Back in August of 2014 I placed an order for a 2015 M3. After a few days I decided to do European Delivery (ED). Although there’s plenty of information out there on ED, there were some details I could not get concise answers about, so I decided to post my experience here in case it helps those who are in the same situation in which I was. I just came back from my ED trip, so I want to write this while it’s fresh, so here it is.
Should you do it?
Absolutely! European Delivery with BMW is a fantastic experience, to say the least.
Ordering process and timeline
The ordering process for ED is very similar to a regular order.
You go to your BMW dealership, tell them you want to do ED, negotiate a price and, likely, put down a deposit (the amount depends on the dealer; I put down $500 when I ordered mine). I will not go into whether you can negotiate based on the ED Invoice price or not. There are other threads here that discuss that. In my case, my dealer took $1K off the ED MSRP and insisted they could not do better on this particular car because of the high demand. I was fine with that because I was ready to pay MSRP, anyway. What is different is the timeline, and that’s what I will mention here.
As part of the ordering process you will need to give your CA your top 3 desired pickup dates in order of preference (I think this can only happen once you have a production number assigned for your order). Of course, you can’t order your car today and select a pickup date for next week. The dates have to be realistic and based on your production week. In my case, the first option I picked was 2 weeks after the scheduled production week, and that’s the one I got.
Your dealer submits the ED order paperwork, along with a copy of your passport and driver’s license to BMW and they get back to you with the accepted date from the ones you picked, along with a specific delivery time. At this point you can safely make all your travel arrangements based on that date/time. You will also be asked to sign a power of attorney which BMW uses to register your car in your name in Europe.
During this time you will also get a package in the mail from BMW with all the details of ED (although most is already available online).
The next step is paying for the car. This has to happen before your trip, for obvious reasons (they can’t release the car to you if you have not paid for it yet). Between 10-14 days before your scheduled delivery date, you will need to sign all the paperwork as if you were picking up your car at the dealership that day. You will do all the financing/leasing paperwork at this time or pay if you are paying it outright. Note that you do not need to have insurance on the car yet. You do that when you pick your car up here in the U.S., or wherever you live. This is where you walk out of the dealership a lot poorer and without a new car to show for it
After that, all you can do is wait for your delivery date.
Planning for arrival in Munich and activities
Arrival transportation:
BMW offers a free pickup service from the Munich airport (I think a train station is an option, too) to the BMW Welt or your hotel (only one one-way trip is included). To schedule your pickup, simply send an e-mail to
BMW-EDPshuttle@sixt.com (and copy
limousine@sixt.com also, just in case). In the e-mail, state that you would like to schedule a pickup for your BMW ED and be sure to include the following information:
- BMW production number
- Your name (they will have your name on a sign when they pick you up)
- Pickup location, date and time (if arriving by air, include your flight number and details so they can check in case there is a delay)
- Your destination (BMW Welt, hotel, etc.)
- Your phone number, if you have one where they can call you, just in case.
They will respond with a confirmation number and a letter with all the details, including what kind of car they will be using. We got picked up in a very nice BMW 740L.
BMW Factory tour:
The BMW factory tour, in my opinion, is a MUST! It is amazing to see the factory and all the details of how they build your car. It almost feels like you are seeing where your baby was born, LOL! The tour is free to ED customers and you can/should schedule it ahead of time. There is only one tour offered in English every day and it is at 11:45 AM and lasts up to 2 hours, so plan accordingly. To reserve your tickets, send an e-mail to
infowelt@bmw-welt.com and include your production number, the date you want to take it, specify if you want it in English and include the names of the people taking it with you. They will quickly reply with the confirmation information. If you will be taking the tour before your delivery, keep in mind that you have to arrive about 30-45 minutes ahead of time in order to check-in and get your credentials. If you are taking it after your delivery, you will already have all that.
The BMW Welt
The Welt is a beautiful building with all things BMW in it, so there’s plenty to see and get excited about if you are a BMW fan. When you enter the Welt you should go to the reception desk near the entrance facing the factory and museum buildings and let them know that you are there for your ED. They will walk you to the customers-only elevator and take you to the third floor to the Premium Lounge’s reception desk. Here they will get your information (you will need to show your passport) and give you a card with your itinerary. In my case, it listed my delivery date/time, as well as the factory tour date/time because I had reserved it. This is also your “ticket” to the factory tour. After this 10-minute check-in, you are free to roam around the building. The Premium Lounge includes a very nice lounge area with free food and drinks, including beer, for BMW customers. You can eat as much and as often as you want, hang out, relax or whatever. They have free lockers where you can store your stuff while you are there. If you arrive with luggage larger than, say, a backpack, you should leave those at the downstairs reception desk, where they will give you a ticket for later pick-up. In our case, we arrived a day early, so we just made ourselves at home and roamed around the Welt for most of the day, including the factory tour and visiting the museum, which is across the street. You are king when you are there as a customer, so enjoy it and take in all the cool stuff in the building and the shop. There are a few restaurants inside the Welt, too, if you want to eat something different; those are not free.
