Originally Posted by ncx

Just a follow up to the discussion the other day about going to the BMW assembly plant in Spartanburg. On Friday I took my first trip to the factory. Wow that was fascinating. It is a must-do for any X5 enthusiast. You love your car now, wait until you watch how they are built. You get to see the car in every stage of assembly and you can get within 5 feet of cars in production.

I talked with a guy who installs the wiring harnesses and got to see a spotless engine and trans assembly being mated up to a freshly painted black 4.8is body. Even got to see initial startup on a 3.0 and watched as it went through all its initial tuning and diagnostics. I have never in my life seen so many X5's, it was unreal. The drive home was just as good as the drive to the plant since I had all of that knowledge in my head about how each sub assembly was put together. The Z4 assembly was just as fascinating but the tour heavily favored the X5 side of the plant. The employees were so nice, the plant was clean as a whistle, and the museum was great too. The only downside is that you can't take pictures inside the plant. A great overall experience.

I'll be going back for the driving course this fall on the other side of the property, and will probably take the tour again and see the US-bound X5 diesel in production. You will have a real sense of pride about your X5 once you have been to the motherland. If you haven't gone already, make some plans to get there.