Hello.
Based on a nice suggestion from the user roots, I tried the "BMW On Demand" at the BMW Welt today. (and thanks to SD_335is, too).
Registration was fairly easy, by visiting their website:
http://www.bmw-welt.com/web_rb/bmw-welt/en/bmw_welt/bmw_on_demand/overview.html
Because there would be just a student from Japan and myself, I selected a 135i Coupe, which was for 11:00 am - 5:00 pm, at EUR 25 per hour, maximum charge for three hours. (the most you would pay is for three hours, even if you had it for six hours.)
Monday is also a bank holiday in Germany (following Easter), so we expected a bit of a crowd at The Welt -- and there certainly was!
The Reservation Counter is prominently positioned to the right of the ground ("E") level Gift Shop. I did not recall seeing it there in January 2012 when I did my Euro Deliv...and I asked the customer assistance guy if it was a new program. He replied that it had been ongoing since about 2010. I told him that I don't remember it from January, and he replied that they had moved it from an obscure location in late January to the present position. Okay, that made sense. Admittedly, my first visit to the Welt was packed with a million thoughts in my head....so maybe it was present...maybe not. But the counter is hard to miss now.
All I needed was a Drivers License, Passport, and Credit Card. The Driver License part was interesting, because I had a Texas DL from 1980 to 2009, and then just got another new one having come back from Florida two months ago. There is an "Issue Date" on the latest version of the Texas Drivers Licenses, printed clearly on the face, and so he wondered if I had been driving for any length of time. Apparently there is a minimum number of years of driving experience one must have for qualification to rent the car.
The deposit taken on my credit card was fairly steep: EUR 825.00.
The counter guy was really friendly and nice, and we had gotten into a discussion about our German language course. He started to talk to us in Deutsche, but we both knew enough to say "no, not yet!" He asked if I knew how to drive a manual transmission, and I said, yes, for many many years. He said that they have to ask, because one vehicle required four transmission replacements in just 40,000 km of use!
The paperwork is somewhat similar to that you would file when renting a vehicle from EuroCar -- no, that's not correct. It is about 1/2 of what you would do for renting a vehicle. Pretty simple. Sign your name two times, sign the credit card deposit, and that's it. They hand you two stapled pages of the contract, with a vehicle diagram on each section, and they note any damage. Then you get an electronic key for entering/exiting the parking garage, and you get a BMW vehicle key (not Comfort Access for this model).
Then you go from "E" (the lift/elevator is immediately adjacent to the counter) to P2. You exit the lift, turn left, go out the door, and you see the cars. They have two rows of reserved parking for "BMW ON DEMAND" with signage.
There were two guys getting the run-down on a a M3 Coupe, right next to our car, with an attendant. So I opened our car, tossed our stuff in it, and began setting-up the pairing with my iPhone. My student colleague adjusted his seat and walked around the car. We took a few photographs of it...a white 135i Coupe Manual Transmission. Just as ordered. I popped open the trunk/boot to get attention from the attendant.
For a few minutes, I sort of wished I had gotten an M3 here, but I already have one of those now, so it was time to drive something different).
The attendant finished with the M3 guys and then went over to help someone that had gotten there after we did. Meanwhile, the M3 guys were still inside the car, pointing at this, or that, or whatever. The lights were on the car, but they weren't going anywhere. I knew what was going on! I walked over as the driver opened his door, looking quite perplexed.
Right. He didn't know how to make it go. I asked if the attendant explained the DCT to him...nope. So I gave them the run-down on D and S and Reverse, and how to put it into "P." And then told him to put EDC on Sport, and later to hit "Power" so he can experience a bit more. And I adjusted the D program all the way "up." He was about to drive away, when he asked how to work the turn signals -- he had been pressing the cruise/speed control lever. With that, they got the hang of it, and drove out. I love the sound of that engine!
Finally, we flagged down another attendant, who did not seem happy that we were bothering him. Of all the people at the Welt that I've met during four visits, this was the least cheerful encounter. Oh, well...who likes working on holidays, right?
He quickly checked the car, and I signed approval, and he walked off.
Part of the On Demand advertising is that you can experience the „Bayerisches Adrenalin"
(http://www.bmw-welt.com/web_rb/bmw-welt/en/bmw_welt/bmw_on_demand/routes.html)
Which included the last line: "Due to the approx. duration of the route please be aware that you should reserve your car at least for three hours if you want to experience the whole tour will all highlights."
