# European Delivery - Too good to be true?



## hades281 (Apr 6, 2005)

Hi! This is my first post, but i've been lurking around here since I fell in love with the E90. This will be the first BMW anyone in my family has ever bought... so some of this stuff is new to me.

I saw on bmwusa.com a post about European Delivery. It seems like if I choose this option, I'll immediately save about $3k on the car, and use the savings to pay for airfare to Germany. Then I would receive complimentary European insurance for about two weeks, and free of charge shipment of the car to the US! The deal seems almost too good to be true. 

My best guess is that by going to Germany to pick the car up, I wont have to pay some sort of US new car Import tax, so BMW passes some of the savings onto the customer. But would I have to pay German sales tax and then an additional US tax? And in this case would European Delivery still be a worthwhile route?

Because if by doing this option I get basically a free or very cheap trip to Europe, I cant see any reason not to do this!

BTW - This is the best E90 forum I've found on the internet so far!! Awesome site :bigpimp:


----------



## fidozoom (Dec 28, 2004)

hades281 said:


> Hi! This is my first post, but i've been lurking around here since I fell in love with the E90. This will be the first BMW anyone in my family has ever bought... so some of this stuff is new to me.
> 
> I saw on bmwusa.com a post about European Delivery. It seems like if I choose this option, I'll immediately save about $3k on the car, and use the savings to pay for airfare to Germany. Then I would receive complimentary European insurance for about two weeks, and free of charge shipment of the car to the US! The deal seems almost too good to be true.
> 
> ...


It is a pretty nice deal. You get the savings and usually you can negotiate better prices ontop of the savings with your dealer because it doesn't come out of the dealer's allocation. You don't pay anything in Germany and you pay the sales tax in your state as you'd do with any car if you state has taxation on cars. So yes the idea is you get a very nice trip to Europe but some people iwll just fly to Europe, get the car and fly back. The other cool thing is that you have to take delivery in Munich but you can drop off the car in certain other cities in Europe!

The only catch is you'll be without the car for about 3 months or so while the car is being shipped from europe to the US. Also if you are leasing I think you continue to pay for the car for these 3 months even though you are not actually driving it.


----------



## uter (Jan 6, 2002)

fidozoom said:


> It is a pretty nice deal. You get the savings and usually you can negotiate better prices ontop of the savings with your dealer because it doesn't come out of the dealer's allocation. You don't pay anything in Germany and you pay the sales tax in your state as you'd do with any car if you state has taxation on cars. So yes the idea is you get a very nice trip to Europe but some people iwll just fly to Europe, get the car and fly back. The other cool thing is that you have to take delivery in Munich but you can drop off the car in certain other cities in Europe!
> 
> The only catch is you'll be without the car for about 3 months or so while the car is being shipped from europe to the US. Also if you are leasing I think you continue to pay for the car for these 3 months even though you are not actually driving it.


With regards to leasing...

Don't forget that leasing is about the capitalized cost of the car (substantially lower via ED) and the residual value (which is based on the much higher US MSRP). You can still lease via ED and save money.

FIDOZOOM, don't neglect to notice that BMWUSA.com is only showing you the MSRP for ED. There's a much lower INVOICE price for ED. Available on this board with an easy search.

Commonly, deals for $1000-$1500 over ED invoice can be had. For example, back in 2002, I had a deal of that range over ED invoice, saving me about $5K on totally loaded E46 touring.


----------



## voltron1011 (Mar 15, 2005)

You also want to find out if you will have to pay the Customs fee when it hits the US port. If the car doesn't have a license plate on it, it is assumed to be a brand new vehicle and will be hit with that fee. I think it is 1.5% of the purchase price.


----------



## mrbelk (Dec 5, 2003)

voltron1011 said:


> You also want to find out if you will have to pay the Customs fee when it hits the US port. If the car doesn't have a license plate on it, it is assumed to be a brand new vehicle and will be hit with that fee. I think it is 1.5% of the purchase price.


European Delivery takes care of any and all registration fees in Germany, customs fees, insurance (first 2 weeks), shipping, marine insurance, wharfage, transportation, etc. The only thing that the customer has to pay for is his travel expenses.

-MrB


----------



## LDV330i (May 24, 2003)

hades281 said:


> .............
> I saw on bmwusa.com a post about European Delivery. It seems like if I choose this option, I'll immediately save about $3k on the car, and use the savings to pay for airfare to Germany. Then I would receive complimentary European insurance for about two weeks, and free of charge shipment of the car to the US! The deal seems almost too good to be true.
> 
> ........
> ...


