Advice on European Delivery

[cmk227]

Hey guys, My advice is if you have the time please consider doing ED Delivery. It will not only save you on your car but also give you a memory of a lifetime. (DISCLOSURE: The money that you save on your car will definitely be spent in Europe X2)

Hotels:
The biggest cost was hotels… We initially got robbed on the hotels but as time passed and talking to the locals we came across a hotel that saved us tons of money. We included the website below.
Likes: cheap, car parking was only 5 euro, internet was 6 euro per day and hotel lobby was nice.
Dislikes: Room were a bit small, no phone in room, no restaurant in hotel but they did provide local places that delivered at a very reasonable prices)
http://www.motel-one.com/uk/index.html

Parking:
The worst part of the trip was parking… We are spoiled here in America but in Europe even places that we paid 20 euro per night to park was in a overcrowded parking lot.

Fuel:
102 Octane ; my car just loved it but at an average rate of $9.40 a gallon it was quite expensive… Try and always fuel up in the cities and not the autobahn… I notice about a 0.20 euro cent difference per liter or 0.80 euro per gallon from city compared to autobahn which is more than a $1 a gallon more.

Direction & Autobahn :
Don’t drive without a nav! Period…. Autobahn, was a dream come true but also a bit of a nightmare. Imagine the road to freedom, no cops, no speeding tickets and cars flying at 140 mph and it all good. Then reality kicks in you cannot exceed 105 mph during break in period. The only opportunity you will have to speed in a public road and you can only go at 105mph. You think it can’t get any worst and then add the European on the road that know you have temp plates and they slow down laugh at you and then take off…

Food:
Try the local foods places. When you are in Munich go to Marienplatz. Make sure you get a special sticker from BMW welt rep since without it you will get a ticket.

Permits:
If you think you will enter Austria get a ticker at the border… The sign looks like this:
http://www.asfinag.at/toll
Do not enter without since the cop is about 1km down the road and it will cost you a lot.
Also when we went to Switzerland it was the same scenario… They make you buy a 1 year toll so not very tourist friendly.
http://www.alltravelswitzerland.com/...ing_Tips.htm#7

Castles:
Bavarian is surrounded with castles… (Luwig was a pimp!) Take the tours and try driving your car thru the country roads. It was amazing… We stop at several small towns along the way and the people were very nice. I enjoyed it a lot and my wife and son had a blast. Buy the tickets at the castle it's cheap.

In closing, take the time next time to visit the factory and BMW Welt. It is an amazing place and I will never again order a BMW unless we do ED delivery.

Pics below.

[GOLFFRR]

great write up, looks like you had a little snow. congrats on the new car!

[cmk227]

More pics included...

[///Mmmm Good]

Thanks for the post!!!

[LeddyMotorsports]

Good writeup, but I have to disagree with this statement:

(DISCLOSURE: The money that you save on your car will definitely be spent in Europe X2)

From personal experience, after properly negotiating with your dealer for your vehicle pricing, you will end up saving much more than your trip costs. My ED M OTD was approx 60k. Sticker was a little over 71k. We spent a little over 6.5k for 10 day trip during peak travel season (i.e: summer), including airfare for 4. This nets approx. 5k savings.

Could I have simply saved 5k off the price from the dealer? Yes.

Would I have had the trip of a lifetime while feeling like I'm getting away with a free trip in my dream car? No.

ED is definitely worth every penny spent. It is even better if you can save money while enjoying it!

[cmk227]

Originally Posted by Darkduke

Good writeup, but I have to disagree with this statement:

From personal experience, after properly negotiating with your dealer for your vehicle pricing, you will end up saving much more than your trip costs. My ED M OTD was approx 60k. Sticker was a little over 71k. We spent a little over 6.5k for 10 day trip during peak travel season (i.e: summer), including airfare for 4. This nets approx. 5k savings.

Could I have simply saved 5k off the price from the dealer? Yes.

Would I have had the trip of a lifetime while feeling like I'm getting away with a free trip in my dream car? No.

