My 2011 E90 M3 ED from start to finish...lots of pics

[BMWBias]

Your trip looked amazing. Great Pics. Congratulations on obtaining a gorgeous car.

[Piotr74656]

Congratulations!!! The last picture in which you are hugging the bonnet of your M3 is epic.

[1mGator]

Congratulations and thanks for the great write up. I am planning an August delivery and this was helpful .....

I hope the time to your PCD delivery goes quick ..... you will enjoy Spartanburg and if you take the Blue Ridge trail home that will be fun too!

[AZ865]

Welome to the family.............awsome machie.

[TomElektro]

Originally Posted by fishskis

They do this per agreement with the local building and fire authorities for safety reasons.

That´s what they say... They also might just save some money for the gas...

But anyway: really cool photos and write up! Too bad the Nordschleife was closed. Since I´ve driven it a hundred times I can assure you that you´ve missed an epic experience. So come back!

[goldminer]

Originally Posted by fishskis

They do this per agreement with the local building and fire authorities for safety reasons.

Exactly. I was told that my car had to have a 1/4 tank or less when I returned it to E.H. Harms after ED. They said it was a safety regulation for shipping in Europe.

[snowboarder]

this is a great picture, your face says it all

[phrogbubbaE92]

great write up. congrats!

[XDEEDUBBX]

beautiful car!

[jonasaurus]

Congrats and great write up! Your E90 m3 looks amazing too

[mtechnik3]

Congrats on your new M3! Looks like a dream trip. Thanks for sharing with us.

[boboleto]

This is gonna be my first post at this forum =) ... been reading thru bimmerpost for about a year now after acquiring a z4m coupe. This is my first bmw and first euro car, had a 2004 infiniti g35 coupe and a 2003 subaru wrx before that. And can’t see myself back on anything other than a BMW!

I currently live in Panama (the country, not Panama City, FL) and have no plan of moving anywhere, anytime soon. All of my cars are USDM cars that have been exported to Panama. The Subaru wrx was the only car bought new, used for couple of years during my college career in the US and then exported to Panama once done with my studies.

I just found out about ED program through this post and spend all night last night search and soaking in as much info as I could about this program. ED is not offered at our local BMW dealership (and have no plans for having one either, they don’t care much about it down here since Panama only have ONE! bmw dealership that deals with the whole country supply and have exclusivity over the brand).

Now with that said. I have plans of acquiring a new e92 m3 in a year or so, just right before they close production on this model. Is there some how that I could be eligible to participate in this program? I hold a tourist US visa that doesn’t expire till 2019. My rough plan would be to go to Miami (the cheapest plane ticket is Pma-MIA), buy an m3 thru ED program (since I was already planning to get my m3 in the US and export it to Panama), pick up the car at Welt and spend the happiest days of my life, drop the car so they can have it shipped to MIA and once it gets there have it shipped down to Panama!!

I’m very familiar with shipping cars from US to Pma. I´ve shipped over a dozen cars from the US for personal use, friends and family.

PS. Fyi a brand new e92 m3 cost 120,000.00 USD in Pma!!!

[snowboarder]

I don't think you can do it. The ED program is for the US residents only.
If it worked the way you think it does, many Canadians would use it.

[goldminer]

Originally Posted by snowboarder

I don't think you can do it. The ED program is for the US residents only.
If it worked the way you think it does, many Canadians would use it.

Many Canadians do use it. Like me 6 weeks ago. I did it through a Canadian dealership though.

[goldminer]

Originally Posted by boboleto

This is gonna be my first post at this forum =) ... been reading thru bimmerpost for about a year now after acquiring a z4m coupe. This is my first bmw and first euro car, had a 2004 infiniti g35 coupe and a 2003 subaru wrx before that. And can’t see myself back on anything other than a BMW!

I currently live in Panama (the country, not Panama City, FL) and have no plan of moving anywhere, anytime soon. All of my cars are USDM cars that have been exported to Panama. The Subaru wrx was the only car bought new, used for couple of years during my college career in the US and then exported to Panama once done with my studies.

I just found out about ED program through this post and spend all night last night search and soaking in as much info as I could about this program. ED is not offered at our local BMW dealership (and have no plans for having one either, they don’t care much about it down here since Panama only have ONE! bmw dealership that deals with the whole country supply and have exclusivity over the brand).

Now with that said. I have plans of acquiring a new e92 m3 in a year or so, just right before they close production on this model. Is there some how that I could be eligible to participate in this program? I hold a tourist US visa that doesn’t expire till 2019. My rough plan would be to go to Miami (the cheapest plane ticket is Pma-MIA), buy an m3 thru ED program (since I was already planning to get my m3 in the US and export it to Panama), pick up the car at Welt and spend the happiest days of my life, drop the car so they can have it shipped to MIA and once it gets there have it shipped down to Panama!!

I’m very familiar with shipping cars from US to Pma. I´ve shipped over a dozen cars from the US for personal use, friends and family.

PS. Fyi a brand new e92 m3 cost 120,000.00 USD in Pma!!!