 You need to check out the European Delivery forum. You can find a lot of helpful information there from choosing a dealer, negotiating the deal, planning your trip, experiences when in Europe, painful wait for redelivery, etc.

As has been posted above the savings to be had are greater than the ones listed on the BMW site. None of us who have done ED would ever think of paying ED MSRP, though the dealers here in Houston will have you believe otherwise. The local dealers do not negotiate. The go to dealer in SE TX is Garlyn Shelton in Bryan and the contact person is Ron Elms.


----------



## Chris90 (Apr 7, 2003)

voltron1011 said:


> You also want to find out if you will have to pay the Customs fee when it hits the US port. If the car doesn't have a license plate on it, it is assumed to be a brand new vehicle and will be hit with that fee. I think it is 1.5% of the purchase price.


That's not a problem cause it hits the port along with all the other new BMWs (none of which have plates).


----------



## rruiter (Feb 10, 2004)

mrbelk said:


> European Delivery takes care of any and all registration fees in Germany, customs fees, insurance (first 2 weeks), shipping, marine insurance, wharfage, transportation, etc. The only thing that the customer has to pay for is his travel expenses.
> 
> -MrB


Is the insurance duration changed this year ? I know it was a month last year.


----------



## mrbelk (Dec 5, 2003)

rruiter said:


> Is the insurance duration changed this year ? I know it was a month last year.


Per the BMWNA website at http://www.bmwusa.com/bmwexperience/EuropeanDelivery/dropoff.htm:



> *Road-Use Tax*
> Your European Delivery package includes road tax for three months. Customers requesting a registration period exceeding three months must pay the additional tax in Euros at the time of delivery.
> 
> *Registration and Insurance*
> BMW European Delivery provides 14 days of premium insurance and tourist registration with no additional cost to you. However, should you decide to extend this, additional coverage is available for purchase in 30-day increments only. This coverage must extend to your drop-off date and can be arranged through your local BMW Center.


----------



## xspeedy (Apr 10, 2003)

rruiter said:


> Is the insurance duration changed this year ? I know it was a month last year.


It has been halved to two weeks.


----------



## Jim H (Feb 9, 2004)

fidozoom said:


> It is a pretty nice deal. You get the savings and usually you can negotiate better prices ontop of the savings with your dealer because it doesn't come out of the dealer's allocation. You don't pay anything in Germany and you pay the sales tax in your state as you'd do with any car if you state has taxation on cars. So yes the idea is you get a very nice trip to Europe but some people iwll just fly to Europe, get the car and fly back. The other cool thing is that you have to take delivery in Munich but you can drop off the car in certain other cities in Europe!
> 
> The only catch is you'll be without the car for about 3 months or so while the car is being shipped from europe to the US. Also if you are leasing I think you continue to pay for the car for these 3 months even though you are not actually driving it.


Wait for 3 months? My wait was 31 days from drop off. Now, I know I'm on the east coast, but I think they can get the car to Houston faster than 3 months. Maybe I'm wrong though?


----------



## adc (Apr 1, 2003)

hades281 said:


> BTW - This is the best E90 forum I've found on the internet so far!! Awesome site :bigpimp:


Too bad you didn't find the European Delivery forum at the same time :bigpimp: that would have answered alot of your questions...

We are planning on doing a ED for my wife's car this June. I am not sure how BMW can afford this give us this gift - none of the explanations I've heard so far makes sense. Maybe they are saving some advertising fees, storage costs etc. which could amount to several hundred dollars - but the car still needs to get shipped to the US - sometimes from much farther away than Munich. Plus they pay for your insurance while over there. :dunno:

Bottom line - there's no hidden catch - if you can, take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to cruise Europe at BMW's expense.

adc
03 330 ZHP


----------



## equipto76 (Mar 1, 2005)

Jim H said:


> Wait for 3 months? My wait was 31 days from drop off. Now, I know I'm on the east coast, but I think they can get the car to Houston faster than 3 months. Maybe I'm wrong though?


3-4 weeks is typical from what I've heard regardless of where you are in the US. Also don't forget that you might run into special travel promotions from Lufthanse like a free companion ticket with every ED ticket so when you do the math there really is no reason not to do an ED vacation unless you can't spare a weekend (or more) or you absolutely must have the vehicle immediately.


