For the benefit of those who have not taken delivery at the BMW Performance Center, thought I'd give you a quick overview of how it went for us when we picked up our M-Coupe on Friday the 13th, 2008.
We drove our 2006 M Roadster down to Century BMW in Greenville, SC on Thursday. After meeting with Mark Spears from Century BMW and taking care of our business (signing all the paperwork), Mark drove us to the Marriott in a beautiful X6.
Once at the Marriott we checked in and received a nice welcoming letter and itinerary from the Performance Center. The Performance Center takes care of the hotel room, dinner and then breakfast the next morning. The food at the Marriott was first class...
On the morning of the scheduled delivery we were shuttled to the Performance Center by the Marriott shuttle and all our luggage was stored at the PC until we were ready for it. We were totally floored to walk into the performance center and see our new coupe in the lobby as we walked in.
We were given a short safety briefing and some basic driving skills info and then it was out the door to our designated cars. Ours was a beautiful Imola Red Coupe and we were given explicit instruction to remember that this is NOT your car so drive it like it isn't...... AND we did just that.
The first segment was the skid pad exercise.... This is where I learned that I am not nearly as good a driver as I thought I was.... Yep, that's me going the WRONG direction just before going into the grass... Once the back end of this car gets loose, you don't have much time at all to get it back.
My wife elected to not do this segment so the instructor took her in the Coupe for a few laps. He, of course had to show off and drift for about two laps without spinning out...
After the three on course segments, skid pad, controlled ABS braking, and the slalom, we went back inside to take deliver of our car. a very nice lady, Willie (not sure the spelling) went over the car with us, in a condensed version of the normal process given this was our 5th Z Series car. You may also note that by now I have already replaced the the long antennae with the shorty antennae that I took with me...
After some additional formalities Willie drove it out of the Performance Center and out into the front parking area...
After we had lunch and drove an X5 on the off road track that the PC has, we were released and began our drive home...
I have to tell you that this was an extremely well organized process and the folks at the performance center are first class... I would recommend PC delivery if you ever have a chance...
New Pictures taken from home after some weeks of ownership...