ED is definitely worth every penny spent. It is even better if you can save money while enjoying it!

Well for us, I spend about $14k on the trip for 18 days and three plane tickets. I did not help that we had a $0.63 dollar to euro xchange when we went. We did not go over board on spending but when you add $180 euro hotel, $20 euro parking and $10 euro for internet it start adding up. This is why I recommended the hotel and why I stated that initially i got robbed on rooms.

We did buy things and honestly the saving on the car was great because it allow me to have a blast on the trip.

The disclosure is because a lot of people don't realize that europe is an expensive place to visit. We had a 2 1/2 yr old on our trip so I tried to stay in nice hotels for convenience and safety reasons.

The shorter the trip the much less you will spend. If time and money permit we will do another ED trip next year. We plan on staying a month this time and trying to do it on a 14k budget with airfare.

[LeddyMotorsports]

OP: No offense meant! Europe is definitely expensive to visit. I just wanted to clarify that you can save money by doing an ED.

[BKMK5]

Wow you guys went all out! I'm looking for a 1 week stay and its coming out around $1800-2000. Granted its in March so I expect it to be less. I have no definitive itinerary setup just yet but know I can't take all that much time in Europe as I'm making a week long trip out of PCD when it comes back to the states as well.

BTW i saved about 10K off of MSRP for doing ED.

[cmk227]

Originally Posted by Darkduke

OP: No offense meant! Europe is definitely expensive to visit. I just wanted to clarify that you can save money by doing an ED.

No offense taken. Absolutely you can save money. We just had a blast going to new places. I did realize that at local grocery stores they don't accept our visa/mc or Amex that include debit card. We had to buy things for the baby and realized that. Every where else it was cool.

[cmk227]

Originally Posted by BKMK5

Wow you guys went all out! I'm looking for a 1 week stay and its coming out around $1800-2000. Granted its in March so I expect it to be less. I have no definitive itinerary setup just yet but know I can't take all that much time in Europe as I'm making a week long trip out of PCD when it comes back to the states as well.

BTW i saved about 10K off of MSRP for doing ED.

Invite a friend or girlfriend. If you do a friend in Marienplatz they had a tour of Bavarian beer tasting. All you can drink for $20 euro? They take you to the factory and it about a 1/2 day event. Try and do it before you pickup car. I was dying to do it but could not with family.

[Raz335]

Thanks for the informative post. ED truly is an amazing experience. On my last ED, I saved a lot of money on hotels by using priceline. You lose the ability to pick the exact hotel you want, but you can get good deals and still be at a good hotel. When we went to Prague, I stayed at the Marriott which is a 5 star hotel for less than $100 night. I can't wait to do my next ED.

[cipher5]

Good collection of advice! Looks like you took full advantage, good job.

['Cane]

I figure ED will only save me $4000 ($1000 over invoice on either ED or off the lot). It's still a nice savings, and it would be a nice trip, but it's still gonna cost me $2000 to go over there for 5 days.

[PKL]

part of me thinks ED sounds like a nightmare. Expensive vacation and I would worry about the car the whole time! Doing ED for $2,000 seems crazy... There are so many places I would want to go. Then you have to wait in my opinion too long until you see your car again back home. Though you do save money on ED I still view it as a huge luxury. Factor in time away from work too.

[cmk227]

Originally Posted by GOLFFRR

great write up, looks like you had a little snow. congrats on the new car!

Thank you... Actually we had a ton of snow on the countryside by Austria & south of Germany.

Originally Posted by ///Mmmm Good

Thanks for the post!!!

Sorry it took a while to reply to your PM.

Originally Posted by Raz335

Thanks for the informative post. ED truly is an amazing experience. On my last ED, I saved a lot of money on hotels by using priceline. You lose the ability to pick the exact hotel you want, but you can get good deals and still be at a good hotel. When we went to Prague, I stayed at the Marriott which is a 5 star hotel for less than $100 night. I can't wait to do my next ED.

We are definately doing prague next time and will check priceline if that hotel chain is not available.