I would think that if you bought the car at a US dealership you could do ED. However, there are a lot of other things to consider. Does the car have the necessary equipment to title it in Panama? (As a Canadian I can buy a car in the US but there may be some changes that must be done to it before I can register it here in Canada. (I need a metric speedometer if it doesn't have one, day time running lights and other things. I don't know about Panama. Some cars are just not practical to modify for here, particularly if they don't have the 5 mph bumper. US only requires a 2.5 mph bumper I think.)

Also will the warranty be recognized in Panama? (Here in Canada some companies like Honda won't recognize the warranty on a US-purchased car.) The price you quote is nearly double the US price. Will Panama charge you duty when you import it? You may not be able to title the car when it is delivered to the US so you may need to get a broker involved in shipping the car to the dock and getting it on a ship.

I think that you have some research to do.

[snowboarder]

Originally Posted by goldminer

Many Canadians do use it. Like me 6 weeks ago. I did it through a Canadian dealership though.

Duh, I meant Canadians buying in the US.
Can you guys do it? Your following post suggests you can, but
you have to make some mods to meet Canadian law...

US ED program says you have to be an US resident
and have the US driving license and US social security number.

[richb811]

Looks like a great time!

I hope to be able to do an ED during my lifetime!

[Mr. ///M3 RD]

Originally Posted by snowboarder

Duh, I meant Canadians buying in the US.
Can you guys do it? Your following post suggests you can, but
you have to make some mods to meet Canadian law...

US ED program says you have to be an US resident
and have the US driving license and US social security number.

The problem is that BMW has a standing agreement across the borders the way I understand it that a US dealership cannot sell a car to a Canadian. If they could then the Canadian dealerships all would go out off business since an Canadian M3 is much more then a US M3.

[goldminer]

Originally Posted by snowboarder

Duh, I meant Canadians buying in the US.
Can you guys do it? Your following post suggests you can, but
you have to make some mods to meet Canadian law...

US ED program says you have to be an US resident
and have the US driving license and US social security number.

The brochure on Canada's ED program also said I had to show a Canadian Social Insurance number but nobody ever asked for it. All I did was show a passport at the Welt to prove my identity. They never even asked for a driver's license.

As for the mods, I was just talking about a conventional purchase of a car in the US for importation to Canada. Your BMWs are cheaper but there is a hassle-filled process to go through to get it here and title it.

As discussed above some dealerships won't sell to Canadian residents but that isn't law, it's just the franchise agreement for some brands. I didn't think BMW was one of those brands. I know people who have purchased in the US and brought cars up here.

[JugadorJR]

great story!

[subyhau]

Originally Posted by goldminer

I would think that if you bought the car at a US dealership you could do ED. However, there are a lot of other things to consider. Does the car have the necessary equipment to title it in Panama? (As a Canadian I can buy a car in the US but there may be some changes that must be done to it before I can register it here in Canada. (I need a metric speedometer if it doesn't have one, day time running lights and other things. I don't know about Panama. Some cars are just not practical to modify for here, particularly if they don't have the 5 mph bumper. US only requires a 2.5 mph bumper I think.)

Also will the warranty be recognized in Panama? (Here in Canada some companies like Honda won't recognize the warranty on a US-purchased car.) The price you quote is nearly double the US price. Will Panama charge you duty when you import it? You may not be able to title the car when it is delivered to the US so you may need to get a broker involved in shipping the car to the dock and getting it on a ship.

I think that you have some research to do.

As far as registry goes I have no problem, Pma law requires minimum if any restrictions. Again I have exported many cars for US to Pma and was able to register it, no hassle. Only requirements I can recall are only LHD. We dont even have to smog our cars, we dont have emission test down here. I dont even thing there is a law requiring you to have a speedo on your car hahahaha and if there is any, nobody even bother checking! (we do have speed limits tho). Again low restrictions on this part.

Warranty wise I really dont care, dont trust the local BMW dealership anyways.... they always come up with a story or find a loop hole in the system so you end up paying for everything or at least something.... I already work with a very reputable shop who specialize only on euro cars. (mainly bimmers). The head mechanic there worked for the dealership for more than 8 yrs I believe, before deciding to open his own shop.

Duty in pma for used cars is 30% of the actual car value or close to that (there is a chart and different things apply to different cars, yr, model, etc). And since my car will be considered used as it arrived to the US from the ED program (at least thats the info I got from various site explaining the whole ED process)


I dont think I will need to title my car when it arrives to US because its not going to be driven in the US, it just going to layover US before heading to Pma.

I already have my broker in MIA, she takes cares of picking up the car, rolling it to the vessel and dropping it in Pma.

My main concern it's not the US to Pma part.... since I've already done that before. Its the "me not being a us resident (although I do have a social No. that was issue to me when I was in college in Sacramento) applying to the ED program"

[subyhau]

Originally Posted by goldminer

As discussed above some dealerships won't sell to Canadian residents but that isn't law, it's just the franchise agreement for some brands. I didn't think BMW was one of those brands. I know people who have purchased in the US and brought cars up here.

As far as Panamania goes, I know it can be done. A friend flew up there, bought a brand new GTR R35 and ship it down here. But thats Nissan .... dunno about BMW. Other two friends did the same thing for Mitsubishi Evo X.