BMW Munich
By
Bob Enzel
Opening in Spring 2008 the new BMW showcase
museum will have on hand over 120 exhibits in 26 sections bringing to life
the brand’s history. You will need the better part of a day to visit the
museum and take a 2.5 hour guided tour of the Munich plant. You can cut
short your museum visit but there are no partial tours for the plant.
So as to entice you to visit Munich and see the auto’s history and how the
car is made BMW is offering a 7% discount to those buyers who purchase a BMW
in the U.S. In addition to the discount BMW arranges transportation for the
car back to the U.S.
A summary of the process works like this. Customer buys the auto in the U.S.
and makes arrangements to pick up the car at the new BMW Welt in Munich. See
the plant if they wish and use the savings on the purchase to tool around
Europe on vacation. Customer drops the car off by arrangement and BMW takes
it from there. There are two exceptions to the BMW’s availability in
Europe…the X5 Sports Activity Vehicle and the Z4 Roadster and Coupes are
built in the USA.
I did this many years ago with an English built car and it worked our well
for me. I drove around Europe and brought the car home as a used car (for
tax purposes.) I’m not sure if this will work for you, but it’s worth
finding out from your motor vehicle department. The tax savings is
considerable between a used car and a new car.
There are several web sites that should be perused first.
www.bmwusa.com and
www.bmw-welt.com are two for starters.
While you are in Germany there are some great exhibitions, carnivals and
festivals to check out. Briefly mentioned below are just a few of many.
Ø Until
February 24, 2008 the city of Bremen will pay homage to Paula Mendersohn
Becker, Germany’s first twentieth century female painter with ties to (many)
French Impressionists.
Ø
www.paula-in-paris.de/en/index.html
Ø In Mainz;
Cologne and Duesseldorf from January 31-February 5, 2008 it’s Carnival time
which leads up to its typical “crazy climax” in Mainz; the Rose Monday
parade on the 4th in Cologne and revelers turn Duesseldorf “upside down.”
You can check each of them out:
www.mainz.de;
www.koein.de;
and
www.karneval-in-duesseldorf.de (German only.)
Ø The
Berlin International Film Festival is a major happening from February 7-17;
and in Stuttgart from February 14-17 there is a contemporary Music Festival.
Ø Easter
Markets abound during February and March in many localities.
www.Cometogermany.com will find them for you.
Ø What is
Germany without the “Strong Beer Season” in Munich. The Lowenbrau Cellar
Festival takes place from February - April.
www.Muenchen-tourist.de
Christmas Markets and many other happenings can be found on
www.cometogermany.com and
www.germanoriginalty.com which is promoting 400 Years of Germans to
America.
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