[IrvRobinson]

My editor is in Germany picking up his 335i at the new BMW Welt and he wrote a nice article on the whole process. I thought I would share it with you since I find it very interesting and it gives you a better idea how the Welt really is and how the process works.

He was really impressed and he told that he wants to get a 135i coupe the same way, as soon as the hype slows down.

Friday, January 11th. The big day. My check-in time was scheduled for 10:50am. Even though, everyone has told me before to be there 90 min prior my check-in time, I woke up kinda late, so I was able to get there around 10:10am. To my surprise, the check-in time was just a check-in time, and my delivery was actually scheduled at 11:30am.
But let me go back for a second. I stayed in Munich City Nord, so the BMW Welt is fairly close. There are a few options to get there: U-Bahn or a cab. The U-Bahn would have been a cheaper ride, but since I was running late, I decided to take the taxi. There were exactly 3km so I made it there in less than 10min. Ride cost: 9 Euros. Not too bad.

BMW Welt First Impression
WOW!!! The Welt is just amazing, I was really impressed by it, even though I have seen tons of pictures and videos before. The construction looks even more amazing than in any pictures. BMW has really built a "center for the world". The architecture is futuristic, it definitely reminded me of a Star Trek ship. I like the way BMW combined the numerous windows, glass and steel pieces. I guess the 500 million euros were well spent.



Check-in process
I like the way BMW managed to organize things and their staff. There were a couple of BMW Welt employees at the main entrance. As soon as I approach them, they greeted me and walk me to the elevators that will take me to the Premier Lounge, the check-in desk for customer deliveries.



As soon as I walked in, another BMW employee approached me: Thomas. After the formalities, we sat down and started the check-in process. The only thing you would only need is was your passport. Like I said before, the delivery process will actually start about 40-50min after the scheduled check-in time.
If you have anyone traveling with you, or just friends that would like to be part of the delivery process, now it's the time to mention it because they have to print some plastic cards with your name on it with your schedule for that day. In the same time, I was asked if I want to take a Production Tour after my delivery is done. Of course, I was all in for it. I heard some great stories about the Production factory tour, so I wasn't going to miss this.
The check-in process took about 10 min, I had to sign a few papers, including: the registration card, the insurance papers, the cold weather release form and a couple of more documents, less important. As I said before, my delivery process was scheduled for 11:30am, so I had about an hour to kill. This is how it works: you go into the lounge where there are many monitors installed. Each monitor is numbered: B1, B2 or B3.
Each LCD displays the name of the customer, the delivery time and the name of the place where you purchased your car, in my case, Motor Werks BMW in Barrington, IL. My name was displayed on the B3 monitor so that was the place where my BMW delivery specialist would pick me up from, at the specified time.



I was walked in to the premier lounge where everyone that picks up their cars can serve breakfast.






Looks yummy, isn't it? I have to admit, I probably tried all of them The lounge was fairly empty at that time, only about 10 people, but it got a little busier around my delivery time. Another detail: if you have children with you, there is a small kids room within the lounge where your children can play around.
In case you want to kill time you can also surf the web, there are also two computers available for the customers.

I am going to stop now and I will be back with another article on my delivery process and pictures with my new car.


More photos here

[akack79]

Thanks for sharing!!!

[Heesh]

Irv you are the man, can't wait to make my trip!

[cycler]

Ah the memories of the Welt. Its a great experience. I just picked my car up on monday. It arrived Dec 24th. My dad just came back from his ED trip yesterday. He picked up a 535xi and I got the 335xi coupe.

[IrvRobinson]

and here is the second part

The last time I left off where I was sitting in the BMW Premier Lounge and enjoying a great breakfast waiting for my pick up time. As I have mentioned in that article, my presentation tour was scheduled for 11:30am, and my delivery specialist assigned to me was Ms. Margit Lange.

So, after enjoying a few sandwiches and croissants, surfing the web a little bit and setting the Internet Explorer home page to edbmw.com(shhh, nobody has to know), Ms. Lange met by the monitors where my name was being displayed.

The first step in the pick-up process is the Product Info Centre where you will learn a little bit about the car design process with all its steps. In case you didn't know, the time length of designing a brand new model is somewhere between 5-6 years.

In the same tour, you will be learning a little bit more about the features found in your car, safety elements and technology used, servicing your car, BMW assist, etc..

Of course, the presentation is geared toward the type of car you're picking up, so in my case, since it was a BMW 335i, then the tour was focused on the 3-series.

The room we entered was probably one of the coolest places in the Welt, full of video projectors and LCD screens. Being a tech savvy, I was instantly impressed by this. I decided not to take pictures in there and focus mostly on videos, so you can see exactly what I am trying to describe.

So, I and Marge approached one of the small podiums, my new BMW is presented by 3D online renderings on touchscreens. She entered our tour code and instantly a video started. Like I said, no photos were taken but I think you will find the videos way cooler.

Pretty interesting, isn't it?

Since I was traveling by myself this time, it was a challenge to focus on the presentation and in the same time being a photographer or cameraman.

And here is the second video, like I said, this one is all about the car performance, safety issues and car service.

From here, we went for a virtual "test drive". YES, you're going to play some little video games in this tour as well. Isn't that exciting? Well, I know I was.