I looked at the GPS/Nav but could not detect anything like a pre-programmed location in an address book. We flagged down the same guy and I quickly asked him about the pre-programmed tour? He said to press on the radio controls "1" or "2" or "3", and that "8" was programmed to return to the parking garage here.
When hovering over the 1, 2, 3, we did not recognize the names of any places. So we pressed "1" and decided to go with the Mystery Tour #1.
It was about 70km south of Munich. I noticed that we took all city streets, and wasn't really making good time. But this was supposed to be scenic...so okay. Eventually we got out of town and to a more "rustic" area. The program took us to the Buchheim Museum (www.buchheimmuseum.de).
The museum theme (current or permanent, not sure) is Fantasy. So there was an interesting fantasy BMW in the front of the museum (see picture). There was also a special program today, and we were able to read it pretty well, but it was lengthy. We had a good lunch in the cafe, and then went back to the 135i.
GPS Mystery Tour #2 was also only about 70 km to the east.
GPS Mystery Tour #3 was about 220 km south!!!! I don't get how the web advertising material can read that you can do the whole tour in three hours.
We selected Mystery Tour #2 and drove.
Again, I felt as though we were taking back-roads. So this time I checked the settings and found that were were on "Shortest route" instead of "Fast route." We would change that after Tour #2 location.
Tour #2 was beautiful. It is the lake-side, mountain-edge village of Rottach-Egern. A picturesque, post-card perfect area with road-side hotels and cafes. The photograph attached is looking toward the snow-capped mountains with the crisp lake in front, and a church steeple in between.
At that, we went back to the 135i and I found we were about 70 km from Munich, with it being about 4:00pm. We had one hour to get the car back to meet my reservation period!
I pressed program "8" and the BMW Welt garage came up. We started driving.
Even though it was now on "Fast Route" the GPS kept missing the Autobahn. My passenger had never been on the autobahn, and I wanted to get the car up to something reasonable. Finally, I told the GPS voice to shut-up when I saw a sign for the A8, and we headed over to it. I saw the sign for Munich, and we hopped on the autobahn. The GPS was still trying to get me to exit! Anyhow, I asked my passenger about what was the fastest speed he'd ever ridden in a car, and he said 180 km. So I brought us up to 200 km (124 mph) and we drove along that speed for about ten minutes (ah, if only we could do that in Texas!). Then I let the GPS take over, and we got off the autobahn.
We saved about ten minutes, and it appeared we would make it to the Welt at 4:50 pm.
As we hit traffic light after traffic light, I wondered if the GPS had been selected to avoid "highways." Well....that selection option was not to be found! It was completely omitted. Sneaky.
We had consumed about 1/4 tank of gas. I put into a quick petrol station and loaded EUR 30.50 into the tank. It was unclear if we had to refill the vehicle, of if they would have done that at a charge of some kind. I did not know...forgot to ask!
The GPS took us directly to the Welt garage, and the electronic passkey got it inside. I headed down to P2, and pulled into the first spot. The not-super-friendly-guy was there and he quickly checked the car. It was fine. We took our paperwork up to the counter at 4:59 pm.
The original man was busy, so the counter Fraulein helped us (she was nice to chat with) and stuck the key into the reader to get all of the travel data. I signed another piece of paper, she took my credit card and redeposited the EUR 825, and then charged EUR 75.00 for the rental.
Reflections on BMW On Demand:
a) Easy to arrange and the actual take-out/return process is a breeze
b) Pre-arranged „Bayerisches Adrenalin".... hmmmm. mixed. Foremost, my passenger noted that had we not rented this car, he would have never, ever, thought of going to those two places. And he's completely right on that. And we enjoyed visiting those places. So that was a "win." The "mixed" part is the GPS appears to block out travel on the autobahn...(or I couldn't find the override option). The web advertising of "Experience the thrill and exhilaration of driving a BMW model on the German autobahn, on twisting country roads and enjoy typical bavarian villages" isn't quite possible following their GPS. If I had known this in advance, i would have brought the windshield bracket for my iPhone's Navigon and ignored the BMW GPS.
c) Cost. EUR 75 rent + EUR 30 fuel, for a total of 178 km (111 miles), five hours, lunch, and two scenic, cool-to-photograph places. Definitely worth it.
d) If I had known about this prior to my European Delivery, most likely I would have arrived a day earlier, and do a BMW On Demand the day prior to the ED. That would give one a bit of non-stress fun, comfort in using a car (Not mine, hehe), and familiarity with pre-programmed routes.
