3083 miles in 5 countries

j128i · 10-22-2008, 07:18 PM

Hi all,
Just joined as a member even though I had been reading a lot since I started to check things about BMW.

I did ED on 9/10/2008 and drove 3083 miles in 5 countries in two and a half weeks with wife and son.
This is my first BMW. I ordered 2008 128i Coupe AW/Black leatherette with auto transmission (the only option I added) as my every day commute car.

I put the report and photos on bimmerfest.com site and here is the link:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=319392

This is by far the best and most exciting trip we have ever had! Great view and awesome people in Europe. We highly recommend ED if you have decided to purchase BMW and also want to see Europe. If you have not made your mind yet, ED should be a big positive factor in your decision making process. As many members have said before, I'd say it again: Drive your own BMW on German autobahn and the Welt center ED delivery experience is priceless!

Great car! To be honest, all my car driving experience is with Japanese cars (well, almost, my 1st ever car actually is a Dodge Charger hatchback!). On this site, I read some guy got car broken on the first day during ED and I was somewhat worried before I hit the road. It turned out that we did not see any problem.

Total driving is 3083 miles with my wife and my son who turned 5 during the trip - his birthday is also the ED delivery day and we celebrated it in the Welt center. The average is about 81mph with avg 26.1 mpg on mixed local/highway. The gas price is ~1.4euro/li ($10/gallon).

We stayed in 10 places in 5 countries during 16 days:
Monday 9/8/2008 fly Lufthansa from Boston.
9/9/, 9/10/2008 Munich, Germany - Neuschwanstein Castle – Frankfurt
9/11/ Sankt Goar
9/11,12 and 13 Paris, France (3 nights)
Sunday 9/14, 15 Interlaken, Swiss (1 night)
9/15, 9/16 Milan, Italy via B11 - Susten Pass (it was snowing!) (1 night)
9/16, 9/17 Cannes – Nice – Monaco (1 night)
9/17, 18 and 19 Florence, Italy (2 nights)
9/19, 20 and 21 Roma (2 nights)
9/21 Venice (1 night)
9/22 Vienna, Austria (1 night)
9/23 back to Munich and drop-off the car at Harms.
Wednesday 9/24 Oktoberfest! and back home

Hope it may refresh your ED memory or help on your ED and Europe trip. Thank you all for the valuable posts on BMW.

j128i

morgie2 · 10-22-2008, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by j128i

Hi all,
Just joined as a member even though I had been reading a lot since I started to check things about BMW.

I did ED on 9/10/2008 and drove 3083 miles in 5 countries in two and a half weeks with wife and son.
This is my first BMW. I ordered 2008 128i Coupe AW/Black leatherette with auto transmission (the only option I added) as my every day commute car.

I put the report and photos on bimmerfest.com site and here is the link:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=319392

This is by far the best and most exciting trip we have ever had! Great view and awesome people in Europe. We highly recommend ED if you have decided to purchase BMW and also want to see Europe. If you have not made your mind yet, ED should be a big positive factor in your decision making process. As many members have said before, I'd say it again: Drive your own BMW on German autobahn and the Welt center ED delivery experience is priceless!

Great car! To be honest, all my car driving experience is with Japanese cars (well, almost, my 1st ever car actually is a Dodge Charger hatchback!). On this site, I read some guy got car broken on the first day during ED and I was somewhat worried before I hit the road. It turned out that we did not see any problem.

Total driving is 3083 miles with my wife and my son who turned 5 during the trip - his birthday is also the ED delivery day and we celebrated it in the Welt center. The average is about 81mph with avg 26.1 mpg on mixed local/highway. The gas price is ~1.4euro/li ($10/gallon).

We stayed in 10 places in 5 countries during 16 days:
Monday 9/8/2008 fly Lufthansa from Boston.
9/9/, 9/10/2008 Munich, Germany - Neuschwanstein Castle – Frankfurt
9/11/ Sankt Goar
9/11,12 and 13 Paris, France (3 nights)
Sunday 9/14, 15 Interlaken, Swiss (1 night)
9/15, 9/16 Milan, Italy via B11 - Susten Pass (it was snowing!) (1 night)
9/16, 9/17 Cannes – Nice – Monaco (1 night)
9/17, 18 and 19 Florence, Italy (2 nights)
9/19, 20 and 21 Roma (2 nights)
9/21 Venice (1 night)
9/22 Vienna, Austria (1 night)
9/23 back to Munich and drop-off the car at Harms.
Wednesday 9/24 Oktoberfest! and back home

Hope it may refresh your ED memory or help on your ED and Europe trip. Thank you all for the valuable posts on BMW.

j128i

where did you purchase?

j128i · 10-22-2008, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morgie2

where did you purchase?

