ED Questions

A couple of questions for you 'experienced' people who have been thru the ED process

1) do you bring your own floormats?
2) do they protect/cover the seats before shipping the car back to the USA?
3) which is the closest drop off to the shipping port?

Thanks

Dan

1) No, there's no need to. The ED center installs floormats on the car.

When I picked up my 530 last month, the car already has floormats installed. However, I did notice that the floormats were different from what I had seen here. The one on my car looked thin and they were fastened directly to the base with a screw-type fastener. I understand that the "real" mats have velcro pads and they have matching velcro pad that are attached to the base.

2) I don't know. But I expect that ED cars would receive the same treatment as brand new non ED cars. I know that they "wrap" the new cars with cosmoline before shipping them, but I have no idea if they do that to ED cars. My car was very dirty when I dropped it off so I hope they didn't wrap it with cosmoline.

3) I think there are only 2 ports that the cars are shipped from: Bremerhaven in Germany, and Antwerp in Belgium. They have local EH Harms offices at those 2 locations, so those are the closest you can get.

ian

Originally posted by DCC
A couple of questions for you 'experienced' people who have been thru the ED process

1) do you bring your own floormats?
2) do they protect/cover the seats before shipping the car back to the USA?
3) which is the closest drop off to the shipping port?

Thanks

Dan

Dan,
I had the same questions when I went to pickup my car in October.

1) Left the floor mats. Wasn't going to pack those bulky things, and as others have experienced, they showed up upon delivery stateside--no problem. They were not the "BMW " logo mats, but are of decent quality.
2) Not sure...I did ask both the BMW ED Center, Harns, and WW lines about this, and WW got back to me saying that they did not afford the car extra protection. They did assure me that it was in a fully enclosed area not exposed to elements. I Zainoed my car in Munich anyway. It got here just fine.
3) I dropped my car off in Amsterdam and was told it was trucked over to Zeebruge, I beleive. I think as long as it's not dropped off in Italy or something, it is transported and not driven to the dock.

Good luck and enjoy!
Lansing

Fellas...
1) The Floor mats given at the ED center are the EXACT same ones you would buy here.

Some of the older mats have the 3 "BMW" letters on the front mats. The newer one no longer have that. There never was a "BMW LOGO" mats (at leats from BMW). Not in the past 5 years.

So no, you are not being cheated.

2) I do not believe that the car seats are being "wrapped" in plastix bags (at least not ala factory). It is my experince that they do nuthing more than, drive the car onto the carrier, tie it down, and sail away to US.

hope this helps,

beewang

beewang,

1) does that mean that the beige seats may end up here (USA) dirty?
2) are you familiar with the number of miles that I have to put on the car before dropping off...or can I just drive it straigt to drop off after ED Delivery?

1) No... why will it be dirty? If you are thinking that the driver seats might get dirty from them loading and unloading, don't worry. They know its a new car you are NOT going to have any problem with it.

2) I've seen lotz of people just drive straight to Harms to drop off. I think its silly (for not taking advantage of the autobahn experince) but to answer your question, NO!! they could careless.

hope this helps,

beewang

Hey there -- a couple of quick thoughts -- my sand interior showed up nice and clean, FWIW. I also heard from someone that the cars are shipped entirely in closed containers, so it's not exposed to the elements in the high sea. I know the truck that delivers the cars to the dealerships from the port are closed containers (as opposed to those open car carriers you see on the road . . . ). Hope that helps.

When I dropped off my car in Zurich it was dirty outside and the floor mats were dirty- couldn't help it with no good place to clean it. I don't know where it was cleaned but the day I picked up the car here it was spotless. I don't think you have to worry about them taking good care of your car.

When I dropped my car off in London, it had two weeks of dirt but the interior was relatively clean. It was spotless when I picked it up in Houston. On the flip side, I have heard of people picking up their car in the same shape it was dropped off in or the interior was not throughly clean. It really depends on your BMW center where you pickup the car. You can contact your salesman upon arrival of your car to wash and wax it.