can you do European delivery without going to Germany.... please read before laughing

[dantm3]

So if you can save a good amount by doing euro delivery, is there any companies that would take delivery for you then ship the car out.... or do you have to be there. I am thinking I can save money by ordering a car via ED, but do not have the time to travel all the way there... Anyone who has done it can chime in on what happens while there....

[ufgtrs2007]

simple answer: NO. You have to be present to take delivery.

[alee0729]

You'll spend more time and money trying to get a 3rd party to do it than it will cost you to fly out, take delivery and fly back the same day. In theory, you only need to take 1 work day off -- leave on a Friday, accept the car on Saturday and hand-off, and then hop on a plane back on Saturday to land on Sunday.

If you were bent on trying to do it, off the top of my head:

Minimally, you'd have to give someone in the USA power of attorney over your full order, and strike a contract with that person -- not BMW. So lawyer it up, because that person would then order the car for you and would own your car for a while. You'd have to give that person cash for the deal and the balance of the car -- nobody in their right mind would accept the liabilities of buying a car on behalf of someone else without being paid in full for the car.

The BMW paperwork for a ED purchase order must list that person as the customer (that's the only person that's allowed to accept the car, and their US passport must be on the paperwork). That person is ultimately going to be the registered owner of the car.

It would have to be a US-based person, so you'd have to pay for their round-trip flight.

Once the car arrives state-side at your dealership, the person who accepted the car for ED would be the person that would need to take delivery of the car and complete the purchase. Depending on who decided to this this for you, you'd need to pay for their transit to your dealership of choice. Then the car ownership would then be transfered from the proxy to you. Car would then be re-titled.

Depending on how your state works, and the residency of the person buying the car on your behalf, additional taxes may be involved. Think tax evasion... if it worked so easily, everyone would buy their cars through agents in tax free states and then retitle the car in their local state.

There's probably other slightly less complicated ways, but unless you're a sole caregiver, I find it hard to believe someone can't take 1 day off of work and 3 days total if they really wanted to take advantage of the savings associated with an ED program.

[alee0729]

Oh, all that said, I'd totally do it for someone at cost without markup. 8 days during my ED wasn't nearly enough. I'd drop off the car immediately after pick-up and go rent one of the cars from The Welt and do another vacation in a heartbeat.

Folks are missing out... the savings is nice and meaningful, but the experience of driving your new car in Europe makes it worthwhile even without the discount.

[LOVEM]

I took two days off and flew there Saturday. Made it Sunday night. Picked up the car Monday morning at 9 am. And hit the autobahn drove 800 miles in 7 hours. Snapped 300 plus photos.
Flew back Sunday night made it Monday evening. Tuesday. Back to routine. It's even fun for just going for one day only as well.

[OneRib]

Not entirely sure how easy that would be but PM me and I may have a clue how.

[dantm3]

thanks for all the replies. I will look into flying and using as a vacation with wife

[Technic]

Originally Posted by OneRib

Not entirely sure how easy that would be but PM me and I may have a clue how.

Again, whoever (be a company or a person) buys a BMW via European Delivery must be the same whoever (be a company or a person) that picks the car up at Munich.

This is done on purpose and design.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by dantm3

So if you can save a good amount by doing euro delivery, is there any companies that would take delivery for you then ship the car out.... or do you have to be there. I am thinking I can save money by ordering a car via ED, but do not have the time to travel all the way there... Anyone who has done it can chime in on what happens while there....

Fly a Friday, pick up Saturday, drive to Munich airport, turn the car in, fly that Saturday, be home by Sunday.

That's it.

[flea333]

Anybody know if ED is still available?

[ES BMW]

Originally Posted by alee0729

Folks are missing out... the savings is nice and meaningful, but the experience of driving your new car in Europe makes it worthwhile even without the discount.

This.

[BMWDavid]

Originally Posted by flea333

Anybody know if ED is still available?

ED is still available