I Went to Germany and Came Back with a Car: Day 2, Part 3

I returned back to the Welt to pick up my car and in only a few moments it was pulled up in front. Time to go pick up my traveling companion at the Munich airport. Thankfully, during the car setup process, Matt had programmed the Nav for the airport already. Yes, the Nav does work in Europe as they load the European maps while you are there.

Off we went and even with the Nav's help I made an immediate wrong turn. Overall, driving in Europe is pretty similar in terms of the rules and signs and so forth. However, there are certain styles of roads there that are just different enough to cause confusion or hesitation. It would take some time to get comfortable with them - but, in the meantime, the Nav was great about re-routing.

Back on track, I hit the Autobahn after a short tour on local streets. Traffic around Munich can certainly be fairly thick, but it was pretty sparse being a late Saturday afternoon and headed toward the airport. Typical speed limits seemed to be generally in the 120/KPH area - sometimes faster or slower. However, within about 8 miles I hit an unrestricted zone.

Any new car really needs some break-in. Tires are new and tend to be a bit more slippery. Brakes need some time to acclimate and rub off that manufacturing sheen and certainly the engine shouldn't be flogged either. That said, BMW has higher limits that, say domestic manufacturers, when it comes to break-in. They prefer you merely keep it under 100MPH/4000RPM for the first 1,200 or so miles.  That's a laughably high limit when purchased in the States, but in Germany is actually seems pretty restrictive.

Therefore, it is more than a little odd to be driving 95 miles per hour on your car's maiden voyage. Completely legally and even on the slow side compared to other traffic - completely without drama. I left plenty of room around me at all times due to the aforementioned tire and brake conditions, but had no problems whatsoever. Traveling that fast got me over the airport pretty quickly and after a minor bit of hunting around successfully collected my companion.

Programmed the Nav for the hotel and started back to town. On the way back, we stopped for gas since if you noticed from the earlier pictures of the instrument panel, you only get about 5 gallons of gas. Though people have accused BMW of being cheap, apparently this steps from a legal limit of fueling cars in enclosed buildings. But, I digress. Europe uses a different octane rating system than we do here, but I selected the best stuff I could find: Super 100. Filling up the tank ran about 68 Euro or about 100 bucks at the conversion rate. Not cheap.

The Nav faithfully took us back to the hotel with no issues. It was rapidly becoming clear it was going to be a life saver. I previously had a BMW with the first gen iDrive and that thing was clunky and difficult to use. While the 2009 version still isn't perfect, it is MUCH easier to use that the old one and the Navigation is top notch. I think it would be very hard to drive in Europe without a nav unit. And it seems the natives agree - I cannot tell you how many people had nav units stuck to the windshields of their cars. They are ever-present.

The hotel parking wasn't cheap but it was off the street. It was also somewhat snug. The 1 series is pretty small though and fits almost anywhere. The tight spaces made the fold in mirrors more of a necessity and less of a luxury. And with that, Day 2 was over. Tomorrow... Vienna.