[orangeglim]

I thought I'd offer an alternative perspective on Performance Center Delivery (PCD). I took delivery of my 2019 M2 Competition back in mid-January 2019. I may get flack for saying this, but overall the entire experience was "meh". I wouldn't do it again. My thoughts:

1. I've stayed in the Greenville Marriott several times. It really isn't anything to write home about. It's not terrible by any means but it certainly feels dated.

2. Dinner is in the hotel restaurant. Sure, it's nice that BMW covers the expense, but there's no way this is more than a $25-30 meal at any other place. I left the restaurant disappointed.

3. Breakfast is, again, in the hotel restaurant. The quality is the same as any other decent hotel's breakfast. On par with a Hilton Garden Inn, Embassy Suites, etc. Not amazing, not awful. BMW covers this also.

4. Track time. If you're done either a 1-day or 2-day M-school you've already seen everything they will show you here, and then some (by a large, large margin). The only part that I enjoyed was the handling section, which is the exact same section they run using the M2s during the 1- or 2-day M-schools. Sadly total time in this section was, maybe, 10 laps (mind you, laps take a maximum of 30 seconds, and that's if you're going SUPER slow). The skidpad time was pure marketing only (3, maybe 4 times around), and the braking exercise was unexciting.

5. Lunch at PCD was the same lunch they serve during the M-schools. Not awful, not amazing.

6. Factory Tour, pretty interesting to see how everything comes together. I liked this part. Fun to do once.

7. Off-road course. I liked driving someone else's SUV through some deep ass water. Some of the other sections had me afraid my X5 was gonna tip over. Seriously, genuine shit-your-pants type angles (I'm not an off-road guy). Overall though it felt like a marketing presentation that they'd take car journalists through by the end. Again, fun to do once, wouldn't do again.

I really waffled back and forth about doing PCD. Doing it added three to four weeks to my delivery timeline, plus the cost of plane tickets to SC. That and I signed the paperwork three weeks in advance (as per the advise of my SA). This meant I was making loan payments, paying taxes, insurance, and loosing time off all my included features (CarPlay, ConnectedDrive, etc), because as far as everyone else is concerned you've taken delivery on the date you signed the paperwork even though it'll be weeks before you ever see your car.

Ultimately I did it because I hadn't done it before and I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on something special. Overall, it was a fairly neutral experience for me. Not awful, but not amazing. I think I would have had an equally fun time having my car three weeks earlier.