[segobi]

Originally Posted by jwocky

Ziv, if you know the name of the ship your car is on, you'll be able to use this vessel tracker:

http://www.sailwx.info/

hey thats cool. thanks for the link!

btw. great model photos, ziv!

[pharding]

Great photos Ziv. Thanks.

[ziv]

thanks a lot guys :-)

[BMWChi]

I have the Bridgestone tires many were complaining about! I hope they have improved them.

Here's a mini review of my experiences so far...
Bluetooth works flawlessly. It's amazing. After pairing one time it just works. The first time I got a call while in my car, I was surprised how well it worked. Great sound in the car, the caller said I sounded a little bit like I was in a tunnel, but he was calling from Chicago and I had just left Milan - It could have just been the connection.

I have the iDrive/Navigation system so I don't know how it displays in cars without that, but on my display, it changes to a blue tinted screen and displays who's calling along with how long you are connected. In Europe I'm not getting caller ID, but I'm not getting it on my phone either (RAZR).

If you dial out by your phone, the audio still works through the car - very nice. You can bring up your address book using the voice activation button. I need to dial +1 so my address book won't dial out from here, but I can't wait to get it home. Some people mentioned that it takes a long time to download your address book from your phone to your car, it only took a few seconds for me.

The Navigation system has been slightly off at times. It kept telling me to turn onto roads that were not for cars in Milan. But it's difficult even for the locals to drive there. I've been relying on the Navigation system totally and have not looked at a map. I enter the hotel address and follow the directions. It works very well, but sometimes seems to be off in projected feet to turn the next corner.

The rain sensing wipers are great as well. It started raining and they really do "sense" when to wipe. While it was just misting, they went across only once, until more mist was visible. When it really started raining - they seemed to be there exactly at the right time.

I connected my iPod in the armrest. There is an AUX in port and a power port. I thought there was supposed to be a split sliding arm rest, but I have a solid armrest. I hope BMW and Apple come up with a way to connect the iPod like the older models. It was a bit of a pain to open the armrest every time I wanted to forward to a new song (sorry to complain). Still a nice luxury to have the AUX port in the armrest.

I'm more of a tech lover so the bells and whistles were really important to me when I chose my new car. The E90 did not let me down. I'll post a better and more complete review when I return to the states. Also some video.

[Robin_NL]

EXCELLENT PICS!

Sparkling Graphite with 162s: My choice!

Great scenery too(was there a month ago)

Cheers!

[RedStripe]

Thanks for the review BMWChi!

[segfault]

Interesting picture of the BMWs on the train. They did not appear to have any sort of plastic covering on them. What do they do to prevent "rail dust" (iron particles that cling to the paint and then rust)?

[ziv]

actually, if you look closely at the pictures, there is a coat of film, or guck, that covered all the cars. BMW uses some type of wax to protect the cars during shipment :-) You can also see that on the windows. It's possible that when the images were posted, by lowering their resolution, that level of detail was lost. But in my 6MP images, I could certainly see the wax...

[xspeedy]

cosmoline

[Franky]

I some can let me know if is better buying the car with the European Delivery program. In other words if I can save money.

[SiR]

Originally Posted by Franky

I some can let me know if is better buying the car with the European Delivery program. In other words if I can save money.

Yes you save money up front.

[Wildcat Jon]

Booyah, go to the product info guide posted and you'll see the xi wheels, sp options, etc. No sport suspension on the xi.

[Cloud9]

Excellent pics and review. Thanks Ziv!!

[Jack2]

Awesome pics ziv and bmwchi! I know this sounds silly but are there any other advantages of taking European Delivery besides saving $$$? Is Germany the only place to take ED and is it the cheapest? Will I be eligible for ED considering i live in Australia (its right hand drive here)?
Thanks in advance for your input guys.

[ziv]

Life isn't fair. BMWChi drove his car for 2 more weeks after me, and he already has it 'cuz he lives in Chicago and I live in CA. :-(

Anyway, do some research on this board by searching and also on BMW's corp site. I have no idea how the rules work for Australia. As far as I know, you have to pick up the car in Germany, but then you can drive it around Europe for up to 1 month with full 0 deductible insurance. The major reason, in my eyes, for doing ED is to save money. I saved $6000 this time around, and $12K last time. It depends on the car that you get, and the options you choose.

[RedStripe]

Just an update to what Ziv said, I think the insurance is now 14 days, not 1 month, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Also, not only is their a "standard" savings by doing an ED of around $2250 (US ED purchase), but for me, the attraction was compounded by the fact that dealers in my area were not willing to negotiate on their pre-allocated US delivery cars, but were willing to negotiate on ED cars.

The wait is painful though.

Originally Posted by ziv

Life isn't fair. BMWChi drove his car for 2 more weeks after me, and he already has it 'cuz he lives in Chicago and I live in CA. :-(

Anyway, do some research on this board by searching and also on BMW's corp site. I have no idea how the rules work for Australia. As far as I know, you have to pick up the car in Germany, but then you can drive it around Europe for up to 1 month with full 0 deductible insurance. The major reason, in my eyes, for doing ED is to save money. I saved $6000 this time around, and $12K last time. It depends on the car that you get, and the options you choose.

[Jack2]

So I actually need to pick up the car personally in Germany and drive it there for 2 weeks-1 month. That would be impossible considering i can't get any time off work.
Actually, I was hoping to import the car to Australia as i'm able to get tax exemption. Wonder wheter anybody has done this before? I requested for a translated version of the price and options list from BMW Germany but never got a response. Perhaps they don't allow individual sales to a different country without going through BMW Australia?

[ase2dais]

this should be on the E90 Hall of Fame Post

[Nikki]

Agreed! Where are the awards?

[Oz]

Wow, beautiful scenery and factory!

I am seriously considering ED for my next BMW in 5 years...