Day 3: Best Day Ever!

Today we went to the wonderful new BMW Welt to pick up my car.  The whole experiance was amazing.  Right fromt he get go they treated us like VIPs.  After checking in we were given some little ID cards with our schedule on it, and brought to the ‘Premium Lounge’  where they had an amazing spread of food and drinks, as well as a plethora of leather couches to relax in.  We got some breakfast and then headed off to learn all about my new car.  They had a silly little simulator that showed all the fancy traction control  features, as well as the first implementation of Microsoft’s Surface technology that I’ve seen.   The electronic car that they were showing me around was an exact duplicate of my car, right down to the correct liscene plate.  From there the big moment arrived when I was given the keys to my shiney new BMW 335i Coupe.The car was in this unbelievable hall on its very own turntable, making the whole experience seem special.   I got to drive the car around a bit and then it was time for our factory tour.  My car was made an hour or two up the road from Munich, however the factory here makes 3-series sedans and wagons.  We saw a good portion of the factory, from the stamping line to the body shop to final assembly.   Not surprisingly it wasn’t much different from many other modern car factories.  Almost all of the welding and body work is done by robot,  with the assembly being done largely by hand.

Then after another small stop back at the lounge for a rest and some drinks, we went off to the BMW museum.  Here they had pretty much everything BMW has ever made.  From the first airplane engines all the way to some of the new concept cars.  My favorite was this 1956 BMW 507  Roadster.    At this point however we were rather exhasuted though so we kind of flew through the museum.  From there we headed off to get the winter tires we rented, to prepare for our upcoming journey threw the Alps.