[Ibanez]

So I ordered my 2011 E90 M3 in May and scheduled pickup for July 5th. Here is my documentation of my experience.

Melbourne Red E90 Sedan on Speed Cloth with DCT and lots of other goodies!

Ordering process:

1. May - Found dealer who agreed to $1k over invoice (not bad price, probably could have done better, too late now)
2. May - Dealer faxed paper work, Filled out order sheet and credit application, completed pricing. Important to note that it's almost impossible to use an alternate financing bank. You can't finance a car that doesn't exist in the states yet, so BMWNA Financing is your only option.
3. June - Week before pick-up I filled out official purchasing paperwork at the dealer and paid for the vehicle, done! Very very simple process

Planning Notes:

• Bought tickets through Lufthansa, overall summer rates for all airlines are high and I wanted to book before flights were soldout around my delivery date, so I basically got the 2 for 1 deal costing a total of $1900. Which isn't bad at $950/person. I figured better safe than sorry!
  
• Def planned my overall route via car before I left, printed out all the roads and places to visit, making sure to take the most scenic roads as possible and not spend the whole time on the Autobahn. One thing I didn't realize since i've never been there is that any highway is the "Autobahn" so basically any major road the speed limit is yours to choose
  
• Hotels - Were very important to book in advance, i had a hard time getting what I wanted (it's the summer), luckily everything worked out and Expedia/Hotels.com seemed to have all the best prices and options.
  

Trip Schedule Consisted of the following:

• Sunday - Arrive in Munich, sightsee, Marienplatz
• Monday - 9AM pick up M3 , Factory Tour, Drive to Fussen (Castles)
• Tuesday - Neuswanstein Castle, Linderhof Palace, drive to Innsbruck, Austria
• Wednesday - Innsbruck, Austria, drive back to Munich (Scenic Route!)
• Thursday - Sightsee Munich more
• Friday - Drive car in AM a bit more then ...Drop off car in AM

Route:
Click here to see route



Where to start off, unreal, once in a lifetime, incredible...? basically all that and more. Since I ordered the sedan I figured I would take my my parents since i'm lucky to still have them. I'm 31 so I haven't been on vacation with them in probably 10+ years so i'm overdue. Talk about a great way to make memories and use a new DSLR camera to it's fullest!

Did I save money on the car vs US invoice, yes but not a ton, the trip basically evens out, but you get a vacation out of it and an unreal experience, I still came in about $10k below MSRP!

Saturday:
We flew out 8PM Saturday and arrived 10AM (7 hrs) Sunday.

I brought a little reading material for the flight, DCT manual haha


Oh and arriving at the airport, BMW everywhere!





Sunday:
Talk about jetlag, I couldn't sleep a wink. I was planning on going on "Mike's Bike Tour" in Munich later on Sunday, no go. We walked around, got food, beer over at the Lowenbrau Biergarten, saw some of the Marienplatz area and I was passed out at 8pm. No way did I have energy to bike with a tour group for 4 hours. Pretty simple day. Btw important to know a lot of places are closed sunday, so few shopping was available.

We stayed at the 4-star Kings Hotel in Munich, VERY nice hotel and GREAT bang for the buck. HIGHLY recommended. Def do not book via BMW, get it via expeidia/hotels.com. Think it ran $100-120 for the night. Oh and across the street was a Tittay-Bar, can't beat that! Too bad me and my dad never got a chance to sneak out and head over haha





Lowenbrau House right down the street


Also down the street for all you ballers, there is the Charles Hotel, starts at $400 EUROS a night! Maybe if I was buying the SLR parked outside I'd be staying there!



Monday:
I woke up at 4AM and couldn't fall back asleep, combination of the excitement of getting my car at 9AM and being completely screwed up from the time difference.


Grabbed a taxi and shot over to the Welt, it was early enough to miss the Munich traffic and we were there standing outside at 7AM ready to go (opens 7:30). Talk about a HUGE complex, not just the Welt, but the HQ and factories! BMW's everywhere, all the BMW workers driving by and entering the factory, heaven!

View from the autobahn, talk about a HUGE building!!!


Hell yeah!!!




