# roots' ED #3 (2012 528i)



## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

Whoah... I can't believe the day has finally arrived. Tomorrow I'm leaving for Munich to pick up my wife's 528i. It's my 3rd ED, but 1st time at the Welt (previous ones were 2002 and 2005 at the Freimann facility). So I'm super excited and looking forward to experiencing the Welt delivery.

I'm going solo and it's going to be a quick 3 day trip. I arrive in Munich on Sunday afternoon, pick up the car on Monday morning, then do some driving, return the car on Tuesday morning, and fly home. Hopefully the weather will turn out nice... I just checked wetter.com and it looks like some rain on Sunday and Monday , but hopefully it won't be too bad.










Also another highlight is that it's my 2nd ED with Jon Shafer. I did my first ED with Jon (actually more with his sidekick Franco at that time). Back in late November I saw that Jon was coming back to the car business. At that time my wife and I were thinking of doing ED for the new F30 sometime in late spring. But then I saw that BMW was putting out some aggressive promotions (OLP credits, Mission to Drive, etc). Long story short, we decided to get a 528 instead and pick up in mid March. In early December, I contacted Jon and he got my order set up in no time. Everything with Jon has been very easy and straightforward :thumbup:

So... fast forward to tonight, I'm starting this thread tonight and will post more updates and photos along the way. Ok, gotta go finish packing


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## Mikla (Nov 20, 2011)

So exciting! Don't forget about the 12 hour rule!!


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## ChuckE89 (May 15, 2011)

Monday, high of10C and a low of 6C, 40% chance of rain in the AM, heavy scattered clouds all day
Tuesday, high of 11C and a low of 5C, 20% chance of rain, but expect scattered clouds
map is the projection for Monday from the German Weather Service. hopefully you'll have a nice day to enjoy the new ride.


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## rmorin49 (Jan 7, 2007)

I've done 3 "quickie" EDs, all of them by myself. Wife is not a traveler or "car person". Hope you do have weather that allows for some driving. My last ED in January 2010 was so bad I didn't drive the car (Z4) at all. Had it transported from the Welt directly to the drop off. Lots of snow and temps did not get above freezing the whole time I was in Munich (3 days). Surely by this time of year you will have decent weather. Have a great trip.


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## Jon Shafer (Dec 15, 2001)

roots said:


> Also another highlight is that it's my 2nd ED with Jon Shafer. I did my first ED with Jon (actually more with his sidekick Franco at that time). Back in late November I saw that Jon was coming back to the car business. At that time my wife and I were thinking of doing ED for the new F30 sometime in late spring. But then I saw that BMW was putting out some aggressive promotions (OLP credits, Mission to Drive, etc). Long story short, we decided to get a 528 instead and pick up in mid March. In early December, I contacted Jon and he got my order set up in no time. Everything with Jon has been very easy and straightforward :thumbup:


I so appreciate your giving me the opportunity to arrange this one for you...



Mikla said:


> So exciting! Don't forget about the 12 hour rule!!


And you, we exchanged many emails trying to figure out how to get the M3 that was so impossible. How cool that you decided to go for the ED plan!

:thumbup:


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

*Made it to Munich*

It's 11 pm Sunday evening in Munich and I'm sitting in my room at Marriott Munich. I arrived in Munich this afternoon and I went straight from the airport to Die Welt. I had planned to go to the museum today because tomorrow (Monday) the museum will be closed. And I'm leaving Munich on Tuesday around noon so the only time I have is today.

So this is my first time at the Welt and I'm really impressed by the architecture and how grand it is. I've seen lots of photos before, but after seeing it with my own eyes I can say that photos don't do justice. The Welt is very crowded I guess because it's Sunday and there are lots of families with children, toddlers, and even babies.

I spent a few hours at the museum and took lots of photos. It's also my first time to the museum. On my first ED (Oct 2002), the museum was closed because IIRC my ED was on a Monday. Then on my second ED (Oct 2005), they were renovating the museum and they set up a small, temporary tent in the Olympiapark. I went but it was not too exciting.

The new F30 exhibit is up and running and no surprise it was the most crowded. I took lots and lots of photos but I don't know if I'll be able to post too many tonight, as I'm using tethered internet from my phone.

Oh BTW, I was researching about prepaid SIM chip and I read about buying the chip once you land in Munich, etc and people said the store will need either your German address or your passport and what not. I thought that would be a hassle and most likely time consuming. So what I did was I bought a prepaid German SIM chip from a seller on eBay. The seller is a German guy and he was very helpful and suggested a blau.de chip with 10 euro credit preloaded. I paid around US$29 shipping included. I got the chip and some English instruction from the guy.

So today as I rode on the S bahn from the airport, I put the SIM chip in and turned on my phone. Immediately I got some SMS messages from blau.de. The messages were in German so I don't know what they are but from the looks of it I think it's a confirmation that my number is active  Also immediately I got data access. :thumbup:

Ok that's it for tonight.


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

ChuckE89 said:


> Monday, high of10C and a low of 6C, 40% chance of rain in the AM, heavy scattered clouds all day
> Tuesday, high of 11C and a low of 5C, 20% chance of rain, but expect scattered clouds
> map is the projection for Monday from the German Weather Service. hopefully you'll have a nice day to enjoy the new ride.





rmorin49 said:


> I've done 3 "quickie" EDs, all of them by myself. Wife is not a traveler or "car person". Hope you do have weather that allows for some driving. My last ED in January 2010 was so bad I didn't drive the car (Z4) at all. Had it transported from the Welt directly to the drop off. Lots of snow and temps did not get above freezing the whole time I was in Munich (3 days). Surely by this time of year you will have decent weather. Have a great trip.


