# 8/21/08 PCD - Very Nice!



## Kurt_OH (May 3, 2008)

We ordered our 335i Sedan in May, took Euro Delivery July 2nd, and got our PCD scheduled for 8/21.

We flew down to Stevens Aviation with friends and called the Marriott and asked them to pick us up at Stevens. This is apparently not unusual - they knew right where it was, and were there in an X5 within about 10-15 minutes. Kevin loaded up the four of us and our bit of luggage. During our ride to the hotel, he offered to schedule dinner, which we declined (went to Soby's instead: rave review!). We asked about getting a cab to Soby's as it's about 10 miles from the hotel, and Kevin offered to take us down in the X5, which he did after our check in and prep.

The hotel is typical Marriott; it's nice, clean and full service.

Soby's was great. They offer indoor and outdoor seating and a really cool side entrance with giant wood doors revealing a nice bar area. Inside it's somewhat rustic with exposed brick/stone and natural wood. We had Pimiento Cheese Hushpuppies and Smoked Pork Bruschetta appetizers, which were very good - especially the hushpuppies. They're not normally my kind of food, but these were light, crisp and a little spicy. We drank a nice Pinot Grigio that was light and complimented the evening and food nicely. Our entrees were the Pork Tenderloin, Scallops, Grouper and Salmon. All were delivered hot, tasted and looked great, and were appropriately sized. All four of us were impressed with our food. We shared the Creme Brulee and Bread Pudding desserts, which were also good.

We called the Marriott and their shuttle was in the immediate area and picked us up within about 2 minutes. We returned to the hotel and called it a night.

The next morning we headed downstairs around 6:45am for the breakfast, which was nice. A full breakfast buffet as well as a cook preparing omelets and waffles was provided. The shuttle to PC was ready and departed with about a dozen of us on time at 7:45am.

We arrived at PC and our car was one of two in the small showroom in the front of the building. They did a beautiful job cleaning and detailing it - we MAY have been a speck imperfect in our pre-dropoff car wash in Paris following ED, so their efforts paid off. It also had a full tank of gas and the rest of our owners manuals (they only gave us the "essential" one in Munich).

Shortly after arriving, Donnie Isley greeted us, introduced himself and took us to a classroom to outline the day's activities and the key rules.

Rule #1: NYC (Not Your Car): You don't have to baby or protect these cars from what you've been asked to do. If they say to stand on the brakes or throttle, or do something that'll make you spin or put other high stresses on the car, then just DO IT.

I think there might have been a couple others, but that's the one that stuck with me. 

The rest of it: we're going to do a little slalom and road course, an antilock brake steering activity and a wet skidpad traction control activity.

We were broken into two groups, and we were put in the group with the two M3s. I think everyone drove the same model of car they purchased. I thought they might just put all 3-series buyers into 328s, but we were in a 335 as were at least one other couple. As we were driving out behind those M3s, we both commented on what great looking cars they are. Wow.

The car is my wife's, so she drove first. The first activity was the slalom. She started off a bit slowly but got going after a few laps and some encouragement from the instructor to "Give it FULL throttle!!!". The instructors do a great job watching each car and giving prompt, clear, useful feedback such as: "look further ahead in that turn - toward the water tower" or "brake before the turn, but just enough to get through the turn - don't get back on the throttle too early or you'll unload the front tires and understeer". They do a good job keeping their eyes on all three of the cars out there. Each car has a radio in it, so the instructors just chatter at one car then another, and we all hear what's said to any of us. They even commented that Beth was smiling through the slalom on one lap.

They had a "Pit" area which is basically just pulling out of the line of the other cars to change drivers, and that's where I got behind the wheel for my turn at the slalom. It was a blast. I got a little bit sideways a couple times when cresting a small hill. I was corrected to look further ahead once on the turn into the slalom, but other than that, I just drove around grinning like a fool and really surprised at how good a 335 (with bald tires, BTW) handles.

Next up was the antilock brakes exercise. Basically you enter a right hand curve at 45, 50 and finally 55mph, and when you enter the cones, you slam on the brakes while steering between cones curving off to the right. Antilock has gotten smoother since my last car purchase, but basically it works and you can steer while panic stopping. Nothing really new there, especially for an Ohio driver - we get plenty of antilock slide/steer opportunities in the winter.

Finally, we did the wet skidpad without, then with traction control enabled. The gist: if you're not very careful, you'll do a 360+ and even fly off the pavement entirely with the TC off. They instruct you intentionally to make the car spin out with TC disabled, then have you do the same or even more vigorous maneuvers with it enabled, to show how much difference it makes. Our first attempt with it enabled didn't go so well - we spun out anyway due to bald tires. One quick radio call to the office and another 335i sedan zipped down to the skidpad and we greatly improved that performance. You CAN still defeat it and spin/slide out if you're absolutely determined, but it does make a BIG difference. It changes the equation from an inevitability to a possibility. Bottom line: if you have it engaged and drive reasonably, you're not going to spin out due to lack of traction on your drive wheels.

We then toured the factory, which was somewhat interesting, but since we'd done the Munich factory tour just two months ago, it was somewhat less remarkable to us. It is cool that they build so many different models (X this, Z that . . .) on one line, and all the internal parts show up at the stations at the right time, in the right order. You see more of the process in Munich. One thing in particular is the paint booth - in Munich you're standing 2 feet from a car that's being painted (on the other side of a glass wall that doesn't get ANY overspray!). In SC, you can see primered and recently painted cars chugging down the line.

