I just realized that today is the last day I will ever drive this car on the Autobahn, the last day I will ever drive this car in Germany, and the last day I will drive this car for the next two months. I realized that when I return home to RVA, my beautiful blue, silky smooth, grumbling ball buster of a car will not be waiting for me. Instead will be waiting my 2007 335i e92. Guess it could be worse!
We were nearing the end of our journey and feeling pretty tired. Nonetheless, we have one more day to soak up German culture before heading back to the states and to the daily grind (not to mention the agonizing wait for my car to return to me). So, off to the Autobahn! We passed a lot of wind farms. Also, I noticed a LOT of solar panels everywhere. Solar panel farms on the side of the road and, especially, solar panels on top of many houses. Even in the smaller towns, it looks like a lot of people are, at least partially, harnessing the power of the sun to juice their homes. I feel like this is a pretty rare sight in the US, but I can’t say that I’ve spent a lot of time in the midwest. Or the northeast. Or the midsouth. You get the point.
We arrived back at the BMW Welt in München to appreciate what we missed from the original flight delay. We walked around the shop, trying to spend the 10 Euros we were given by BMW. I’m not a fan of trinkets and we had super limited space in our travel bags as we were traveling light. So I didn’t spend it. We walked around and saw everything at the Welt that we could. My favorites were the Rolls Royce cars on display. I’d never seen one in person and they are immaculate. Wow. Every detail is so spot on and the interior has this classy yet modern style that would make anyone feel insignificant standing next to one. They also had the V12 motor on display, which is just a giant monster.
We also checked out the i8 section for my first in person glance at one of these beautiful cars. Futuristic in design, it isn’t at all overboard. Nearby were a couple of neat displays to show off the features of the car. We were able to feel the difference in torsion between steel, aluminum and carbon fiber – pretty crazy to feel the strength of carbon fiber. It required a significant amount of force to bend, whereas one finger lightly pressing would bend the other two. We also picked up little containers of rocks that compared the weights between the three – not surprisingly, carbon fiber weighed about 1/3 of the steel. We also stumbled onto this electric bicycle made by BMW, which I had never heard of. Sign me up! There was also a neat platform you could jump up and down on to generate electricity, which shows off how the car regenerates electricity as you drive.
Next, we checked out the BMW Individual section, which had some Individual paints and interiors on display. Cool program, but none of the colors I wanted to see were on display (Dakar Yellow and Laguna Seca Blue are my favorites). Then on to the M section, where we saw an M6 GT, an M3 and, to my surprise, the concept OLED and Laser Headlights on an M4. WOW! I had seen the video, but these lights are impressive. The OLED rears, especially, were bright in the daylight from across the room. They have so much detail inside these lights, and the way they arranged the OLED panels adds to the sporty design. Can’t wait to see these on my next BMW European Delivery trip! There is a much better post on bimmerpost.com with way better pictures than I took.
Lastly, we took the BMW Factory Tour. We were lucky enough to be the only two participants on the tour, so we had the incredibly wonderful tour guide to ourselves. She walked us through every aspect of the manufacturing process. Needless to say, it was unreal how efficient the operation is. It was fast and everything was assembled and added “just in time”. They only have enough spare pieces to keep running for about 1-2 days if they run out of raw materials. My favorite part was the paint department. Every BMW (except for the matte) gets three base layers of protectant and then two-three more layers of topcoat. We watched as robots efficiently sprayed the car, wasting less than 20% of the paint. It’s charged by electrons to be attracted to the car. The entire process of painting the top coats took less than 10 minutes to spray onto the car. Also a neat fact: Every year, with the hundreds of thousands of cars made at the Munich plant, less than 3 are completely identical. That much variety exists in the options and choices. Wow! Pictures were absolutely verboten, so I found some on the internets that reminded me of the tour.
If you ever have a chance to visit a BMW Factory, do it. It’s incredible to see the process of building such a car with high quality, especially considering that ~49% of the process is automated. Lots of quality checks as well, both by robots and humans. The robot accuracy is so precise they showed a demonstration of a robot’s “arm” moving around a complex, twisty tabletop structure – think of the things that you played with as kids when you moved the little beads around the track. It was like that, and so precise that it never once touched the metal as it weaved around it.
Next, time to swap the winter tires for my actual tires and wheels. EDwintertires.com was awesome, and everything was very smooth. After booking the trip with the tires, John contacted me to inform me that my tire pickup date was a holiday and that the shop would be closed. Without asking, he provided installation at the Welt (saving me time!) AND an additional day at no additional cost to me! WOW! Thank you John! That is excellent customer service. When I returned my winter tires (they were excellent tires, capable of high speeds) my car was treated very well. In fact, they discovered one of the lug nuts was damaged and walked to the BMW dealership next door to retrieve a replacement. Awesome! The tire depot is close by in Ismaning, a small suburb of Munich. While we waited, we scoped out an organic Currywurst stand. This was the best currywurst of the trip – made with small batch sausage, it was perfectly grilled to a crisp. We also had an organic German beer and chatted with some of the locals.
