:happy anim:
A special thank you to the forum as you guys played a big role in helping decide on my build and providing the much-needed therapy while I waited over the winter months, as I lived vicariously through everyone…
David A at Steve Thomas was also critical – he made the process real simple and easy. And needless to say, he cut me a ridiculous deal. I had shopped 8 or so dealerships in my area and after a 10-minute conversation one Sunday afternoon back in November, I ordered the car. Over the few short weeks after my order, David put all the details and things in place and I was all set.
We also worked with Courtyard Travel for some of the travel plans and they also got it! No issues and everything worked really, really well. For the rest of the bookings we used SPG points and cashed in a ton of airline FF miles for round trip first class tickets!! I also used American Express concierge service for some ‘on the ground’ tips like parking in Venice and boat rentals for Lake Como.
Took ED a couple Thursdays ago - April 17th at 9:00am and got back last night – so the travel haze is still in full effect. We had such an awesome experience – I can’t even imagine ever having to take delivery at a dealership, ever. We had the first delivery of the day and #1 delivery position/spot. I felt bad for everyone else who had to walk by my car to take delivery of theirs...
The ED experience is such an incredible way to get introduced to your car - it's a must do. The folks at the Welt and the Lounge were all super helpful – they actually jumped through a few hoops for us at the end of the trip. The food is also pretty good.
Our trip covered 2 weeks, 5 countries and 8 cities in 1,857 miles – Germany (Munich), Austria (Salzburg), Italy (Venice, Florence, Milan, Lake Como and Rome), Vatican City, and Switzerland (Chur). This entire trip was so amazing that every day was a highlight moment – but nothing I think would top being at the Vatican for Easter Sunday mass.
The ED process is very well documented on the forum, so I will not go into details – but if anyone has specific questions, I’d be happy to answer.
The one thing I didn’t see any threads/discussions about was the “special police” in Munich. On this past Monday around 5:00pm we had just left the Welt, and to avoid the rush hour traffic, took the back streets heading back to the hotel. Got pulled over by these “special police” guys. They we cruising around in an unmarked E46-328. They investigate special exotic cars and M’s are on their list due to the high theft rates. I was expecting the punked cameramen to jump out from the back seats.
After they ran the VIN through the database and asked some really stupid questions, they wrapped up their investigation. It was odd, but it's a thing. Also got stopped in Chur, Switzerland by the real cops wanting to take a close look at the car. Not sure why as there was no shortage of high-end cars on their streets.
I ran default/comfort settings for most the trip, but did get in a few M2/hard runs in post 1,200 miles. I also programmed Stealth.Pilot’s B&O settings and cranked Andrea Bocelli – Con Te Partirò for the drive through the Alps. This car is everything I imagined and then some. It only got better as we got to know each other. It’s going to suck having to do 65mph hahahhhaha. Now the most painful part – the wait for re-delivery.
Here are a few pictures – please excuse the quality of some as they were taken on my iphone, but I wanted to share with you guys. We are still going through the thousands of pictures and video from our drive through Tuscany, so might post a few more later.