*Day One --- Flight/Delivery Day*
I'd like to preface this by saying this has been a long time coming for me. This is my first M3, and first BMW for that matter. For as long as my wife and I have known each other (23+ years) she has known how much I love the M. While the brand has gone through years of changes, and so have our lives (kids, jobs, ect), she's never stopped hearing about how it was a dream of mine to own one, one day. Good fortune, hard work and determination has allowed this to finally happen......My wife simply said "I think it's about time". And then the planning started.
My Build:
15TN M3 Sedan
B50 Sakhir Orange metallic
X3SW Black Full Merino Leather
2MK M Double-clutch Transmission
2VF Adaptive M Suspension
2VZ 19" Black Light-Alloy Wheel 437M
496 Heated Rear Seats
688 Harmon Kardon
ZLP Adaptive Full LED Lighting package
This thread will incorporate a ton of pics, a few things I noticed along the way, as well as some restaurant and hotel reviews all at the same time and will have multiple parts. These forums have been an invaluable resource for me in this planning. I cannot say how much the people on this board have helped. Without further adieu:
We took the 6:30pm flight out of PHL scheduled to arrive at 8:30am the following am:
For
OneRib , the flight itself was great. It was on an Airbus A330/200 with a 2/4/2 seat configuration (in economy). While it felt a bit cramped, basically felt like a domestic flight, to be honest, it still was a good flight. 2 full meals, dinner and breakfast (beer and wine free) as well as a snack and several beverage services. Full entertainment system on seat. It was small, but functional. It's no 777 by any means (or the 787 Dreamliner) but it is a non-stop flight that literally had zero hiccups and silky smooth landing in just a bit over 7 hours. My complaint was that the seats were uncomfortable....but that was it.
We arrived on time, but Passport Control was a bit packed....people were saying they had never seen it so overrun. It set us back a bit, as we quickly had to hit the restrooms to do a quick change and then look for our Sixt driver. He was a man of VERY few words. In fact, I think all he said was "hello" and then drove us to the Welt. I tried to engage him a little, but I am not sure how much english he spoke, if any at all. The vehicle was a brand new 7 series...and very comfortable. Great way to head out to the Welt!
Upon arrival we immediately went to the Information desk and the wonderful staff at the Welt took our baggage to later deliver with the car at delivery. They then lead us upstairs to the Premium Lounge where we began all of our paperwork. I cannot speak enough as to how professional, courteous and helpful the Welt staff was. Everything was handled with the kind of efficiency you would expect from the Germans. No issues.
After the paperwork was all finished we enjoyed the lounge for a bit, shopped at the store, toured the exhibits and then headed off to the factory tour.
Whoever has an AY F82 M4 that was in production last week, I actually SAW your vehicle being built. In fact that crucial moment when the chassis is coupled with the drivetrain/suspension...when it finally became a car. The factory tour is just amazing. The robotic dances were something else....but when you see that part when the drivetrain/suspension is plugged upwards into the chassis....it was just super cool. Extra cool that we literally walked through that part of the tour as the M4 was being worked on. Our tour guide was efficient and strict...i'll leave it at that. People were asking about the differences between the M cars and the M sport packages and she was quick to state how they were not "true" M cars...
Incidentally, my wife loved the factory tour far more than she thought she would.
Then came time for the delivery. I can't really explain the level of excitement when you see your car for the first time...especially after you've been waiting for it for so long. You see it sitting there, turning, in the spotlight and it's almost like seeing your child being born (lol...I say almost!)
Rudolph was a fantastic Delivery Specialist and gave me plenty of time on the steps to just look at it, take pictures, talk to me about my experience with the brand, my plans in Germany, ect...before leading us down and then literally going through everything I needed to know. They are as detailed as you need. Additionally, he handed out the gifts: the Bucherer stopwatch voucher and the Harmon Kardon Bluetooth speakers. As he handed over the latter, he stated "This is for our Harmon Kardon customers....it's very nice, worth about 125 EU."
He went through and plugged in our hotel in the Nav unit. Yes, still using the USB maps, and they still instruct NOT to take it out.....but he mentioned not to worry about it if a message comes up asking for a "code". He says "There is no code needed." He paired my iPhone and did worked with a few settings on the digital display computer.....a particularly helpful thing was putting it so it digitally displayed the speed being driven but changed the metric to KPH instead of MPH. So while the analog speedometer only showed MPH, the digital showed me KPH the entire time. Very helpful. He finished up, I spent another 15 minutes taking pictures and then took my victory lap and off I went!
Oh and i've NEVER taken delivery of a car with only
*ONE* mile on it.
To be continued!