# Yet another ED write-up...328i pick-up



## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

On Sunday, October 8th, my & I soared from Newark,NJ to Frankfurt, Germany, beginning our wonderful adventure and take European Delivery of a Crimson Red 328i. It was an overnight flight on which I tried to sleep (Marion was out like a light), but I was too excited to get much rest. We transferred to another flight to the Munich airport, which is infested with BMW everything, as seen in this pic.










We were met by "Rolf"who is famous on Bimmerfest.com for transport from the airport to the delivery center, and all around Munich for that matter. Rolf had another client, so "Peter" took our bags, stuffed them into his 3 series convertible, and whisked us away to the delivery center. Marion was still drowsy and slept the entire ride, suffering from plenty of jokes from Peter because of it. In this pic, he insisted she wear the sleeping neck thing due to her snoozy nature.










We ate all sorts of wonderful (and free) snacks & what not in the BMW Delivery Center's cafe;, and were met by "Stephan";. He's a young, trendy German with hair slicked up in the shape of a shark fin. He had me sign some paperwork, gave me the scoop on some local traffic laws, and led us out to see my new toy.

Tada!























































The quality of the pics is degraded a bit due to the auto-rescaling & what not during the upload, but you get the idea.

We inserted the BMW European map data in the GPS drive, and immediately knew that this single option would reduce the stress to almost zero during the drive. It gives you so much freedom to randomly explore little villages, find wineries, visit historical sites, and then return to your normal route whenever desired. No maps, no arguing, no stress. Get it.

We drove to Strasbourg, France...























































And to Paris...



















Drank wonderful things...










Wore sassy hats...










Saw funny things...










And climbed thousands of steps...










Not all of us escaped unscathed. Marion was groped...










My friend Matt was wickedly hungover...










And this rabbit got his hand stuck in the doors of the "Metropolitan"...


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

Autobahn cruising is great fun...










We headed to Germany with my friends Matt & Jean hitching a ride...










To see this guy get married (but not to either of these ladies)...










Tim & Johanna were married in a church, and we celebrated in this former castle...










After staying in Bensberg for a couple of days, we headed down to Mainz for a night, where we stayed on the river in a swanky hotel. Here's a closing shot of me eating in an outdoor cafe in front of the "Dom" (one of the only buildings in this city not bombed during WWII).










From there, we dropped off the car (sorry, I haven't downloaded those pics from the camera, yet), got a taxi ride to the Frankfurt airport, and returned to good old American soil. So, that's my story


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## watever (Oct 10, 2006)

*Great Pictures !!!!*

Great Pictures !!!! Sounds like an excellent trip. I am planning to get the 335i late April. Have been undecided about getting the NAV. Still would like to play with one here first before I order. How many miles did you have on the car before you opened it up on the Autobahn?


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## JMFTexas (Jul 19, 2006)

Congrats man, looks like an outstanding trip. I thought Peter's 3 cabrio was tiny with just my wife and I crammed into it I can't imagine trying to stuff all of our luggage into it as well.


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

I essentially stayed within the "keep it under 4500rpm" guideline during my trip, which gets you a little over 120mph. I had one sprint up to ~145mph with 1000 miles on the car, because how often do you get to drive on the autobahn?

If you decide against ordering built-in NAV, beg, borrow, or steal a portable unit with European map data for your trip. There is already so much to see & do that you don't need the potentially arduous task of mapping your route and worrying about missing turns, as well. Anyway, that's my take on it.


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

JMFTexas said:


> Congrats man, looks like an outstanding trip. I thought Peter's 3 cabrio was tiny with just my wife and I crammed into it I can't imagine trying to stuff all of our luggage into it as well.


My girlfriend brought a pretty large rolling suitcase, and I had a medium size one. When I saw the car we were traveling in, I had SERIOUS concerns. It was like the car was made just for our suitcases, because they fit in the trunk absolutley perfectly. You can imagine my sigh of relief


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## JMFTexas (Jul 19, 2006)

Muffinman said:


> My girlfriend brought a pretty large rolling suitcase, and I had a medium size one. When I saw the car we were traveling in, I had SERIOUS concerns. It was like the car was made just for our suitcases, because they fit in the trunk absolutley perfectly. You can imagine my sigh of relief


Awesome, Rolf picked us up at the airport in his 3 touring and commented on the size / weight of my wifes gigantic rolling bag. When he picked us up at the end of our trip he had learned his lesson and brought a X5  Thankfully our only ride in Peter's cabrio was to the delivery center and was without my wife's bag from hell. Congrats on the car / trip again.


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## Asteroid (Aug 17, 2005)

Nice pics Muffinman :thumbup: 
I was there too (Strasbourg & Paris) in my ED last June.


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## DrRT (Sep 27, 2006)

Gorgeous girls. I didn't pay attention to anything else.


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## 67bmer (Jul 12, 2006)

My wife and I were at the airport on Sunday taking our pictures in front of the gril too.

We were at the delivery center Monday morning and had the same guy.

Its amazing we did not run into each other.


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## windnsea00 (Feb 13, 2005)

Fantastic pictures, that Crimson red is a standout...as is your beautiful g/f!


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## jeffnin (Jun 30, 2003)

Congrats! Love the red!! I can only hope that I have some of that great weather that you had on your trip. Safe travels.


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## OC 335i (Oct 5, 2006)

Red looks really sharp. I like it, glad you enjoyed your trip.

Couple questions:
1. Could you go into more detail of why you visited Strasbourg first then Paris? (No idea where Strasbourg is).
2. How long did it take you to drive to France?

I'm planning on doing Munich to Paris myself and more details would help a bunch. Thanks!


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

67bmer said:


> My wife and I were at the airport on Sunday taking our pictures in front of the gril too.
> 
> We were at the delivery center Monday morning and had the same guy.
> 
> Its amazing we did not run into each other.


Wow, that is a coincidence! Did Rolf take you to the delivery center? What time were you at the delivery center? We were there around 10:45ish or so.


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

DrRT said:


> Gorgeous girls. I didn't pay attention to anything else.


A necessity for any good trip


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

OC 335i said:


> Red looks really sharp. I like it, glad you enjoyed your trip.
> 
> Couple questions:
> 1. Could you go into more detail of why you visited Strasbourg first then Paris? (No idea where Strasbourg is).
> ...


We knew we were meeting a bunch of friends for dinner in Paris the day after the car pick-up, so we needed a stop over location along the way. We looked on the map and somewhat randomly chose Strasbourg. It was over the border in France, and since my girlfriend knows some French, we figured it would ease us into the trip a bit more. It would take 3 or 4 hours to drive straight there from Munich, but we dawdled along, exporing little towns & what not along the way. Strasbourg was a somewhat randomly selected city, but it turned out to be very charming.

My girlfriend booked the Best Western Hotel De France, and I ribbed her endlessly about going to France and staying in a Best Western. It turned out to be a nice hotel with parking and reasonable rates. The part of the city it's located in is great, with lots of "walking only" type of streets, outdoor cafes, and of course an enormous cathedral in the middle of it all. I recommend it.

Strasbourg to Paris is about 4-5 hours if you drive it straight, but again we meandered through little towns, stopped at wineries, and did general sight seeing along the way. We put the Nav on "no highways" to see where it would take us, and ran into some great sights.

I have a few more pics on http://web.mac.com/robfusi/iWeb/Site/Europe.html, if you're interested.


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## dencoop (Aug 17, 2005)

Congrats on the new toy:thumbup:

Love your pictures:bigpimp:

Wow, I have never seen an Odometer reading *less then 1 mile*:yikes: :yikes:

Good Luck with it


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## adrian's bmw (Feb 14, 2003)

Not all of us escaped unscathed. Marion was groped...










:rofl: Great pics!! Thanks for sharing. This one is hilarious!!:bustingup GOtta be one of the funniest ED pics I've seen in a while.


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## AzNMpower32 (Oct 23, 2005)

Sorry for being off-topic, but it really seems to me the 328i sedan got the short straw. Looks like BMW neglected to change the gauges AT ALL on the '07 328i sedan. Same needles, and still no indication of oil temp like all the 335i sedan and the e92 coupes. Energy consumption gauge is cool, but not when it replaces a proper coolant or oil temp gauge. Same transmission too! Is this BMW's way of saying we should all get the 335i if you wanted a model year change? Ok end of rant.


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## 67bmer (Jul 12, 2006)

Hey:

Check this out. That is your car on the right! Mine is the one that is lit up.


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## adc (Apr 1, 2003)

Great write-up! Enjoyed every line and picture... :thumbup: 

I was wondering if you have seen Imola Red in the metal, and if so if you could compare it to Crimson Red. (Thinking of my next car down to the smallest details  ).


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

adc said:


> Great write-up! Enjoyed every line and picture... :thumbup:
> 
> I was wondering if you have seen Imola Red in the metal, and if so if you could compare it to Crimson Red. (Thinking of my next car down to the smallest details  ).


I have seen imola red, electric red, and crimson red in person. Imola red is the darkest and deepest, while electric red is brighter and a bit more orangey. Without putting the cars next to each other, I'd say Crimson red somewhat splits the difference. It's definitely darker than Electric red, but not quite as deep as Imola.

Once it completes its journey home, I can take some pics next to an electric red e90. I'll see if I can find an imola red someplace for comparison, as well.


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## adc (Apr 1, 2003)

Muffinman said:


> I have seen imola red, electric red, and crimson red in person. Imola red is the darkest and deepest, while electric red is brighter and a bit more orangey. Without putting the cars next to each other, I'd say Crimson red somewhat splits the difference. It's definitely darker than Electric red, but not quite as deep as Imola.
> 
> Once it completes its journey home, I can take some pics next to an electric red e90. I'll see if I can find an imola red someplace for comparison, as well.


Thanks for your impressions, it definitely helps... :thumbup:


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## jumbles82 (Oct 25, 2006)

Thanks Rob,
My address is [email protected]
I got the ones on the thread now thanks a million. Looks great. Hoping to get mine on Jan 2nd. If you have any more photos of the car can you email them to me please.
All the best,
Jeff


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## the_fox (Jul 6, 2006)

One of the best ED "write-ups"... few words, many pics! :thumbup:


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

I reached back to my 3rd grade "photo essay" skills for this one


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## neilanthony (Apr 27, 2005)

Muffinman said:


> We knew we were meeting a bunch of friends for dinner in Paris the day after the car pick-up, so we needed a stop over location along the way. We looked on the map and somewhat randomly chose Strasbourg. It was over the border in France, and since my girlfriend knows some French, we figured it would ease us into the trip a bit more. It would take 3 or 4 hours to drive straight there from Munich, but we dawdled along, exporing little towns & what not along the way. Strasbourg was a somewhat randomly selected city, but it turned out to be very charming.
> 
> My girlfriend booked the Best Western Hotel De France, and I ribbed her endlessly about going to France and staying in a Best Western. It turned out to be a nice hotel with parking and reasonable rates. The part of the city it's located in is great, with lots of "walking only" type of streets, outdoor cafes, and of course an enormous cathedral in the middle of it all. I recommend it.
> 
> ...


did you actually drive your car into paris? im picking up my 335i nov 2nd and planning to drive straight to paris. ive heard a lot of ppl say, its best not to drive in paris. im a little concerned about traffic and parking in the city. :dunno:


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## Crawlings (Sep 27, 2004)

MuffinMan, excellent write-up and thanks for sharing. I keep going back and forth between doing ED and PCD and can't make up mind!

BMW and Macs must go hand in hand, because you are the 3rd or 4th person to do a writeup and have a .mac account. Purely speculative, but I think us BMW fans have good taste in all aspects of life


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## mullman (Jan 5, 2006)

Crawlings said:


> BMW and Macs must go hand in hand, because you are the 3rd or 4th person to do a writeup and have a .mac account. Purely speculative, but I think us BMW fans have good taste in all aspects of life


:thumbup:


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

neilanthony said:


> did you actually drive your car into paris? im picking up my 335i nov 2nd and planning to drive straight to paris. ive heard a lot of ppl say, its best not to drive in paris. im a little concerned about traffic and parking in the city. :dunno:


I'm not sure what the traffic is like in Houston, but I do know what it's like in NYC. NYC can be a bit chaotic, but there's an organized chaos to it. Take that same level of chaos and add thousands of menacing motorcycles and scooters to the mix. I ddn't have a problem with the cars as much as I did with the motorcycles. When traffic is stopped dead for the cars, it isn't for the motorcycles. There wiggle and weave their way through, sometimes bumping mirrors or scraping a hair. The mirrors on the motorcycles told the tale, as they were all marred. Also, take a look at the bumpers of the cars parked in Paris when you get there, and you'll see that a friendly "bump" when entering or exiting a parking spot is not uncommon.

I braved the insanity driving in, but had an indoor parking garage spot setup ahead of time. If you're going into Paris, and I cannot stress this enough, park in a parking garage. Not only does it seem very difficult to find a parking spot on the street, but I doubt most of us here want to expose our brand new BMWs to the hazards of Paris city life.

In a nutshell, driving in Paris definitely keeps you on your toes, but as long as you have a parking garage setup (with the hotel you're staying at, etc), you'll be fine.


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## Muffinman (Jun 1, 2006)

Crawlings said:


> MuffinMan, excellent write-up and thanks for sharing. I keep going back and forth between doing ED and PCD and can't make up mind!
> 
> BMW and Macs must go hand in hand, because you are the 3rd or 4th person to do a writeup and have a .mac account. Purely speculative, but I think us BMW fans have good taste in all aspects of life


I switched to Macs at the beginning of the year, and my only regret is I didn't do it sooner. The computing experience and overall interface seems to be more pleasant and friendly...I'm happy, thus far


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## Crawlings (Sep 27, 2004)

Yeah, I feel the same way, I've been on mine for about a year now. You won't change your mind  I haven't had a computer crash since I got it.


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