[pmgreenwood]

Thanks for great reporting on a wonderful trip. The Four corner states section and Yellowstone took me back 30 years to some of my US flydrives. After leaving Yellowstone, the trip was even more fascinating to a part of the world I am now unlikely to visit

[KLCC]

Thank you for sharing your adventure with us. It was great to see different places that we would not likely seen.

[RNJ26]

Glad you got home safe. Appreciate you sharing your adventure with us!

[gofast182]

Wonderful thread! Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[65lim]

@Wild Blue You are such a good journal writer! This morning (Indonesia time zone) i saw the title of your thread on Bimmerpost's home page (news feed) and initially i thought this was the X7 journal you did before (cause weirdly the thumbnail pic is the X7). Turns out its another road trip journal with an X5! I'm so excited and i finished reading the 12 pages journal in one sitting (takes about 2-3hrs) 😂 Your thread makes me miss my university days and i now i wanna fly back to North America and do a roadtrip from US to Canada to Alaska.

Thanks for the virtual road trip 😅

Cheers from Indonesia!

[Flying Ace]

Great finish to the journey!

What's next?.Ditch the car in the wilderness set it on fire, collect insurance money and do this all over again?!

[Mr.blue]

Glad you made it home safe, thanks for sharing. Love the pictures, what a beautiful country we live in.

[Anmolbains23]

Beautiful journey and glad you're back safe!
Sad it's all come to an end. Look forward to your next adventure Blue!

[Dynasty29]

Thank you so much for gracing us with such a wonderful thread. I read the whole thread in its entirety which motivated me to actually make my very first post on this forum. I looked forward to the different landmarks and lived vicariously through your adventure. I now have additional locations added to my bucket list to visit with the wife. I really appreciate this thread so much.

[runnr548]

Hello! Long time no see. My wife and I took delivery of our X5 when you did. What a blast that was!! The trip home through North Carolina back to East Tennessee was very nice as well. Now that I found your travel journal, I have some reading to do. Take care and God bless!

[bmwakmg]

@Wild Blue What an epic road trip! I never missed your updates! Most importantly I am happy you are safe and sound back home. None of the travel channels come even close to showing the vast American expanse like you did. What stood out in your reports was an honest humble viewpoint of your trip - not reporting done by professional who fly in to national parks and give a peripheral version of what these areas would look like! And ofcourse you had an absolute beauty to help you along your ride!!! I know you mentioned this might be your last major road trip but looking at your energy and passion - I won't be surprised if you can pull of another great adventure!

[runnr548]

I just finished reading your travel home. Wow! We take many day trips to and through the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina. Occasionally we'll take a two day trip to somewhere fun. In the next year we should be taking a long trip or two and your trips may have expanded ours.

[mjn77]

Wow, great trip!!!

[pgk500]

Originally Posted by Wild Blue

We split the whole PCD group into 2 parts now. My half did the vehicle delivery first, while the other half did the off-road section and factory tour. Then we switched after lunch.





So, for my X7 PCD last year, I had Seth as my delivery specialist. He was so fantastic, I specifically requested him for my PCD again this year, and BMW thankfully accommodated.

I'm sticking to what I said last time--EVERY BMW delivery should aspire to be this good, no matter what dealer it is, anywhere in the world. Seth had thoroughly inspected the car beforehand, and pre-configured every thing on the car that didn't require my own input. Everything was ready to go.

We took 2 hours, going over every feature, every button. Since I took delivery of my X7 last year, a lot of the information transferred over due to the similar platform, and we were able to go even further into the detail weeds, comparing and contrasting features and options.

Seth was patient, answering every one of my questions, no matter how nerdy-forum-geek-detailed they were. And, naturally, he again said "of course, I set your dash trim accent lights to blue. You're Wild Blue". Mic drop on another awesome delivery.





I really like the look of the car. Arctic Grey wasn't my first choice of color. The family chose that. But it looks good





Small thing, as I did my initial walk-around, I noticed a small 1" scratch on the left rear side door. Scratches can be hard to take pictures of, but in this pic it's just below Seth's hands in his reflection.

My fingernail was catching on the scratch, so there was definitely something there. But after we finished the delivery, Seth whisked the car off to their shop, and before I even finished my salad, he was back and said the scratch was all gone. No worries.























Good looks, good finish, good options. No big ugly wrinkles in the 2nd row seating, like some Bimmerpost forum members insisted in early G05 models had to be intentional for comfort, because... well... science, and because no way BMW could make a mistake.

The 2nd row seats are plenty comfy, and well made.

As before, I asked Seth not to put the front license plate bracket on, but he said they never do, unless the customer requests it. Cool. BMW David again sent my temp plates to the center, before the PCD, so they were ready for me when I arrived. Smooth sailing.

If my previous PCD experience was colored a bit by COVID, this time, I would say the ordering and PCD was colored a bit by "de-content". I'll talk more in future posts over the next few weeks about this in more detail. Nothing was was earth-shattering, destroying either the vehicle production, or the PCD experience, but just a string of little things here and there that were a bit odd, or at worst, minorly annoying.

Small examples--last year, BMW gave drink mugs as a gift during the PCD delivery. No mugs this year. The top of my X5 iDrive controller is missing the touchpad functionality. Nothing I really ever use, but just one of many things that either is missing or has been removed. I'll talk more later.





