European car or European vacation? Why not both?

The Chronicle's David Ellison discovers an obscure program whereby American purchasers of European luxury cars can go "directly to the source" to get their cars - and enjoy a vacation at the same time:

Through a well-established but little-known program casually known in the industry as overseas delivery, buyers of a BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, Volvo or Saab can pick up their new car at the plant where it was made, drop it off at a port city for shipping - and enjoy some serious road trip R&R along the way.

Autobahn, anyone?

These car-buying packages include temporary European registration and insurance setups, and in some cases free or discounted airfare and other accomodations. Essentially, after taking delivery of the car, purchasers take it on an extended test-drive through Europe.

Needless to say, European car dealerships here on this side of the Atlantic would prefer that people not know about this program:

There are other benefits: Anders said at Volvo, there's no haggling - the cost of overseas delivery (which in almost all cases includes all shipping costs and arrangements) is fixed. And because you're buying directly from the factory, you can custom-order the car from the ground up.

A co-worker of mine (who works in my company's Denver office) and her husband actually did this a few months ago: they flew to Germany, picked up the BMW they had custom-ordered, and spent three weeks driving around Europe in their new car before dropping the car off at a port and flying back home. Their new Beemer was delivered to them a few weeks later. They even got to take their German lisence plates home with them. She confirmed that these cars are built as typical exports for the US market and meet American safety and emissions standards.

I don't know if there will ever be a time where I am in the market for a high-end European luxury car But I still remember the great fun Lori and I had back in 2002 when the Hertz office in Munich managed to not have in stock the Ford Focus I had reserved and gave us a Mercedes instead. It was just a C-Class, but it still allowed us to use the left lane of the Autobahn to our full enjoyment. And if I ever decide to buy a high-end Mercedes or BMW, I will most certainly take the overseas delivery program into consideration.