Wow, guys, I gotta tip off my hat to BMW for a truly rewarding delivery experience. I'm still surprised that I did it- finally. For all of you ordering cars and not doing ED, even if it's logistically challenging to make the long (yet fun) drive home, you all must take full advantage of this unique and exclusive delivery opportunity!

First, before I go on about my car, I have to give my biggest thanks to all the staff at the BMW Performance Center, notably Donnie Isley, our Driving Instructor who always made us crack up without fail, and Willie Hammonds, our Delivery Specialist (yes, it was cool to pick up some cool delivery tips. These guys are most accomodating, helpful, attentive, and very fun folks, perhaps most importantly, they love what they do. Who wouldn't with all those Bimmers in a what I thought was a BMW playground!

So I've recommended or had clients volunteer to go PC Delivery and everytime they came back telling me that I had to do it. Thankfully, the opportunity came along when I ordered my gorgeous, one of a kind Stratus Gray 330Ci Convertible. (Yes, pics will be posted here in just a sec.)

The day started at around 2:30pm Tuesday. Kim, my wonderful wife, and I drove a one way rental to Greenville Airport from Atlanta. It was so convenient to drop off the rental at the airport. We called the Marriot Greenville and they said they'd be there in 15 minutes. It only took 10! And to our pleasant surprise, they picked us up in a 530xiT Wagon (Amethyst over Beige). This is exclusively for PC clients, mind you.

Once we get to the hotel, they make reservations for us at Giatu, the Marriot's restaurant and lounge. Of course, my favorite food is always free food and this was great free food. For some reason, the staff just goes the extra mile for PC clients.

The following morning after breakfast at Giatu, the Marriot takes all the PC guests to the Performance Center at 7:45am sharp. We get there and we're greeted by the staff and given an overview of the day and how we'll be split into groups taking delivery, going to the Zentrum and the surprise in lieu of the factory tour, and going on the driving circuit.

All of gather in this meeting room where it seems like we're about to be briefed Top Gun style with cool looking black chairs that had side desks where we had to sign our disclaimers. The room had a huge mapon the wall of the whole facility and the track and off road course. It gave me a sense of how big this place was and how much fun it was gonna be driving BMW's all day!

Not to be long winded about the driving skills circuit that was tons of fun, the most enjoyable part was actually being offered to drive X5's on the off road circuit and go on a hot lap in an M3 with a driving instructor in lieu of going on the factory tour which normally takes about an hour. Guys, I've never seen the X5 in action like this, but it kicked @ss on the offroad course. This thing seemed invincible! Also, we had so much fun in the M3 on the skidpad.

So it was after Donnie Isley, one of the funniest guys I've met, drove us on a hot lap in the M3 that I finally met up with Willie Hammonds, the sweetest lady in the world, to introduce us to our new BMW. There was soooo much anticipation. It was driving me nuts because I was dying to see my car in Stratus Gray.

When Willie opened the door to the delivery room (yes, it was like taking delivery of your own newborn BMW), we feasted our eyes on the car which had the top down. Our jaws just about dropped to the floor atthe beauty of this car. Willie even said that everybody there was wondering what color it was and they'd never seen one like it and thought it was one of the nicest convertibles they'd seen.

So here you go guys, the pics I promised many of you that I'd share. (Special thanks to those of you (you know who you are ) for your helpful suggestions when I was color confused .