After a great delivery, Seth had me pull my new baby in front of the center, and it was time for lunch.











Closed last year during COVID, the center cafe is now reopen. Many choices for lunch, including hot and fresh options. All free to the PCD guests.

I had a tomato soup, salad, and pork chops, which were quite delicious.

Belly full of good food, re-hydrated, and fresh batteries in the GoPro, after lunch we hit the off-road course.

All X5's for this exercise. One thing I find significant, though, NO mods to the X5's. Completely stock, including street tires.





Think that X5 on top of hill 1 is tilting a lot?





What if Derek goes up there and pushes on you even more?



Lol. good demonstration of X5's resistance to rollover.








This is just showing an 18% incline, as we head up hill 2.











Good times. Then we all got back in our own personal new shiny cars we just took delivery of, and caravan'd a couple miles down the road to the BMW factory for a tour.

I don't have any pictures to show of this portion, as cameras (and any other sensitive electronics) are not permitted inside the factory.

But it was a great tour. And, to note, last year during COVID, we received a partial factory tour, which was inside the X5/X6 building. This time, it was a full tour in the X3/X4 building. If nothing else, it was great to see a different assembly line, and from a different perspective, even if there were of course many similarities.





And that was the end of the official PCD, right around 3:00 PM. Free to go, most of us headed next door to the Zentrum museum.





Last year, we parked and entered the tour through the Zentrum, which is right next to the X5/X6 plant building. Since no cameras were allowed on the tour, we couldn't bring them into the Zentrum either. But this time, cameras were ok, so I got pics this year.











Perhaps my all-time favorite BMW, the Isetta.








Next, just down the road, between the factory and Performance Center, is the BMW Car Club of America. (BMWCCA). All you Yanks are BMWCCA members, right? Small membership fee, and big cash-back rebate checks when you buy a new BMW. $1,000 rebate last year when I bought my X7. Another $1,000 rebate this year for my X5. I don't know how BMWCCA does it without going out of business, losing money.








Because BMW is celebrating their 50th anniversary of the M this year, special models are currently on display in the BMWCCA museum. Worth a look.





After that, it was 12 miles down the road, and straight to the detailer! I highly recommend Extreme Colors to wrap and protect your new Bimmer, straight from the factory while she's still brand new. Extreme also wraps all of the BMW Performance Center cars, so they for sure know what they're doing, and do a fantastic, professional job. And this time I got to meet the owner Doug!

For me, about to drive literally 10,000 miles back to Alaska, I wanted to make sure she was properly protected. So I went with their "Cross Country" Paint Protective Film package, which wraps the whole front end of the car, and a few other highlight areas. I added on a couple of extras I wanted, like film on the interior center dash entertainment screen, and driver's door sill to prevent scratches.

Also asked for the front 2 windows be tinted to match the rears. I'm going to hold off having more done to the car, like ceramic coating, until I get back to Alaska, this time.

Extreme worked with me on timing, as well, as I need to rush off down to Orlando for a conference this weekend. So they're letting me pick up the car in 2 days, to get the work done and have a minimum cure time. Meanwhile, I'm staying in Greenville and gonna do more BMW fun!








What better way to cap off an awesome day of performance driving, and a new car, than tacos? I mean... seriously, right? Greenville's "White Duck" does ala carte tacos. A little pricey, but some seriously good and creative flavors.

Unfortunately, me not being a millenial, I forgot to take a pic of my food this time before scarfing it down. . But it was good, take my word for it.

Tomorrow, more BMW fun!

Damn - I was looking forward for he goodie bag with drink mugs :. Cant wait , doing PCD on Jan 11 for X7!!!

[Danny Fireblade]

Wild Blue Thank you so very much for this masterpiece. Have you ever thought of adding a tiny amount and turning these into hardback books, I know for sure I would get a copy.

I am very jealous of what you have done and I salute you, from one veteran to another, you are a hero!!!

[Wild Blue]

Originally Posted by Danny Fireblade

Wild Blue Thank you so very much for this masterpiece. Have you ever thought of adding a tiny amount and turning these into hardback books, I know for sure I would get a copy.

I am very jealous of what you have done and I salute you, from one veteran to another, you are a hero!!!

Thank you so much, that's really flattering. Others have asked me about this as well. I don't know how I'd go about doing that, but yes, it could be quite an enjoyable thing, about all my road trips

[X3_Alaska]

What an amazing thread, thank you for sharing!

[Clk Group]

Wild Blue

Came across your X7 thread and really enjoyed it. Just finished your X5 thread and will be reading your other two trips!

Wanted to let you know I had been considering PPF for my X5 and after your praise of Extreme Colors Auto Spa I contacted them for an appointment.

[JohnRoth]

Love the journey, on a side note have you investigated Peptides or Stem cells for your condition ?

Kindly John R

[MattAu]

Wild Blue , I just came across your post. We are picking up our Artic Grey xDrive40i in a couple of days. I can't wait to read your posts in more detail.

Did you track any stats for this trip? MPG, repairs, maintenance, etc?

[E70X5M35i]

Originally Posted by Wild Blue

, OH MY GAH, that red X5 looks so friggin segsy!!