Morning came and I awoke on Day Two. Another early one—I got up at 6:15 AM in order to have enough time to get ready for the scheduled 7:45 AM departure from the hotel to the BMW Performance Center. I went down to the lobby at that time, said goodbye to the front desk blonde, and met some people who were also doing Performance Center deliveries.

The couple from dinner last night were picking up an X5. They were from Greenville, about 10 minutes away, but they took advantage of the hotel stay to have a holiday from their teenage kids. Two guys from Philadelphia were also picking up an X5. They didn’t arrive until 2 AM; they were waylaid in Charlotte because of the severe thunderstorms that passed through the area last night.
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BMW’s Performance Center delivery program provides buyers of new BMWs a more interesting alternative than picking the car up at a local dealership. To add value to the experience (and to give people some reason to travel to the Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina area), BMW provides a one night hotel stay including dinner and breakfast, followed by a day at the factory and test track, where several events take place. Following instruction from a professional performance driving instructor, participating owners get a plant tour, and, finally, delivery of their new vehicles. What follows, in several installments, is the onging story of my personal BMW Performance Center delivery experience.
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