Back from Bimmerland!!!

Just let me start off by stating, if you are lucky enough in your lifetime to purchase a BMW, please order one and pick it up at the performance center in South Carolina. It was such a fun time. Rachel and I went via airplane from Birmingham to Spartanburg. We were picked up by the Marriott and driven to the hotel where we were treated like kings and queens. Everything is provided and paid for by BMW. The next morning we had breakfast and were taken to the performance center at around 7:45. We were one of three couples there to take delivery of a new vehicle. One couple was picking up a 328 convertible and the other couple picked up a x5 diesel. Our first order of business was testing out the extremes of our new rides. So we got in a vehicle like ours for testing. We started with the emergency braking exercise. Basically get up to 50 and slam on the brakes and see how quickly the car stops and see how easy the vehicle still steers under hard braking. I love this exercise. It is good stress relief!! Next we did the slalom course. If you are prone to motion sickness, this one may get to you a bit. But mucho grande fun to me and rachel!! Last we did everyone's favorite...the Skid Pad. A huge donut shaped concrete pad which is polished and then wet down to be ultra slippery. The objective..go around the center of the circle at about 30mph and then floor it causing the car to spin out and do your best to recover it. Most people just end up doing 360's at 30mph. Much better than a roller coaster if you ask me. After this we went and did the factory tour and the museum tour. Let me just say that the factory is totally awesome. Everything moves so perfectly through its own process. All the cars are hand buffed in the paint department and assembled in phases by people except for putting the frame together, which is performed by super cool robots!! They said they build around 500 x5 and x6's per day for the entire planet. For those who don't know, BMW does not build any cars which are not sold. In other words, each car is specked out by either a dealer, for their lot or a end customer as a special order, which is what we did. So before a vehicle is even started it is already paid for!! This is how BMW is so profitable, they have no cars to have to sell off the line. Pretty ingenious if you ask me. I was able to spy behind closed curtains a upcoming M-X5, the mac-daddy of the X5 with 500 horsepower!! After lunch, we then took delivery of our new baby...the X6 35i. She is a beauty!! Afterwards we began our trek back to Alabama. It was a super good time and I hope we get to do it again soon. If nothing else, we plan to go back and attend more of the driving schools that they offer. Till Next Time......look out for the red X6 speeding down the road!