Hi all!!

Just got home at 2:00 this morning. Dropped off in Paris on Monday 11/28 and flew home. What an awesome experience.

8 days, 3 countries (Germany, Austria, France), 1238 miles, 3 snowstorms, and more fun than I've had in a long time!!!! I will never buy a car any other way again. Counting the days till my wifes lease is up in March 2007!!

We will be writing up a complete report with lots of pics as soon as we settle down.

First - I really want to thank everyone here! I never would have known about all this ED stuff if it weren't for this group. I hope I can "repay" everyone by posting a good writeup of our trip with lots of pics. A big thanks to Brian Secord of Carbone BMW in Utica NY (a board sponsor), for making the whole buying experience easy!! Anyone in the area considering ED would do well to contact him.

A few comments:

We travelled with out 2 kids, 7 & 9. Germany must be one of the most child-friendly places I've ever been! Every restaurant we went to had a kids menu, and every store we went to had candy or something to give the kids. They learned a few words in German and were a big hit everyplace they tried to use that em! They loved it and can't wait to go back again. My 7 year old son especially liked the Autobahn - we "only" got up to 140 mph, but that was quite a thrill for him! He already knows how to use the I-drive better than I do!!!

For those doing winter ED - be aware that the roads can be pretty bad! A lot of the secondary roads don't get treated at all. They could learn a thing or two about snow removal from the Vermont DOT! I would not have wanted to drive on summer tires during the storms we got during our trip. But Germany and Austria are BEAUTIFUL in the snow!! I had a scary ride in the snow with my cousin in his E60 530d with performance tires - we wished we took my car that day!! Those with x-drive and all season tires should be just fine though, provided you are used to driving in the snow.

Driving on the autobahn at high speed is exciting, but I found it tiring after a while. Most of the Autobahns we drove on were 2 lanes. Trucks clogged the right lane at 60-70 mph, and small cars were constantly moving into the left lane to pass. They come up pretty quickly at 130, so you really have to have complete concentration all the time. They move over real quick when they see that sinister looking E60 front end coming behind them at high speed though!!!

The car was just great! Not quite as much kick as my twin turbo Audi wagon, but it wasn't broken in yet. But so smooth and the handling is just amazing. Feels like a much smaller car. I was kind of nervous about the I-drive after all the negative reviews - but I LOVE it!!! It took about 30 minutes playing with it to figure out the system. The logic of it hit me after a few high speed runs on the Autobahn. You dont have to move or bend over to look for any buttons to change anything. Your hand just rests on the controller and you really dont have to take your eyes off the road to change CD tracks or radio stations. It does take a few steps to change the equalizer on the stereo or the vent temperature, but I didn't find it necessary to change any of those things anyway! I don't know why all the reviewers hate i-drive so much!

I'm really looking forward to getting my car back, but I'm not as upset as some people are with the wait. My Audi allroad goes back the day I pick up the xiT, and I really love my Audi - so I'll concentrate on enjoying my last few weeks with the Audi instead of missing the bimmer!!!

Well - thats all for now! Will try to post some more pics as soon as we all recover from the jetlag!!