This part of the tour is called the Info Module where you will take part in an active dialogue and your delivery specialist will be presenting features such as simulated driving dynamic functions and a short introduction to the car's ease of control. Using a steering wheel, two paddles and the iDrive Controller, the customer gets to know his car with all its features during this virtual "test drive". On top of this, you basically get a chance to test your car's handling and response in unpredictable situations.

Unfortunately, as soon as I was trying to setup my camera for recording, my batteries ran out so I was out of luck. A side note, if your batteries are dead, then the only place where you can purchase some, is right outside the Welt, near the U-Bahn stop, about 2 min walk.

So, let me go back to the "video game". Margit put me through different scenarios, testing the handling with and without DSC, testing the brakes in unpredictable situations, driving the car with and without active steering or adaptive headlights, etc.. It was pretty fun, the graphics were amazing and entertaining in the same time. I liked the part where you have the option to see a replay of your driving and realize how bad of a driver you really are, at least in the a game scenario

This whole experience lasts about 10-15min and it concludes your tour. After this, you get a few minutes where you can go and grab your stuff from the lounge area. You can also have the option to leave your belongings there and pick them up after your delivery is over.

Hang in there, the most exciting part will be coming up shortly. My car is just getting ready to be presented on the Premier Level.

[IrvRobinson]

and here is the last part. I hope you'll enjoy it

for high res photos http://www.edbmw.com/blog/2008/01/20...ry-final-step/


……Picking up my "baby". Sorry for keeping all of you waiting for the final moment, but I wanted to walk you through every step of my European Delivery experience, so, if you remember, it all started with the morning moments spent in the Premier Lounge eating those amazing sandwiches and german pastry. Shortly after, I started my Product Info tour and I stopped right before I was being introduced to my new BMW 335i.

After my introductory tour was finished, I had a few minutes to go pick-up my things from the lounge(btw, you can actually lock them in there and take them whenever you're ready) and I was supposed to go meet Ms. Lange again in front of the Premier Lounge, where the LCD panels, numbered A1 through A3, are located. Since my AAA batteries ran out during my Product Info Tour, I had to run outside the Welt, near the U-Bahn station to buy some more. It's a short walk so I was back within 5 min.

Here is the monitor A3 where my delivery tour started, as you can see, my name is on the board, along with the delivery time, the dealership name and the delivery specialist.



From this point on, your delivery specialist will walk you down the stairs that will take you to your new bimmer. At this moment the excitement is at its peak and I was really anxious to see my car, …..to see if the Montego Blue is really what I wanted, ….to see if I indeed like the black interior with the aluminum trim or should have I chosen the classy wood trim??!! Thousand of things went through my mind at this point and honestly, I couldn't even really hear Ms. Lange talking to me.



From my understanding, everything is controlled by the delivery specialist from her Pocket PC that she was holding at all time. So, as soon as we approach the final steps, she pushed some buttons on her little gadget and the turntable started rolling and the car was shining under the lights like a star.

Once again, I decided to focus more on the video shooting rather than photos.

Ignore my german buddy He was probably more excited that I was. He kept calling my car a "little rocket" and was he right?!

And here is my "sweet little rocket". The color was EVERYTHING I have ever imagined. I was debating until the last moment if I should go with the Alpine White or the Montego Blue. I had many other cars in Silver, Gray colors so it was a big change for me.







During this process, Ms. Lange continued to talk about the car, explaining some basic things, touching the issue on the sport package and the summer tires or the non-existing spare due to the run flat tires being standard on the car.

Once again, my german friend was asking a lot of questions Funny thing, he lives like 5 min away from the Welt, so I'm sure he goes there pretty often.

And now the moment I was waiting for: the smell of a brand new car.

And once again, I was right, the black interior goes really well with the aluminum trim. I have the Beige/Wood combination in my family's X3 and I love it, but I still think my combo goes really well on a 3-series.





I forgot to mention that during this presentation, another BMW employee will come and take a photo of you and your car and within few minutes, she will bring back to you in a nice photo cover.

From this point, the only thing you have to do is to sign your name on the delivery specialist's Pocket PC and you are good to go. In my case, I chose to stay a little longer on the Premier Lever. Also, in case you have just flown in and you have your luggage with you, the luggage service will bring it to the car upon the actual handover process.

Also remember, the fuel tank is only about a quarter filled up, but that should last at least 100 miles.

On average, this process of handing over a new car takes 40-45 minutes. Before the customer leaves the building down the ramp from the Premiere Level, he receives a key tag with a personal engraving, the photo taken before, and of course all the keys to the your new shinny car.

Since I was going to attend the Factory Tour, I decided to go and leave the car with the Valet Service, another complementary featured offered by BMW. You will basically drive down the ramp, exit the Welt and leave the car right in front with the valet, then when you're ready to leave, all you have to do is to see the BMW Customer Service Agents inside and your car will be pulled up front.

In my case, since I was at the Welt for another 6-7 hours, the valet service was done for the day, but my car was parked outside so all I had to do was to request my keys from the front-desk.

This pretty much concludes my BMW European Delivery experience, I had a wonderful time and with this occasion I would like to thank my friend and partner, Mr. Irv Robinson, from Motorwerks , Barrington IL. Once again, he made this whole process go very smooth and without worries. This is my second European Delivery done through Irv and I could already say that in 2-3 years, I will go down this road once again.

I will probably write another article on the BMW Welt itself, since the building, the features inside and the entertainment are absolutely fabulous. So, stay tunned and you won't be sorry.

I hope you enjoyed these series of article and should you have any questions, please feel free to ask.