Upon Annette’s suggestion, we took the car to the car wash next door for the Winterwäsche. She said it was very new and would be safe for my paint – in addition, she said it would be much cheaper than if I forgot and they cleaned it at LogInOut. It was 12,50 Euro versus 40,00 Euro at LogInOut! I was scared out of my mind the car would be destroyed in an auto wash…but, this is Germany, and of course the auto wash is incredibly efficient. Check out this bar, which dries the car, and stays just above the vehicle. It was unnerving to watch it move just in time to avoid scratching the (*#^$ out of my car!
Basically, the sign reads “Gate opens automatically, do not brake!” and “Do not brake, shaft raises automatically.” Good thing I knew those words!
Knowing we were near the end, we wanted to do something very European: Stay at a hostel. We chose the Euro Youth Hostel, at a cost of 13,50 Euro each per night. We would be in a room with about 10 other people, dorm style bunk beds. The accommodations were actually pretty nice, and there was a curtain for privacy, as well as a locked storage bin. A small light inside the bunk, along with an outlet and a small shelf helped make me feel cozy. It’s in the heart of Munich, so we were able to drive through some cool sights.
Being in the city centre, I had to park in a very tight, very underground garage. VERY TIGHT.
The Hostel had a cool bar and we chatted up some of the travelers, a lot of whom know each other from traveling and staying at this brand hostel all over Europe. We heard at least 6 different languages just while we were hanging out. We had a few beers and I finally convinced Vicky to wrap up the German experience with some Schnapps! The bartender called them “Old Man, but very authentic Bavarian” shots. Still much better than Fireball…
We wandered around, and wound up back in Marienplatz by Walking. We found the Paulaner Braueri and enjoyed a few drinks there and a cheesecake, but we were ready for something besides traditional Bavarian food. WE FINALLY FOUND A TACO PLACE! It was raved as the best tacos in Munich…but they don’t compare to the tacos in RVA. Nonetheless, cool decor and the food was good.
It was around this time that I got a notification of a new news item on my Bimmerpost app…what I wasn’t expecting was to BE the news item. What a treat and another great reminder of an awesome adventure. Thank you Bimmerpost!
Back to the dorms for the night…honestly, I had a decent night’s sleep. Not bad considering a room full of people surrounded me. Vicky, however, did not sleep as well. Apparently her bunkmate, an young Asian girl, was a little loud with some 2 AM eating in bed and then a 6 AM ruffling of bags and organizing her entire wardrobe. People were shushing her, to no avail, so Vicky politely asked her to be quiet…at least as politely as you can say the specific words she chose to say. The girl was speechless and retreated quietly to the outside of the room, where she proceeded to spread all of her “personal” items onto the floor to organize. You’ll never guess who ran into her outside the door when she was blocking the way to the hallway. A sleepless Vicky, which is not a person to encounter when you are the one responsible for her sleeplessness. That poor girl will probably always be looking over her shoulder. We had a small breakfast, still very German with plenty of meats and cheeses to choose from. The drive through Munich city centre in the morning was beautiful as well.
Off we headed to the Munich airport for our 9.5 hr flight to Philly. Would we be so lucky to get upgraded seats??? No, not even close. We dropped off the car at LogInOut and everything looked good and ready to go. A few parting photos and some whispers of “See you soon” have to sustain me for the next few months. It was a weird feeling to just leave my car with some random people, knowing that I will never return there to pick it up. Four other cars were waiting, including a BEAUTIFUL Alpine White M4 with Shakir Orange interior. Maybe this belongs to one of you? If so, enjoy. I was told 8 cars were needed to have the truck pickup and it should be on its way to Bremerhaven by Saturday. Excellent!
Total of 1,344 glorious miles driven on twisty German back roads, snowy Alpine roads, and the Autobahn. Truly an experience that I will never forget.
Our return flight was long, but fairly comfortable. It was on an American leg of US Airways. We were served a meal with a bonus, free wine! Airbus A330 has an enormous wingspan. The flight wasn’t anything special to write about. We had a short layover in Philly before returning to RVA. Finally, we landed and I returned to my e92 and Interstate 64. 65 felt like I was crawling, and of course everyone is driving in the left lane. Sigh. I was shocked to remember just how different the steering feels. In the e92, it feels like I am pushing a heavy shopping cart. I love that new electric steering in the M235i.
Thanks for reading about my German adventures with the M235i! Your response has been overwhelming…it has been cathartic to write about my trip and now I will remember what happened and how surreal it all felt. I can’t imagine buying a car from any other brand in any other way than this. Germany, I will return to you in 3 years…until then, I will have the memories we shared together.
Tschüss!
Adverb the Noun 