[BentZero]

I live in South Carolina, so the PCD center is only a few hours away. I'd then be able to drive home in my new car. ED sounds very tempting as I'd love to take a vacation in Europe with my wife in a new car, but the wait when you get back sounds like it would be brutal. Anyway, how do the two differ as far as pick-up experience goes?

 

[X3 Skier]

The pickup process is a minor part of the ED Experience.

I did my first at the old Frieman Center which was little more than a fancy warehouse.

The wait for redelivery was not a big deal since I had waited much longer to afford a BMW in the first place. IMHO, Driving through Europe in your own car is far superior to picking it at the PC. In fact if you want to, you can do both. :angel:

Cheers

 

[thumper_330]

My wait for PCD after my ED was only about an extra 10 days after I would've taken delivery at my local dealer. Also, to be honest the wait really isn't that bad in my opinion. Having said that, where most cars are built and then shipped, an ED car will often be built and then not shipped for a month to six weeks... that does extend delivery time a lot.

However, if it's planned properly it can be one of the best experiences of your life. Despite all the comedy of errors that occurred with mine, I wouldn't trade the experience for the world and fully plan on my next car being an ED as well. The Welt was awesome and I spent an entire day there with my girlfriend, my girlfriend's sister and my son and had a fantastic time. The factory tour was good (but I thought the Spartanburg tour was better... but the paint booth in Munich was fascinating...) and I had the vacation of a lifetime. I made memories on that vacation that will live with me and my son forever, but hope to add new ones in two years when I do it all again.

There were just so many positive experiences I can't begin to describe it; but at the same time I have often said the Euro Delivery is for the tourist in us while the PCD is for the driver. Do both; I did. It made for an incredibly exciting journey that was 6 months in the making (from the time of the initial contract to the day I left the Performance Center with my 135i) and was totally worth it. It's been almost a year, and still sometimes I sit back in my chair and find my mind wandering to a beer hall in Garmisch where I sat on a warm day and drank awesome beer... to blasting down the Autobahn at 120mph and having my doors blown off by a Corrolla (yes, I LOL'd)... to walking the medieval walls of Rothenburg. Then I have the memories of my day at the Performance Center and then the following day when I drove home and did the Tail of the Dragon and the Cherohala Skyway both... the Chef's Table in Waynesville, NC... all awesome experiences. I wouldn't want to trade one for the other.

 

[laser]

I live in South Carolina, so the PCD center is only a few hours away. I'd then be able to drive home in my new car. ED sounds very tempting as I'd love to take a vacation in Europe with my wife in a new car, but the wait when you get back sounds like it would be brutal. Anyway, how do the two differ as far as pick-up experience goes?

Funny you should ask!

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=490013&highlight=

 

[Tanning machine]

I don't think the two are really comparable.

ED: Discount and trip to Europe (and driving car there). Some additional delays.
PCD: No discount, but seeing the performance center. Drive back from SC, but less delay otherwise.

It really depends on what you want. If you want a trip to Europe and a new BMW, you can get savings that help "pay" for the trip (i.e., the package is less than the two separately). If you don't want a trip to Europe, don't do ED.

 

[Jon90]

I also did both on an M3 cabrio delivery this year and a) DID find the wait for the car to come back to be interminable (making it a PCD actually made it worse by almost 3 weeks (compared to if I had paid for a delivery in NYC), in my case.)

And, b) personally speaking, see no comparison whatsoever. Euro delivery was just one of the best 2 week spans of my life-- incredible, incredible adventure. PCD was very fun and educational, but not even in the same league as the life-changing experience ED was, IMHO. Nothing prepared me for how incredible euro delivery was-- and I did it in winter, eliminating a lot of places and flexibility-- had to return in MUC-- never would have done so if I didn't need to, far too limiting and boring driving back to MUC on the last day.

I'll never buy another car without doing it via ED, but I wouldn't bother doing PCD again-- fun as it was. Although I'm definitely going to do a M-school there very soon-- which, actually, is what I'd recommend to you.

Plus, you can do the Tail of the Dragon, etc pretty much anytime, living relatively nearby, so, IMHO, that makes PCD even a small notch less appealing as an "experience." same cannot be said of all the unforgettable driving one gets to do in Bavaria, Austria, Italy, etc

 

[gbarros]

I'm doing my best not to be snarky here but really, if you don't see the difference between driving your car in Germany on the Autobahn, through the swiss alps, etc vs picking it up in Spartanburg, SC I'm not sure there is much we can do to explain it

But maybe I misunderstand the question? My apologies if I did.

 

[Jon90]

You'd have to really hate:

- Beautiful European scenery
- driving very fast on beautiful-- and beautifully-engineered-- roads-- and in Bavaria at least-- almost completely undisturbed by bad drivers
- just discovering amazing small towns, FOOD, wonderful, friendly people, etc. on your own schedule in a way that would be very, very difficult in any other way of traveling.

Etc.

The best way I ever heard it expressed was a member here who listed all the great things and stated (as close as I can remember it) "unless you have the most interesting life in the world here in the U.S." (or "..the most interesting man.."-- forgot the exact quote (apologies for that)-- you'll find Euro Delivery to be an astounding, unforgettable, life-affirming adventure.

I can only imagine what my next time will be like having learned some the finer points on my first one.

 

[BentZero]

I've spent the entire afternoon reading about ED. It sounds absolutely amazing. I also didn't realize that I could combine ED with PCD which is a no-brainer. plus if I do it during football season I can take in a Clemson game.

My main confusion was around the events the day you get your car.

 

[Jon90]

My main confusion was around the events the day you get your car.

I'm in the distinct minority here in that I found the delivery day "experience" to be largely irrelevant. I don't care about the "premium lounge" (which is a bit hypocritical on my part since in the airline world, I care about first-class lounges very much!) and the free snacks at The Welt-- all what I, personally, consider to be an ersatz "VIP experience" that some seem to really relish, YMMV. And the "presentation" of the car, etc-- all stuff, IMvHO, that PALES in comparison to driving around in your new car on the roads it was... (too corny to finish the sentence )

As I said, I'm in the distinct minority on that-- delivery day to me was only really fulfilling the second I pulled out of the building and realized I could drive anywhere in Europe I felt like in a new M3.

However, the whole thing, as a package? Unbeatable.

And, absolutely you can/should to PCD on the redelivery.

Problem solved! :angel: