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My wife and I did ED in July 2008 to get our 2008 135i. Great stuff. A few thoughts:
-Best driving of the trip was in Tuscany, in Italy, especially the Chianti region (south of Florence, north of Siena). Really enjoyable. The Michelin green guides have some good driving routes in the area. Everyone drives fast, whether backroads (the best stuff) or freeways, and I saw no sign of Italian crackdowns on autostrada speeding--we passed carabinieri in a group at 95mph with no response from the cops, and later consistently held 120mph on the A1 with a group of traffic.
-We were worried about coming home to some major speeding tickets, given the reputation for photo radar in Austria etc., but no issues for us. I was talking to a fellow BMW CCA track-day participant last weekend, and he shared that European countries have no jurisdiction over Americans, so make sure to put off paying any tickets until you get home, then ignore them--apparently some countries are wise to their jurisdictional limitations and try to get you to pay at the time of the ticket.
-Think hard about how car-friendly your destinations are. We went to Florence for 5 days and Budapest for 3, which were great spots to visit as tourists, but not car friendly/cars were unnecessary, so the 1er spent those days parked. If you want to maximize the car experience, adjust where you go. Otherwise, just budget in the parking cost and enjoy your time between cities.
-Decide whether you want to be gentle or rough during break-in. If you're going to the Ring, unless you're driving 1200 miles before the Ring visit and getting the 1200 mile service, you're going to be pushing the car past the ideal break-in procedure. For a lease, no worries, but think twice for a long-term ownership proposition.
My wife and I are hoping to pick up an E92 with ZCP this spring (2012) in Europe and bring home the last (and first) of the V8 M3s. Once you go this route, there's no way you can take delivery of any Euro-built BMW any other way.
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