We walked in the Welt at 7:30, was greeted and did all the signing in BS. They took us to the ED VIP area, free food, beer, etc... from there you get to look down on the ED arrival platform and see all the cars that are there for pickup! We hung out there from 8-9AM when I was scheduled to pick up my car. They have a nice monitor to see when you are scheduled for pick-up!



View inside the Welt, lots of models to see and play with.


VIP Lounge


BMW Video games, get to drive a 135i around a track


Engines on display, however they didn't have the V8... oh well, i was soon to have my own!


I was going to save this for last, but of course parked outside was this........ Brand new 997.2TTS!!!!!! OMG... Probably a BMW exec or something, if I only had another $110k to spend on a car




Ok back to my pickup....

From the VIP lounge you look down on the ED platform... The early AM pickup cars are there first, then later more cars arrived. I saw a gorgeous E92 ZCP Silver/FR



Then I looked over the edge some more and...and...and..... Could it be!?!?!?!?!



I think my eyes almost popped out of my head with excitement and my heart skipped a beat! That had to be mine!

Now the 45 minute wait till 9AM... Well i stayed in the VIP area because I didn't want to ruin more of the surprise... I technically only have from 9-9:30 to look at the car and take it because more people need to have theirs loaded throughout the day...

It's now my time... 9AM, I was greeted by my rep and taken down the stairway to heaven! Car was spinning like in a showcase... so stunning!






















Course now I had to drive it out of the showroom, down the famous Welt driveway through the tunnel and out to freedom!

[Ibanez]

I must say that the speed cloth surprised me since on pre 2011 models the cloth only went up 1/2 the seat however on mine it went the entire length. Still love it! It matches the leather perfectly and wow is it comfortable! I feel a huge difference in how it hugs me into the seat and zero-sliding in corners. The only options I didn't get were ZCP, those annoying front squirting headlight washers, and sun shades. Other than that it's pretty loaded. I'm 100% happy with the Melbourne Red, OMG is it stunning in person. It's not maroon, deep red, just RED. Fits the E90 body with the black trim perfectly IMO. Just makes the sedan more "sporty" since it's not the typical M3 coupe. Couldn't be happier with my options... well the Rust Brown would have looked hot too :bellyroll

Now it's off to enjoy Germany and Austria!

First stop was the Fussen area where the Neuschwanstein Castles were located. Drive was amazing, sooo many back roads, winds, turns, country sides and the mountains just keep growing and growing, it's like being on another planet compared to the NY/NJ area. I can't get over how clean everything was. People mow 10 acre farms with 3ft blade push mowers! :bulge: Talk about hard workers. Oh and cows... lots of cows. You wonder why they eat so much meat there. Few times the smell of cow poop made me have to close the windows I was afraid the stench would get stuck in the Speed Cloth :lol:

Well more pictures...









Another Turbo at the castles... think the guy was from Porsche Club of America, might have rented it for the trip, heard him talking about something along those lines. Talk about fun, renting a Turbo to drive around Germany!



Carefully parked at the hotel at the castle... stayed at the Alpenstuben, def get the "romantic" room, very beautiful and a great view of the castle!




View from hotel room








Ok so those pictures were taken the day we arrived, it decided to rain overnight and almost all the next day, we did the whole castle tour in the rain, took the 45 minute walk up and down to the castle, not recommended in uncomfortable shoes or sandals. Very cool experience though.

[Ibanez]

Ok in the rain it was now off to Innsbruck, Austria, talk about a drive, wow more amazing roads. I would have taken more pictures of the roads, but many times there was no safe place to stop there were so many curves and once you start getting into Austria you are heading up then down a giant mountain and i think it was up to a 16% grade with warning signs and run offs for trucks that lose their brakes.

One of the best places to take pictures (as you will see below) was in Plansee, Germany The pictures on the lake and with the mountains were just breathtaking! The water was so clear i just wanted to jump in and go swimming. If I knew ahead of time I would have stayed there since they offer scubadiving in the lake!