----------



## mrbelk (Dec 5, 2003)

adc said:


> Too bad you didn't find the European Delivery forum at the same time :bigpimp: that would have answered alot of your questions...
> 
> We are planning on doing a ED for my wife's car this June. I am not sure how BMW can afford this give us this gift - none of the explanations I've heard so far makes sense. Maybe they are saving some advertising fees, storage costs etc. which could amount to several hundred dollars - but the car still needs to get shipped to the US - sometimes from much farther away than Munich. Plus they pay for your insurance while over there. :dunno:
> 
> ...


I think it's been explained in the 'Fest archives this way:

BMW (and Merc, and Volvo, and Audi), in order to gain market-share and brand loyalty in the US, started their ED programs in the '70's to try to get people into "the family." Realize that BMW only started selling cars in the US in the early 70's.

As I understand what I've read, BMWAG (the corporate entity in Bavaria) essentially cuts BMWNA (their North American distributor) out of the profit picture and passes the savings along to you, the loyal customer. The ED invoice price that people refer to is basically what BMWAG charges BMWNA for an otherwise domestically delivered car. BMWAG can afford to offer the free registration and insurance, etc. from the savings that they get from importing a "used" car in to the US vs. a "new" car.

-MrB


----------



## Wallenrod (Nov 25, 2003)

Please explore bimmerfest.com forums more before posting. There is a dedicated European Delivery forum here with a lot of good people who did ED (some are truely EDholics!) and can answer your questions. Most of them have actually been already asked and answered ad nauseum so search button is your friend  
In essence - there is no catch, no hidden fees, nothing. You save a lot of money and have fun in Europe with your car. You do have to pay for your trip/accomodations but BMW always seems to run some special airfare deals with Lufthansa.
Do ED, enjoy it, save money and thank us later!

Oh, and ED pricing just like US pricing has 2 components: invoice and msrp. So be sure to check those before you do the deal with your dealer.


----------



## johnf (Sep 16, 2003)

mrbelk said:


> BMWAG can afford to offer the free registration and insurance, etc. from the savings that they get from importing a "used" car in to the US vs. a "new" car.


The 2.5% duty is based on the price paid which I believe is the European delivery list price for the car. (Perhaps someone who has done this recently can check their paperwork!) Any savings BMW realizes probably lies somewhere else.


----------



## mrbelk (Dec 5, 2003)

johnf said:


> The 2.5% duty is based on the price paid which I believe is the European delivery list price for the car. (Perhaps someone who has done this recently can check their paperwork!) Any savings BMW realizes probably lies somewhere else.


You're probably right. The way I said that makes me sound authoritative, but it's really just a purely speculative guess based on what I've read here in the annals.

-MrB


----------



## hades281 (Apr 6, 2005)

*I deserve the abuse!*



adc said:


> Too bad you didn't find the European Delivery forum at the same time :bigpimp: that would have answered alot of your questions...


haha I feel bad! I did commit the forum cardinal sin  - I'm not sure how I didnt notice a section dedicated to ED. European delivery -- what a fantastic way to become part of the BMW family! I think I'm going to surprise my dad with a ticket, he's never been off the continent - father and son, burning up the Autobahn! (Staying within vehicle break-in limits, of course) :thumbup:


----------



## PittBMW (Dec 20, 2004)

hades281 said:


> haha I feel bad! I did commit the forum cardinal sin  - I'm not sure how I didnt notice a section dedicated to ED. European delivery -- what a fantastic way to become part of the BMW family! I think I'm going to surprise my dad with a ticket, he's never been off the continent - father and son, burning up the Autobahn! (Staying within vehicle break-in limits, of course) :thumbup:


Shows how we welcome our fellow festers. You will have a ton of fun doing ED.

Here is what I got as the 'official' reply when I picked up the car...

Since BMWNA does not pass on any incentives to the dealerships, these savings are passed on to the consumer.


----------



## arnolds (Dec 21, 2001)

Is ED too good to be true?

Its funny, for the last 5 years I've been telling anybody I know who's interested in buying a BMW to go look into European delivery. It never fails that their first response is, "what's the catch?" Besides the wait, there isn't any really. Still many, just look at me incredulously not believing that any car manufacturer that:

1. Gives a discount on the US MSRP
2. ED price is negotiable
3. BMW sometimes have airfare discounts with Lufthansa
4. Insurance is covered, no deductible
5. Shipping back to the US is included.
6. No, you do not have to pay import duties 
7. Driving around Germany on the Autobahn at high speeds in your own BMW is a wonderful experience!

Thanks BMW AG and BMW NA for a great program! :thumbup:


----------