Win !
Based on a nice suggestion from the user roots, I tried the "BMW On Demand" at the BMW Welt today. (and thanks to SD_335is, too).
Registration was fairly easy, by visiting their website:
http://www.bmw-welt.com/web_rb/bmw-welt/en/bmw_welt/bmw_on_demand/overview.html
Because there would be just a student from Japan and myself, I selected a 135i Coupe, which was for 11:00 am - 5:00 pm, at EUR 25 per hour, maximum charge for three hours. (the most you would pay is for three hours, even if you had it for six hours.)
Monday is also a bank holiday in Germany (following Easter), so we expected a bit of a crowd at The Welt -- and there certainly was!
The Reservation Counter is prominently positioned to the right of the ground ("E") level Gift Shop. I did not recall seeing it there in January 2012 when I did my Euro Deliv...and I asked the customer assistance guy if it was a new program. He replied that it had been ongoing since about 2010. I told him that I don't remember it from January, and he replied that they had moved it from an obscure location in late January to the present position. Okay, that made sense. Admittedly, my first visit to the Welt was packed with a million thoughts in my head....so maybe it was present...maybe not. But the counter is hard to miss now.
All I needed was a Drivers License, Passport, and Credit Card. The Driver License part was interesting, because I had a Texas DL from 1980 to 2009, and then just got another new one having come back from Florida two months ago. There is an "Issue Date" on the latest version of the Texas Drivers Licenses, printed clearly on the face, and so he wondered if I had been driving for any length of time. Apparently there is a minimum number of years of driving experience one must have for qualification to rent the car.
The deposit taken on my credit card was fairly steep: EUR 825.00.
The counter guy was really friendly and nice, and we had gotten into a discussion about our German language course. He started to talk to us in Deutsche, but we both knew enough to say "no, not yet!" He asked if I knew how to drive a manual transmission, and I said, yes, for many many years. He said that they have to ask, because one vehicle required four transmission replacements in just 40,000 km of use!
The paperwork is somewhat similar to that you would file when renting a vehicle from EuroCar -- no, that's not correct. It is about 1/2 of what you would do for renting a vehicle. Pretty simple. Sign your name two times, sign the credit card deposit, and that's it. They hand you two stapled pages of the contract, with a vehicle diagram on each section, and they note any damage. Then you get an electronic key for entering/exiting the parking garage, and you get a BMW vehicle key (not Comfort Access for this model).
Then you go from "E" (the lift/elevator is immediately adjacent to the counter) to P2. You exit the lift, turn left, go out the door, and you see the cars. They have two rows of reserved parking for "BMW ON DEMAND" with signage.
There were two guys getting the run-down on a a M3 Coupe, right next to our car, with an attendant. So I opened our car, tossed our stuff in it, and began setting-up the pairing with my iPhone. My student colleague adjusted his seat and walked around the car. We took a few photographs of it...a white 135i Coupe Manual Transmission. Just as ordered. I popped open the trunk/boot to get attention from the attendant.
For a few minutes, I sort of wished I had gotten an M3 here, but I already have one of those now, so it was time to drive something different).
The attendant finished with the M3 guys and then went over to help someone that had gotten there after we did. Meanwhile, the M3 guys were still inside the car, pointing at this, or that, or whatever. The lights were on the car, but they weren't going anywhere. I knew what was going on! I walked over as the driver opened his door, looking quite perplexed.
Right. He didn't know how to make it go. I asked if the attendant explained the DCT to him...nope. So I gave them the run-down on D and S and Reverse, and how to put it into "P." And then told him to put EDC on Sport, and later to hit "Power" so he can experience a bit more. And I adjusted the D program all the way "up." He was about to drive away, when he asked how to work the turn signals -- he had been pressing the cruise/speed control lever. With that, they got the hang of it, and drove out. I love the sound of that engine!
Finally, we flagged down another attendant, who did not seem happy that we were bothering him. Of all the people at the Welt that I've met during four visits, this was the least cheerful encounter. Oh, well...who likes working on holidays, right?
He quickly checked the car, and I signed approval, and he walked off.
Part of the On Demand advertising is that you can experience the „Bayerisches Adrenalin"
(http://www.bmw-welt.com/web_rb/bmw-welt/en/bmw_welt/bmw_on_demand/routes.html)
Which included the last line: "Due to the approx. duration of the route please be aware that you should reserve your car at least for three hours if you want to experience the whole tour will all highlights."