Next was Austria. We stayed at the Romantik Swiss Adler, HIGHLY recommended. Gorgeous place, covered in Swarovski Crystals throughout the rooms. (I don't give a crap, but mom liked that), we did 1 full day there, didn't get to do the ski lift to the top of the mountains but the roads there were like I said... just out of fantasy. Nurburgring can kiss the ass of Austria's backroads. Seriously.

Some pics of Austria...

Famous Golden Roof


Reindeer Goulash, omg Blitzen tasted so good!


Ice cream, chocolate, crepes...


My hotel



After Austria, on the way home it was time for a wash... that rain really made my new baby dirty, only ran 5 euros and almost all car washes are do it yourself, sweet!



All clean.


Back to Germany, headed up toward Tegernsee, Germany. GIANT lake, highly recommended to stay there if you have time. Whole community and resort on the lake. Not cheap to stay but very relaxing and lots of high end shopping. Rent a boat, go out for a swim,etc. I promise if you take the back roads home to Munich from Tegernsee, you will want to move there.

Tegernsee


I thought Austria had windy roads, I swear I couldn't go more than 1000 ft before there was some type of extreme turn that also had a grade to it and went through forests and open back country. Unfortunately I had to take it a bit easy since the 'rents in the back seat were getting car sick. no fun...







Awesome place to stop for food, btw watch out for bikers, both motorcycles and regular bikers they are EVERYWHERE.


Some moving shots

[Ibanez]

After that it was home to Munich... long story short... when I got back I realized I lost my passport :confused2. Of course where was it????? BACK IN AUSTRIA!

Well turned out I just had to put another 200 miles on the car, drive back via the autobahn at a comfy 80-100mph, pick it up, thank the hotel, drive back home

Warp Speed!!


My Poor Mother the whole time, I think she wore out my Oh-Sh*t Handle


Now I just have to say I've been worried about mpg with this car. I was getting 21-22mpg on the autobahn at 85mph. So seriously that more than compensates for the 11-14 in the city

But to wrap up the experience I chose to drop my car off at LOG-IN-OUT in Munich (quickest way to get your car back). No way would i have it any other way... wait an extra 2 weeks for the car my ass!

Place was pleasant, quick and easy.



Oh and look who I parked next to... Look familiar to the car at the Welt!?

Dude seriously you forgot to wipe all the bugs off the front of your car! That rots your paint!


Then off to the airport where I saw this... Frozen Grey/FR E92 on showcase. OMG Love the paint. If you haven't seen one in person, it's stunning. Also the paint leaves NO finger prints and is super smooth. Made me rethink my MR... well just for a second :lol:





Some more random pics...

[Ibanez]

Alpina B7 anyone?!?!?!


Another M3 leaving the Welt










Couple things I got out of the trip for anyone who does ED

• Plan Plan Plan, so much to see and if you don't research could miss so much!
• Germany is gorgeous, backroads are your friend, and GET the TECH PACKAGE! I would have been LOST without it. It's AMAZING!
• DCT was FABULOUS, Love it love it love it. So much fun
• Drive by as many lakes as you can, why... because they are surrounded by mountains and lead to backroads and great pictures
• Gas is expensive, fill up with Super Plus at the tanks, they also have 100 octane if you want!
• Def do it worth every penny
• E46... I don't miss it one bit. Great car, but good for the track. The E9x handles better, is more comfortable, tech is amazing, I can't imagine ever doing a trip like this in it. My ass would have been numb and I would have major back pain.
• My love for the E9x just grew on this trip. Car is astonishing and the V8 is intoxicating. If you don't have one, I strongly recommend it!

Hope you enjoyed my write up!!!! Now 6 weeks till I get my damn car!!!

[Studntloan]

congrats looks great!

[rocker12343]

Congrats on the beautiful car! But this thread made me hungry.

[M3_Dust]

pretty kick-ass man, congrats

[yemenmocha]

Congrats and thanks for the detailed tour! Without a doubt it makes me want to do the same thing.

[RShane]

Congrats, and beautiful M3.

I can't wait to take delivery of mine in September. My wife and I are planning a very similar trip. We will fly to Munich, pick up the car, then head south visiting the castles and into Austria, over through Switzerland, than back north into Germany. Luckily, since I am stationed in Germany, I will be able to drive straight home into the garage.