Originally Posted by 'Cane

I figure ED will only save me $4000 ($1000 over invoice on either ED or off the lot). It's still a nice savings, and it would be a nice trip, but it's still gonna cost me $2000 to go over there for 5 days.

You should do it... You will enjoy your time..

Originally Posted by Anup@Project 808

Good collection of advice! Looks like you took full advantage, good job.

It was great, consider it next time you order a car.

[mr_yogi]

Originally Posted by Darkduke

Good writeup, but I have to disagree with this statement:



From personal experience, after properly negotiating with your dealer for your vehicle pricing, you will end up saving much more than your trip costs. My ED M OTD was approx 60k. Sticker was a little over 71k. We spent a little over 6.5k for 10 day trip during peak travel season (i.e: summer), including airfare for 4. This nets approx. 5k savings.

Could I have simply saved 5k off the price from the dealer? Yes.

Would I have had the trip of a lifetime while feeling like I'm getting away with a free trip in my dream car? No.

ED is definitely worth every penny spent. It is even better if you can save money while enjoying it!

I'm not sure I followed your message Duke. You say that you would save a lot more after negotiating a great deal but actually you would save less. If you didn't negotiate a deal in your example, you would've saved 5k. If you negotiated to a great deal (i.e. close to invoice) and assuming invoice is around 92% of MSRP (it is based on the build I'm planning to order), the car price would've been $65320. If you spent 6.5k for your trip, then your ED would've ended up costing you more (or close to the same once you factor in taxes maybe).

I only chime in because I am currently debating whether or not to wait till March for ED or pull the trigger on the car now. For those that are in the same boat as me, the $1500 holiday credit lessens the "profit margin" between ED and local delivery that much more. Decisions, decisions....

[SlamMan]

Originally Posted by 'Cane

I figure ED will only save me $4000 ($1000 over invoice on either ED or off the lot). It's still a nice savings, and it would be a nice trip, but it's still gonna cost me $2000 to go over there for 5 days.

$4000 Is a more realistic savings when doing ED; on an M3 at least. I negotiated really good deals on both ED and US delivery and the savings was less than $4000. That's still $4000 off a trip to Europe and an amazing experience though.

[LeddyMotorsports]

Originally Posted by mr_yogi

I'm not sure I followed your message Duke. You say that you would save a lot more after negotiating a great deal but actually you would save less. If you didn't negotiate a deal in your example, you would've saved 5k. If you negotiated to a great deal (i.e. close to invoice) and assuming invoice is around 92% of MSRP (it is based on the build I'm planning to order), the car price would've been $65320. If you spent 6.5k for your trip, then your ED would've ended up costing you more (or close to the same once you factor in taxes maybe).

I only chime in because I am currently debating whether or not to wait till March for ED or pull the trigger on the car now. For those that are in the same boat as me, the $1500 holiday credit lessens the "profit margin" between ED and local delivery that much more. Decisions, decisions....

No prob! Let me attempt to clarify.(Probably won't, but here goes...)

You are assuming that I negotiated down to European Invoice. Keep in mind there is a wholesale price you can go by, even for ED. Start with the wholesale base price for your model, add your options at wholesale prices, and you arrive at the absolute cost for the vehicle. I negotiated the price of the vehicle based upon this.

MSRP on my build was between 70 and 71k, US delivery invoice was near what you have indicated (~64k), and my final negotiated Euro Delivery deal was 60.4k. After taking the deposit off, I'm under 60k. (I live and work in NH so no taxes)

If I was not taking European Delivery, I likely would have been able to save the difference between US MSRP vs. US Invoice during negotiations, hence the reference to saving the same amount (~5k)

By taking European Delivery, I purchased the car for 60k (keep in mind this helps with a lower principle cost if financing), "saved" almost 11k off US MSRP, spent 6.5k on the trip of a lifetime with my family, and ended up with a "virtual savings" of 4.5k versus US MSRP.

FWIW: If it was just one person on my trip, it would have cost only $2650, including airfare.