The Actual Delivery
The most exciting part of it all… They ask that you arrive about an hour to an hour and 20 minutes before your scheduled delivery time. After a short wait in the “office” section of the Premium Lounge, someone comes to get you and take you to one of the numerous desks, where you will go over a few things, sign a few documents, and get all the documentation you need to take with you. This process takes no more than 5-10 minutes and, in my case, the girl who helped me was very, very nice (and very pretty, too, I might add). They really make this a special experience for you. After you are done, you can do whatever you want until your actual delivery time. This is when you, inevitably, will go look out of every window to try and spot your car in the floor below, where the delivery takes place. Mine happened to be right under the lounge, so I didn’t see it until I spotted an exit to a balcony that had a different view and there it was…
it was amazing to see it live for the first time and know that it was MY car down there. It is also cool to see your name in the screens that show who is taking delivery that day, similar to the airport flight information screens.
At your scheduled time, you need to make your way to the screens outside the doors to the Lounge where a BMW specialist will be waiting for you. He will make small talk, ask a few questions to gauge your experience with BMWs, the technology, etc. and you will quickly start heading down the long stairs going down to the second floor. You will stop along the way where he will point to your car and tell you that it is your car. At this point, he activates the turntable that the car is parked on and your car will start turning slowly for you to appreciate all of its beauty. You then walk down and to your car. You soak it in, walk around it, marvel, get close, move far, touch it to make sure it’s real, do whatever comes to you naturally. When the CA thinks you are done drooling, they bring a photographer to take a picture of you and your car (they can take a few, including ones with your guest, if any). They will give you printed copies of these as well as a pen drive with the digital versions for you to take.
After that, they hook you car’s battery to a power source on the ground because you will be going over all the technology inside the car with the engine off, so your battery doesn’t die. You sit in your car for the first time and the CA starts going over everything in the car with you in as much detail as you want. The level of detail depends on you and how much you want to know or already know about the car and its features. I spent a good 30-40 minutes doing all this. This is when you are done and say your goodbyes with the CA that helped you.
But before you go you can do the “Victory Lap” around the Welt, which is on a small “path” that circles around the car delivery area and is pretty cool. What’s even cooler is that you can ask for a pace car. It is an actual pace car, a beefed up 1M with flashing lights and all and it is very loud. I asked for it. Once it came around to where I was, I started the engine and drove behind it for one lap. The pace car then parked and I went around one more time before heading down the driveway that leads to the outside world, where your car will see the world with you for the first time. During all this, there is a platform that overlooks the delivery area where non-customers gather up to see the deliveries. It is very cool to see all the people watching you take your car for a spin and, probably, wishing they were you at that particular moment. Once you are out, you will get lots of thumbs up and looks from people walking around the Welt that know you are taking a brand new car out for the first time.
And this is where it ends and you are on your own.
Driving in Europe
The recommendation is not to exceed 5500 rpm and 105mph until you reach 1,200 miles on the odometer. It is hard to do, but doable. I will not go into the experience of driving the car in Europe other than to say that it is amazing. Traffic on the Autobahn is so organized and people are very respectful of the left lane, which is awesome. For the most part, the left lane is clear unless people are passing. And traffic moves fast! Doing 105 mph I got passed like a lamppost many times and by cars you would not imagine can go that fast! It was very cool. We also drove in Netherlands and Belgium. Traffic was okay but moved much slower because of slow speed limits, which was a bummer.
Dropping the car off
I dropped my car off in Bremerhaven, which is where they ship out of. The drop off process took about 45 minutes. You have to drop the car off clean. I had made an appointment and arrived earlier but someone helped me quickly. This particular location is the shipping agent (BLG Car Shipping), so I was the only one dropping off. They do a very thorough inspection of the car. I was able to talk the nice lady that helped me into letting me take the front license plate with me
The car looks very cool with the European license plates, by the way. She told me they ship the car with the license plates, so I wonder what they do with them when the car arrives. I guess I’ll find out when my car arrives. I was already given the ship information and dates. I dropped it off on Wednesday, November 12 (two days ago). The car will go on a ship (the Brasilia Highway) that leaves next Wednesday, the 19th, and arrives in Brunswick on December 4th. If everything goes well, then I should have my car in my possession less than 4 weeks after drop off, which is much better than I expected
This ended up being a much longer write up than I anticipated, but I wanted to share as much details as I could from the experience. I hope it helps someone out there thinking of doing ED in the future.