. Be re-united with the car and live happily ever after.

The best part is that you get to drive your very own car straight from the birthplace of it in Europe. For performance cars, this is a big plus since they're not abused by test drivers like the ones on lots... a proper break-in of the engine goes a long way and doing a euro delivery you can do it perfectly by the book.

Did I mention you save money? By default, euro delivery MSRP is ~7% below retail MSRP, but the reality is you can go even lower and save yet another ~7% if you hunt down and find a dealer willing to do euro delivery invoice/wholesale pricing. Doing a european delivery is pure bonus profit for dealers since the car doesn't come from their lot inventory. It's unfortunately lot of sales people don't know about the ED programs, so it's very important to talk to as many dealerships and find a knowledgeable and experienced one. Hang around the online forums for the cars to find the best tips and tricks.

The other bonus is that for up to two weeks, the manufacturer will insure the car with full premium insurance for free. Absolutely no worries even for the smallest scratch or if you manage to drive the car off a cliff, the car will be back in new condition when you meet it back in the US.

In terms of photography, it's an amazing photo op too

As for my personal experience, I just came back a few days ago from my E.D. for my BMW 335is. The timing was beautiful as Oktoberfest (200th anniversary) is also going on in Munich, and BMW's pickup is at the marvelous BMW Welt which also happens to be Munich. Lot of people take a relaxed drive to the tourist places, but since I'm a driving purist, my focus was the Alps and tackling twisty mountain passes (including Stelvio pass, St. Bernadino pass, Furka pass, and a lot more) pushing the car to the edge of performance and handling, this is where the bmw shines. I did a solo adventure, no plans, no reservations, completely winged it, ended up wandering just over 1000 miles through Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland over 10 days.

Now I just have to find some time to sift through the almost 110GB of photos/videos (almost all photos were 3 exposure bracketed, along with 1080p for video footage, I heart 7D).

A preview video:


And a few unprocessed snapshots, need to find time to post process now.

[Mask]

Would you belive ...
I have done Hong Kong delivery of Nikon film equipment years ago.
Dirty Harry's was the best camera store in Hong Kong and
it was the original - before the Eastwood movies that is.

[S-Man]

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[Hanky]

That's cool! I think I will go watch one of my TopGear recordings to celebrate your new car.

[dryicerx]

Originally Posted by Hanky

That's cool! I think I will go watch one of my TopGear recordings to celebrate your new car.

lol. I did every single road mentioned in Top gear in the alps area. TopGear stelvio pass < I totally agree with this episode, Stelvio pass was probably the best drivegasmic experience I ever had, and definitely the highlight of my trip. It was afternoon when I finished the north part to the top.... but it turned dark when I in the middle of doing the south part (that was a terrible decision, but it added to the rush, and not a single other person on the road the entire time).

[Atfulldraw]

That is really cool! Good info to have!



I did the same thing with my Chevy Tahoe --

went all the way to Arlington where it was born ....

[photonewb]

you can also do factory delivery with Corvettes. At the Corvette museum in Bowling Green there is a show floor with a bunch of them waiting for their pickup. Obviously the highways in Bowling Green, KY don't hold up to the Autobahn.

[brewercm]

I had heard about this several years ago when someone mentioned BMW, Mercedes, SAAB, Volvo and maybe a couple more who do this sort of thing.

Glad you mentioned this as I had totally forgotten about it. Great info.

[epoh]

A car video without the car sounds. I am disappointed, sir.

Looks like you had a beautiful time though!

[dryicerx]

Originally Posted by epoh

A car video without the car sounds. I am disappointed, sir.

Looks like you had a beautiful time though!

Yeah, I realized this when I reviewed my first video captures, the car's beautiful exhaust note was overpowered by wind noise I kicked my self the rest of the route for not packing a external mic with a external cord.

[ptrd]

This is great if you purchase a german car made in germany :)

Mine was made in Georgia...there is still a small gathering of all Z cars there but now production is moved to germany. The bmw factory there is soley bmw suv's now.

[dryicerx]

Originally Posted by ptrd

This is great if you purchase a german car made in germany :)

Mine was made in Georgia...there is still a small gathering of all Z cars there but now production is moved to germany. The bmw factory there is soley bmw suv's now.

Indeed, that's the plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. There is another free bmw delivery program there called PDC (Performance Delivery Center). You can do that any model actually, where you go to Spartanburg, tour the factory, museum, get to track similar bmw models with training, and then take delivery of your vehicle as well in one experience. The only difference is doing PDC you gain no cost benefits, but the experience is a lot better than simply just buying a car off the lot. (bonus: you can combine euro delivery and PDC for the same vehicle). All of this is for free of course.