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If anyone wants the blow by blow account....read on...
Performance Delivery was such a blast!!!
I suppose I should start from the airport. I touched down with Jay right on time at 9:45pm on Monday. At the gate, someone was already waiting for me bearing a welcome sign...clue one that this was going to be a very well directed event. Waiting outside the airport was a 325i Sport Wagon, which was really nice (had the navigation system in it and everything, though they don't use that feature, obviously for this) It's actually one of two they have just for this purpose. He was a very nice gentleman, telling us about how far away some people have come to do performance delivery, including one person who came down with his son and drove back to Seattle. Now there's a haul!
Got to the hotel and were already checked in, and went straight up to the hotel room at the Marriott. This is the only way to pick up a car! Since the hotel dining area was closing just about the time we got there, we were allowed to order room service, up to $20 on the entree (which was almost anything on the menu). I had the Jack Daniel's chicken, and it was pretty good. Received a letter from my delivery specialist, Josh, telling us the shuttle would be ready to go at 7:40. After a breakfast buffett in the morning, it was off to the performance center.
There we met up with Matt, our driving instructor for the performance driving portion of the day. Both me and Jay got turns behind the wheel for a skid course testing out the DSC features, a slolom course (just to get warmed up), hard breaking, emergency lane change (there's a blood pumper, and murder on the tires...at least with me driving... :) and the "water walls" collision avoidance.
After our track time, it was time for the Zentrium and Factory tour. I got to drive an X5 down there. At the Zentrium we met up with our tour guide Anne, who brought along her daughter Becky to introduce to all the employees during our tour. It really is like a family atmosphere, except most people don't have spot welding going on in their houses :) There were no cameras allowed...bummer, but understandable.
Next stop, the caf, and lunch. Matt and a few other BMW techs were around with us. Met a really nice couple from SC, one of which actually used to work for BMW. They told us to go back home via the Blue Ridge Parkway. Most excellent suggestion, may I add. Thanks very much. They took delivery of a 330 coupe at the same time I got my Z3, and after checking out our rides, we exchanged a very big thumbs up :) They were very nice and even gave us a big wave as they drove out of the delivery bay. Thanks a lot guys for the advice. The Blue Ridge Parkway was an awesome ride!
After lunch was delivery of my car(pic2,pic3). My delivery specialist was Josh, and was a really cool guy. He went over the features of the car with me and answered all my questions. We in no way felt rushed as we inspected the car, and had a very nice conversation. He was very impressed with the Z3Solutions window blanket I brought with me. After finishing up with Josh, I drove out my car with 4.5 miles on the ticker. We then went back up to the Zentrium to snap a few before beginning the long drive back to Massachusetts...got back with over 1100 miles...already broken in :)
I don't know what to do...a trip to the grocery store now takes a couple of hours :)
Many thanks to Josh, Matt, Ginger, Anne and everyone else at BMW!
IHZP
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