Tulley BMW center at Nashua.

ptack · 10-22-2008, 08:56 PM

Dude, that is an insane amount of driving for an ED. You probably set a record and certainly got your money's worth out it. I'm also surprised you could fit 2 weeks worth of luggage for 3 people into the 1. We would have needed a mini van. Did you make the necessary arrangements to drive into Florence?

j128i · 10-22-2008, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ptack

Dude, that is an insane amount of driving for an ED. You probably set a record and certainly got your money's worth out it. I'm also surprised you could fit 2 weeks worth of luggage for 3 people into the 1. We would have needed a mini van. Did you make the necessary arrangements to drive into Florence?

Yeah, 1er actually has a quite big trunk as I described in the report. Ha, we tried to go to as many places as possible with focus on Paris and Rome... our next ED maybe 5 years away ... when I need to have a new family car :biggrin:.

What arrangements do you mean?

ptack · 10-23-2008, 07:28 AM

Florence is a "restricted city". They don't want cars in city center. My boss was there recently and he got a permit in advance to drive in. I didn't know anything about that and since our hotel was about 3 doors behind the Duomo I had to get there somehow (talk about a maddening drive). 6 Months later I get some form letter telling me I violated a traffic law in Florence by driving down a prohibitted street and that I should pay them ~150eu. These are generated by cameras and Italy has outsourced the whole process to some company. It's also not just Florence, it's all over Italy so don't be surprised if you get some interesting mail - in 6 to 9 months.

j128i · 10-23-2008, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ptack

Florence is a "restricted city". They don't want cars in city center. My boss was there recently and he got a permit in advance to drive in. I didn't know anything about that and since our hotel was about 3 doors behind the Duomo I had to get there somehow (talk about a maddening drive). 6 Months later I get some form letter telling me I violated a traffic law in Florence by driving down a prohibitted street and that I should pay them ~150eu. These are generated by cameras and Italy has outsourced the whole process to some company. It's also not just Florence, it's all over Italy so don't be surprised if you get some interesting mail - in 6 to 9 months.

Oh, I did not drive in the city. I only drove in between city. I used public transportation for city sight seeing.
On autobahn/autostrade, I dont know if I got caught by the camera. I saw so many cars passed by camera with speed much higher than the speed limit on that section. I did it too, dont know if those guys have a way to void the ticket. If I saw all cars slow down (usually approaching the city) when passing through speed limit sign (cirlec with number and in light, it means camera is on), I hit brake too (well we are not use to hit brake very hard, they do). Again, not sure if got caught in those situations.
We'll see.
You mean, 9 month later I may get a surprise?

ptack · 10-23-2008, 03:24 PM

I don't think the system is in use on the highways. It seems to primarily be in city centers so if you avoided those you're fine. Hope you were able to do a good pace on the Autostrada. I was bummed that there were no high speed sections, but I never saw a cop and traffic would occasionally go 140km or so. Gas prices are funny to Americans because they're Euros per liter which don't seem that bad - if you don't convert them to $/gal. 3000 miles- it must have cost you a small fortune in gas.

j128i · 10-23-2008, 04:30 PM

You are right on gas price. It is about $1000:
gas price (during Sept. 2008)
(1.45Euro/li) x 1.43Dollor/Euro x 4 li/gallon ~= $8.3/gallon
total gallon
(3083 miles)/(26.1 mile/gallon) = 118.1 gallon

Total gas cost ~= 8.3x118.1 = $980
Plus $400 pay toll, $400 parking fee in hotel.

So, you are talking about $2000!
If I took EuroStar train (3 person with Euro pass in multi countries), it may be more or less the same.