I looked at the GPS/Nav but could not detect anything like a pre-programmed location in an address book. We flagged down the same guy and I quickly asked him about the pre-programmed tour? He said to press on the radio controls "1" or "2" or "3", and that "8" was programmed to return to the parking garage here.
When hovering over the 1, 2, 3, we did not recognize the names of any places. So we pressed "1" and decided to go with the Mystery Tour #1.
It was about 70km south of Munich. I noticed that we took all city streets, and wasn't really making good time. But this was supposed to be scenic...so okay. Eventually we got out of town and to a more "rustic" area. The program took us to the Buchheim Museum (www.buchheimmuseum.de).
The museum theme (current or permanent, not sure) is Fantasy. So there was an interesting fantasy BMW in the front of the museum (see picture). There was also a special program today, and we were able to read it pretty well, but it was lengthy. We had a good lunch in the cafe, and then went back to the 135i.
GPS Mystery Tour #2 was also only about 70 km to the east.
GPS Mystery Tour #3 was about 220 km south!!!! I don't get how the web advertising material can read that you can do the whole tour in three hours.
We selected Mystery Tour #2 and drove.
Again, I felt as though we were taking back-roads. So this time I checked the settings and found that were were on "Shortest route" instead of "Fast route." We would change that after Tour #2 location.
Tour #2 was beautiful. It is the lake-side, mountain-edge village of Rottach-Egern. A picturesque, post-card perfect area with road-side hotels and cafes. The photograph attached is looking toward the snow-capped mountains with the crisp lake in front, and a church steeple in between.
At that, we went back to the 135i and I found we were about 70 km from Munich, with it being about 4:00pm. We had one hour to get the car back to meet my reservation period!
I pressed program "8" and the BMW Welt garage came up. We started driving.
Even though it was now on "Fast Route" the GPS kept missing the Autobahn. My passenger had never been on the autobahn, and I wanted to get the car up to something reasonable. Finally, I told the GPS voice to shut-up when I saw a sign for the A8, and we headed over to it. I saw the sign for Munich, and we hopped on the autobahn. The GPS was still trying to get me to exit! Anyhow, I asked my passenger about what was the fastest speed he'd ever ridden in a car, and he said 180 km. So I brought us up to 200 km (124 mph) and we drove along that speed for about ten minutes (ah, if only we could do that in Texas!). Then I let the GPS take over, and we got off the autobahn.
We saved about ten minutes, and it appeared we would make it to the Welt at 4:50 pm.
As we hit traffic light after traffic light, I wondered if the GPS had been selected to avoid "highways." Well....that selection option was not to be found! It was completely omitted. Sneaky.
We had consumed about 1/4 tank of gas. I put into a quick petrol station and loaded EUR 30.50 into the tank. It was unclear if we had to refill the vehicle, of if they would have done that at a charge of some kind. I did not know...forgot to ask!
The GPS took us directly to the Welt garage, and the electronic passkey got it inside. I headed down to P2, and pulled into the first spot. The not-super-friendly-guy was there and he quickly checked the car. It was fine. We took our paperwork up to the counter at 4:59 pm.
The original man was busy, so the counter Fraulein helped us (she was nice to chat with) and stuck the key into the reader to get all of the travel data. I signed another piece of paper, she took my credit card and redeposited the EUR 825, and then charged EUR 75.00 for the rental.
Reflections on BMW On Demand:
a) Easy to arrange and the actual take-out/return process is a breeze
b) Pre-arranged „Bayerisches Adrenalin".... hmmmm. mixed. Foremost, my passenger noted that had we not rented this car, he would have never, ever, thought of going to those two places. And he's completely right on that. And we enjoyed visiting those places. So that was a "win." The "mixed" part is the GPS appears to block out travel on the autobahn...(or I couldn't find the override option). The web advertising of "Experience the thrill and exhilaration of driving a BMW model on the German autobahn, on twisting country roads and enjoy typical bavarian villages" isn't quite possible following their GPS. If I had known this in advance, i would have brought the windshield bracket for my iPhone's Navigon and ignored the BMW GPS.
c) Cost. EUR 75 rent + EUR 30 fuel, for a total of 178 km (111 miles), five hours, lunch, and two scenic, cool-to-photograph places. Definitely worth it.
d) If I had known about this prior to my European Delivery, most likely I would have arrived a day earlier, and do a BMW On Demand the day prior to the ED. That would give one a bit of non-stress fun, comfort in using a car (Not mine, hehe), and familiarity with pre-programmed routes.
Win !