# First Time Jitters?



## Kanuck (Feb 18, 2003)

M FUNF said:


> If you are worried about driving in Europe in your car, have you considered that for a drop off in Italy some Italian is going to DRIVE your car back to Munich for shipment. You might consider a drop off point other than Italy if you do not want someone else driving your car.


The drivers are not necessarily Italian (as if that matters) and are very professional. But, you have to meet them somewhere, it costs more, and you get more mileage on your car.


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## M FUNF (Apr 2, 2008)

Kanuck said:


> The drivers are not necessarily Italian (as if that matters) and are very professional. But, you have to meet them somewhere, it costs more, and you get more mileage on your car.


It doesn't matter just the thought of turning one of my M cars over to someone else so they can attempt a new personal best time ti Munich leaves me cold. Although that applies to any of the 4 ED's I have done, remember what we order for an ED car is usually in the larger engine variety than normally seen in Europe. Truck drivers are professional too and I would prefer my car on the back of a transporter.


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## Kanuck (Feb 18, 2003)

M FUNF said:


> It doesn't matter just the thought of turning one of my M cars over to someone else so they can attempt a new personal best time ti Munich leaves me cold.


Agreed. I would not drop in Italy either. But, the notion of a wild-eyed, high testosterone, 19 year old car jockey gunning your car back to Munich is not really accurate.


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## 335i Driver (Nov 29, 2006)

You live in CA and you're worried about driving in Europe. Where do you live Coalinga?

Do you realize people in Europe actually have proper training, courtesy and obey traffic laws? I've driven in many European cities: Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Dublin, London, ridden all over Paris and yes driven in Milan. I'll take any of them over the selfish idiots in LA or Chicago any day.


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## M FUNF (Apr 2, 2008)

Kanuck said:


> Agreed. I would not drop in Italy either. But, the notion of a wild-eyed, high testosterone, 19 year old car jockey gunning your car back to Munich is not really accurate.


Age is not the determinate, my son now 21 has been driving my high performance cars since he was 15. Stupid does not start and end with an age. Would you be comfortable with a 35 year old professional (hired by Harms) driving your car from Italy to Munich? I know the car will be redelivered to me without flaws but if something happens I want it to be either me or someone I know driving while I am there. And yes my son has driven my M5 hard but only on the track and as he has said much harder than he would ever drive his M3. Cars can be damaged just loading or unloading but I am willing to accept that level of risk as the bare minimum, I do not recommend anyone having their car driven back to Munich by someone they do not know. How do you as a consumer know what the qualifications of this "professional" driver are, and how do you know they are not 19?:dunno: I find it interesting that you defend the drivers but would not use one yourself.


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## Kanuck (Feb 18, 2003)

M FUNF said:


> Age is not the determinate, my son now 21 has been driving my high performance cars since he was 15. Stupid does not start and end with an age. Would you be comfortable with a 35 year old professional (hired by Harms) driving your car from Italy to Munich? I know the car will be redelivered to me without flaws but if something happens I want it to be either me or someone I know driving while I am there. And yes my son has driven my M5 hard but only on the track and as he has said much harder than he would ever drive his M3. Cars can be damaged just loading or unloading but I am willing to accept that level of risk as the bare minimum, I do not recommend anyone having their car driven back to Munich by someone they do not know. How do you as a consumer know what the qualifications of this "professional" driver are, and how do you know they are not 19?:dunno: I find it interesting that you defend the drivers but would not use one yourself.


This is a silly argument. I think you know what I mean. I will accept that your son is the exception to the rule, but if you were running an auto insurance company would you charge the same premium to 19 year old males as to 45 year old males?

The reasons I would not drop in Italy are the extra cost and the additional miles I don't get to drive my own car.

In any event, I'm much more interested in what the OP has decided to do.


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## TGray5 (Jan 22, 2002)

Young people are prone to doing stupid things no matter how great their pure driving skills might be. Maturity and judgement come with experience and not raw reflexes, timing and hand/eye coordination. I'm sure your son is the next Michael Schumacher, but he ain't driving my car


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## M FUNF (Apr 2, 2008)

TGray5 said:


> Young people are prone to doing stupid things no matter how great their pure driving skills might be. Maturity and judgement come with experience and not raw reflexes, timing and hand/eye coordination. I'm sure your son is the next Michael Schumacher, but he ain't driving my car


Doesn't need your car, has his own E46 M3 with a new one on order. He gets the car not just the picture. And no he will never challenge MS, but then again MS is not doing so well this year either. Before we get into a silly argument, on Michael's worst day he could probably lap the Nurburgring in reverse faster than any of us could using all of our skills. :bigpimp:


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## TGray5 (Jan 22, 2002)

M FUNF said:


> Doesn't need your car, has his own E46 M3 with a new one on order. He gets the car not just the picture. And no he will never challenge MS, but then again MS is not doing so well this year either. Before we get into a silly argument, on Michael's worst day he could probably lap the Nurburgring in reverse faster than any of us could using all of our skills. :bigpimp:


 I think you missed my whole point.


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## M FUNF (Apr 2, 2008)

TGray5 said:


> I think you missed my whole point.


No I got your point - young people do stupid things -. However, in my case I never did anything stupid, I did however make decisions with less than optimal outcomes with some negative consequences, these contributed more to my education than the 2 post BA degrees I have collected.  Sometimes, even at my advanced age I still ere.


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## jpzeller (Nov 28, 2009)

It may just be me, but it seems that the spaces in German parking structures are none too forgiving.


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## skywalkerbeth (Jul 19, 2007)

jpzeller said:


> It may just be me, but it seems that the spaces in German parking structures are none too forgiving.


HA! Try Italy. My God. Mein Gott. Mio Dio!


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## ViaPerturbatio (Jul 25, 2009)

b-y said:


> My other piece of advice is to change your itinerary. Drop the car off at almost any regular drop-off point (there are a dozen) and take a train to Milan. Driving and parking there is about as bad as one could imagine. (See the Wiki, especially about the ZTL.)


I tend to agree with b-y here. I have driven through Milan, Rome, Paris et. al and while it is much more sport for me, I admit that if it were in my brand new car, I would be far less apt to drive and MOSTLY park in those cities. Your other option is to stay/park in the outskirts of the city and take day trips into Milan.

As we once again recall the colorful Italian driving methodology....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfG1HmlB9kI&feature=player_embedded


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## [email protected] BMW (Aug 2, 2010)

"go ahead anyway"....... call me I'll make it happen., extension, new car etc. etc.


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## EriKx559 (Nov 4, 2010)

335i Driver said:


> You live in CA and you're worried about driving in Europe. Where do you live Coalinga?
> 
> Do you realize people in Europe actually have proper training, courtesy and obey traffic laws? I've driven in many European cities: Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Dublin, London, ridden all over Paris and yes driven in Milan. I'll take any of them over the selfish idiots in LA or Chicago any day.


I'm from Coalinga and the roads here are shiit


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## petejp (Mar 1, 2009)

mason said:


> As far as language barrier, this is my advice - If you have an iPhone, buy a data plan and use the translation app or google translation. It is very helpful. I used that in Padova Italy for shopping. We were fine. If you don't, get a simple electronics dictionary like Franklin, it comes with foreign language funciton. It would serve the purpose.


Won't you incur roaming data charges for using the data plan over there?


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