Thanks! Yeah today was actually not bad at all. When I got to the Welt, it was not raining. Then when I left around 5:30ish, it was drizzling a bit. And it wasn't too cold... I'm guessing mid 40's (Fahrenheit that is). :thumbup:

I'm hoping tomorrow won't be too bad. I had planned a short trip around south of Munich... first to the official Bimmerfest Neuschwanstein photo spot, then I'm going to follow Deutsche Alpenstrasse to the east, visiting Wieskirche (have always wanted to visit but never had), and up to Benediktbeuern, and back to A95 to Munich. Here's the route I plotted on Google Map:

http://g.co/maps/9werh


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

*Photo time *

Here are some random photos from today:

My ride from ORD to MUC:









F30 outdoor display:









Some Welt photos:

















F30 display:









Love this color... is this mineral gray?


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

Absolutely stunning!









Color matched caliper?? Very cool!









No explanation needed:









I thought the reflection was pretty cool... can you spot me?









Marriott Munich:


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## dsturgeon (Feb 20, 2012)

Your Deutsche Alpenstrasse route is what I have been planning as well. I am not sure I will have enough time to do the whole loop as my delivery is at 10:40 on June 5th.


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## Jon Shafer (Dec 15, 2001)

It should be Monday morning for you; have a great day!

:thumbup:


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

Jon Shafer said:


> It should be Monday morning for you; have a great day!
> 
> :thumbup:


Thanks, Jon  In fact it's 7:45 am now and I'm sitting at the Welt lobby. I was told that the Premium Lounge won't open until 8, so I'm just posting and uploading some more photos.

Unlike yesterday, the Welt is completely empty now. So here are some more photos of the F30 display.


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

It's 9:20 am. I'm already checked in for the 10:30 delivery slot. I'm now going to sample the food in the Premium Lounge


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## peace2peep (Dec 7, 2011)

Wow! Looks like a blast! Great pics! Hoping the weather is holding up for ya! Enjoy this quick trip! I head for Munich on Saturday!


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

Whoa... the last 1.5 hours felt like a blur


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## bagbklyn (Apr 28, 2006)

*Nice Pics*

Beautiful Shots! Keep them coming! :thumbup:


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## Jon Shafer (Dec 15, 2001)

:drool:


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

*Obligatory castle pose... check!*

I drove to Neuschwanstein Bimmerfest official photo spot. I found the road and the tree, however in light of the recent incident reported by SoonerJohn, I was hesitant to enter the road. Upon further inspection, I noticed someone working in the (farm?) house at the end of the road. So I decided not to go in... who knows the farmer has a gun and he's tired of people going in to take photos of brand new BMW :dunno:

So I decided to find another equally suitable spot and I found a public road just a bit further out which provides the same vantage point. So here are my obligatory castle pose:



















And to raise the bar a bit, how bout two castles on the same photo???










And this last one is Wieskirche... I've been wanting to visit this place, but finally today I accomplished something.


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## Jon Shafer (Dec 15, 2001)

Great photos!

Your new Bimmer looks HAWT!!

:thumbup:


What are your impressions of the car thus far? Auto on/off freak you out at all?


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## DrivenByF30 (Feb 8, 2012)

Thanks for sharing your awesome experience!!! I am ROOTing for more pictures... Can't get enough of it!! 

Making the wait for my very exciting!! I am psyched!!!


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## gmblack3 (Mar 14, 2008)

Thanks for the great report and congrats on your third ED.


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## masti99 (Feb 14, 2011)

Congrats & Thanks! Brought back some memories from our trip last year...


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

Thanks everyone for the nice comments! It's now time to update this thread.

Here's the thread I created for tracking my car: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6800607

The recap:

Dec 2: Placed ED order with Jon Shafer
Dec 6: Production number assigned & delivery date confirmed

Jan 9: Received email "European Delivery Confirmation Letter"

Mar 12: Picked up car at the Welt
Mar 13: Dropped off car at LogInOut
Mar 25: Glorious Leader departed Bremerhaven

Apr 18: Glorious Leader arrived at Port Hueneme
Apr 19: Car was unloaded
Apr 24: Car arrived at the dealer (BMW Santa Barbara)
Apr 27: Picked up car

Photos to follow soon...


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

Here are the photos from my pick up day last Friday. I rented a car one-way and drove down to Santa Barbara (got a really good deal from Alamo for $51 for one way rental!) Jon picked us up from the airport (where I dropped off my rental car) in a brand new 750i :wow: It was so nice to see him again... last time I met Jon was back in December of 2002 when I was picking up my first ED car.

It was a short drive back to the dealership. As I entered the showroom, there was my car... looking as shiny and clean as the day I picked it up back in Munich! I asked Jon to leave both the rear and front euro plates on the car :thumbup:




























And here's the man himself :bow:










Finally time to drive back home...










With that... my 3rd ED is now complete.


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## dsturgeon (Feb 20, 2012)

Great looking car. And you can tell John gets it! Enjoy. :thumbup:


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## Jon Shafer (Dec 15, 2001)

Aww shucks....

It was so great to see you again, and an added bonus to meet your folks!

Thank you so much for the opportunity to serve you once again, I truly appreciate it...


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