We were fortunate enough to have Mr. Isley sit at our end of the table at lunch. He shared a few adventures with us, and we talked some about Nurburgring and Mid-Ohio.

Lastly, and certainly ridiculously fun, is the hot lap with Mr. Isley. I LOVE that car (yea, I'm all alone on that one, huh?). The sound, acceleration, grip and braking are phenomenal. The auto-side-bolsters are really neat: when you enter a curve, they automatically wrap around the front passenger, keeping him secure. Then as soon as the car straightens out, it relaxes the bolsters again. But just as impressive is the driving. Drifting through the mid-course esses, nearly sideways was hilarious. Hitting every apex, braking point and timing all the throttle control perfectly was impressive. But the most ridiculous part, and by that I mean it's ridiculous that it can even be done, is taking that M5 around that same wet skidpad sideways, through a slalom of cones. I can't get my head around how he does it. I was actually laughing out loud while saying the same thing to him.

In summary, I would definitely recommend PCD to anyone who has the chance to do it. We flew down from Columbus OH, spent the night, and drove 500 miles home the next evening after delivery, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The Marriott staff were all great, and the BMW staff were outstanding. Mr. Isley and the other instructor were very interested in helping us get the most out of our track time, and each of the personnel we encountered really took their job to heart and made sure our experience was as good as it could be. The entire operation is very nice, from the fact that they offer this (can't be inexpensive) course, a free room at a nice hotel with dinner and breakfast, a nice lunch at the BMW facility and attentive staff all over the place, it couldn't have been more pleasant or fun. They also did a great job with redelivery of our ED car. It was detailed and full of gas, and they went over everything we asked about, without forcing us to be reintroduced to features we already understood. It was really all about us.

Thanks to all the PC staff: you really put a great finishing touch on a super car purchase/delivery experience!


----------



## LinkF1 (Apr 3, 2005)

Hey it is David, I was there with my father to pick up his 328i sedan. I fully agree with all of your review, it was a great experience that I can't wait to have again. The only part you forgot to mention was the offroad course with the X5s.

Here are some of the pictures I took during the experience:


----------



## I-Won-Today (Feb 21, 2007)

Thanks to both of you for the write-up and pictures.

Glad you had a great time with us! Enjoy your BMW's :thumbup:


----------



## Kurt_OH (May 3, 2008)

Oh yea, Off Road! Doh!

We also had the opportunity to drive BMW's X5 SUV (yea, yea, SAV - what-e-ver!). My preconception was that this was just another example of an automaker jumping onto a trend with a vehicle far outside of their expertise, simply to cash in on brand loyalty, a piece of the pie or the movement of the masses irrespective of the appropriateness of their product. I did expect it to be a decent product, just perhaps a bit rushed to market or lacking some of the attention to detail and great engineering inherent in many BMW products. I also thought there was the potential for this to be a vehicle that was really an all wheel drive minivan rather than a vehicle that could handle more than puddles or ruts in the soccer field's gravel parking lot.

We initially drove the X5s over to the factory for our tour. There was really nothing remarkable about them during this short ride - decent acceleration and ride was about all I noticed. After our tour, we went directly to the off road course, with our first "obstacle" being the deep water - apparently up to 21" during wet conditions, or maybe 15" during our drive. We had no problems and percolated through this and many other obstacles without incident. 

A couple items of interest:

1. Stiff chassis: during one exercise, they had me stop where only my front driver side tire and rear passenger side tire were on the ground. They rocked me back and forth by pushing on the body, then opened all the doors and the tailgate, and then closed them with no problem. The point: many "off road" vehicles aren't stiff enough to handle that - they can open the doors, but can't close them at all, or not without some inappropriate friction (LOL) with the door frames.

2. Hill descent control: At the top of a ~15' hill, they had me manually engage - via a button on the dash - the hill descent control function. I then released the brakes at the top of the hill, and it let me creep down the hill without touching the gas or brakes. It's a very nice feature. My friend's LX470 also has this feature, but I have no experience with it to compare the functionality.

3. Hill ASCENT control (that's NOT the actual name, but I can't remember what it's called): If you're on a hill headed UP and you stop, when you let off the brake, the brake holds you for up to 2 seconds more, to prevent rolling backward down the hill. I believe ALL BMWs have this feature.

4. No squeaks: Related to #1, I'd guess, is the fact that the whole vehicle felt very stable and unstressed by our off roading. There were no squeaks or any signs of stress.

5. Low center of gravity: we traveled along a 30 degree bank both left and right, and other than being leaned over a LOT (see pics also), we never felt the vehicle was unstable or near it's tipping point. It's a really nice design in that regard.


Overall, I thought the X5's were really nice. They seemed quite capable, and gave the same feeling of solidity familiar in other BMW products. My personal experience with 4x4s is with friends who own pickups, and my prior ownership of a Jeep Grand Cherokee v8 4x4. My impression of these vehicles was significantly enhanced by this experience. I wonder if that's what they wanted to happen? 

Pictures below
Left: I was the first SUV, so I stopped and took a picture of those behind me crawling over and down the banked pass.
Right: Beth checking out her new 335i in the PC showroom.


----------