10-22-2008, 07:18 PM	#1
j128i Private 1 Rep 94 Posts Drives: 08 128i Coupe AW/Black Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: NH iTrader: (0)	3083 miles in 5 countries - Our Sept 10 ED experience Hi all, Just joined as a member even though I had been reading a lot since I started to check things about BMW. I did ED on 9/10/2008 and drove 3083 miles in 5 countries in two and a half weeks with wife and son. This is my first BMW. I ordered 2008 128i Coupe AW/Black leatherette with auto transmission (the only option I added) as my every day commute car. I put the report and photos on bimmerfest.com site and here is the link: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=319392 This is by far the best and most exciting trip we have ever had! Great view and awesome people in Europe. We highly recommend ED if you have decided to purchase BMW and also want to see Europe. If you have not made your mind yet, ED should be a big positive factor in your decision making process. As many members have said before, I'd say it again: Drive your own BMW on German autobahn and the Welt center ED delivery experience is priceless! Great car! To be honest, all my car driving experience is with Japanese cars (well, almost, my 1st ever car actually is a Dodge Charger hatchback!). On this site, I read some guy got car broken on the first day during ED and I was somewhat worried before I hit the road. It turned out that we did not see any problem. Total driving is 3083 miles with my wife and my son who turned 5 during the trip - his birthday is also the ED delivery day and we celebrated it in the Welt center. The average is about 81mph with avg 26.1 mpg on mixed local/highway. The gas price is ~1.4euro/li ($10/gallon). We stayed in 10 places in 5 countries during 16 days: Monday 9/8/2008 fly Lufthansa from Boston. 9/9/, 9/10/2008 Munich, Germany - Neuschwanstein Castle – Frankfurt 9/11/ Sankt Goar 9/11,12 and 13 Paris, France (3 nights) Sunday 9/14, 15 Interlaken, Swiss (1 night) 9/15, 9/16 Milan, Italy via B11 - Susten Pass (it was snowing!) (1 night) 9/16, 9/17 Cannes – Nice – Monaco (1 night) 9/17, 18 and 19 Florence, Italy (2 nights) 9/19, 20 and 21 Roma (2 nights) 9/21 Venice (1 night) 9/22 Vienna, Austria (1 night) 9/23 back to Munich and drop-off the car at Harms. Wednesday 9/24 Oktoberfest! and back home Hope it may refresh your ED memory or help on your ED and Europe trip. Thank you all for the valuable posts on BMW. j128i Attached Images
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10-22-2008, 08:56 PM	#4
ptack Brigadier General 269 Rep 4,470 Posts Drives: 135i Join Date: May 2008 Location: NJ iTrader: (0) Garage List 2008 135i [6.50]	Dude, that is an insane amount of driving for an ED. You probably set a record and certainly got your money's worth out it. I'm also surprised you could fit 2 weeks worth of luggage for 3 people into the 1. We would have needed a mini van. Did you make the necessary arrangements to drive into Florence? __________________ 135i, SGM, Coral, Sport Package, Auto, Premium Hifi, USB/ipod, Apex EC-7s, PPK Stage II
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10-23-2008, 07:28 AM	#6
ptack Brigadier General 269 Rep 4,470 Posts Drives: 135i Join Date: May 2008 Location: NJ iTrader: (0) Garage List 2008 135i [6.50]	Florence is a "restricted city". They don't want cars in city center. My boss was there recently and he got a permit in advance to drive in. I didn't know anything about that and since our hotel was about 3 doors behind the Duomo I had to get there somehow (talk about a maddening drive). 6 Months later I get some form letter telling me I violated a traffic law in Florence by driving down a prohibitted street and that I should pay them ~150eu. These are generated by cameras and Italy has outsourced the whole process to some company. It's also not just Florence, it's all over Italy so don't be surprised if you get some interesting mail - in 6 to 9 months. __________________ 135i, SGM, Coral, Sport Package, Auto, Premium Hifi, USB/ipod, Apex EC-7s, PPK Stage II
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10-23-2008, 03:24 PM	#8
ptack Brigadier General 269 Rep 4,470 Posts Drives: 135i Join Date: May 2008 Location: NJ iTrader: (0) Garage List 2008 135i [6.50]	I don't think the system is in use on the highways. It seems to primarily be in city centers so if you avoided those you're fine. Hope you were able to do a good pace on the Autostrada. I was bummed that there were no high speed sections, but I never saw a cop and traffic would occasionally go 140km or so. Gas prices are funny to Americans because they're Euros per liter which don't seem that bad - if you don't convert them to $/gal. 3000 miles- it must have cost you a small fortune in gas. __________________ 135i, SGM, Coral, Sport Package, Auto, Premium Hifi, USB/ipod, Apex EC-7s, PPK Stage II
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10-23-2008, 04:30 PM	#9
j128i Private 1 Rep 94 Posts Drives: 08 128i Coupe AW/Black Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: NH iTrader: (0)	You are right on gas price. It is about $1000: gas price (during Sept. 2008) (1.45Euro/li) x 1.43Dollor/Euro x 4 li/gallon ~= $8.3/gallon total gallon (3083 miles)/(26.1 mile/gallon) = 118.1 gallon Total gas cost ~= 8.3x118.1 = $980 Plus $400 pay toll, $400 parking fee in hotel. So, you are talking about $2000! If I took EuroStar train (3 person with Euro pass in multi countries), it may be more or less the same.
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