An Auto-Otaku in Munich 2021: Visiting the BMW Welt

Considering it takes over 13 hours to reach Munich by plane from Singapore, it always makes plenty of sense to add in a couple (or more) of days of self-exploration whenever there’s an opportunity to travel to Germany. It is a lovely country with beautiful scenery, great (though with disproportionately large amounts of) food, lovely roads, a great public transport system and a pretty strong car culture. This country is, of course, the birthplace of the motorcar after all.

So being in Munich, it made plenty of sense to once again pay a visit to the BMW Welt and Museum on my second day in the country. Not being able to get much sleep the night before due to the wonderful effects of Jet-lag, visiting the Welt made plenty of sense because it is one of the few places in town that opens really early at 730am.

Considering the adjacent BMW Museum opens only at 10am. I figured I could head over slightly later and allow myself to indulge in a nice cup of morning coffee at Kaffeerösterei Viktualienmarkt, a lovely and rather popular coffee stand minutes away from my hotel.

Getting to the Welt from town is pretty straightforward, just hop onto the U3 U-Bahn towards Olympiazentrum and you’ll be there in a short 15 minutes. Once at Olympiazentrum station, it’s quite easy to find your way to the Welt since you can practically see it when you exit the station.

It was pretty cold and foggy when I arrived, quite a contrast to the lovely summer day from my first ever visit 4 years ago.

As it turned out, I was still one of the earliest to arrive that morning and almost had the entire Welt to myself. Great for snapping some pictures. Since it wasn’t my first time here, I didn’t want to venture into covering the entire space again, instead, choosing to just focus on whatever caught my eye. Like that Alpina X7 on loan from Buchloe, or this brand new iX, unfortunately, both were locked.

Mini also have a pretty nicely done up showcase at the Welt but I didn’t spend much time inside since they had nothing really new to showcase yet.

I still love the JCW though. An attainable dream maybe?

Here’s something much less attainable but not because of its price. While it might look like a regular 1-Series hatchback to most people, to automotive geeks, we know this as the highly reviewed 128ti. Bringing back a classic model designation to take on the Golf GTi on its own Front-wheel-driven turf. It would have probably given the VW a good good run for its money here but with the recently revised high costs/commitments involved with homologating and selling a car in Singapore, that is something we will most likely never see happen.

Pity, so much potential. Feels almost like when the local Fiat dealer decided not to bring in the fantastic sounding Fiat 500/595 Abarths.

Something we don’t usually see in Singapore as well, an X5 xDrive45e decked out in full M-Sport trim. With 600Nm of toruqe and the ability to hit 80km on a single charge, this is a rather impressive PHEV. Looks good too.

Then slightly further in, were these two lovelies which I would have written about by now, here and here. It was at the Welt where I first laid my eyes on them and I instantly fell in love with the 2er. That colour, that chunky compact shape, that stance! Contrary to many internet commentators, I thought it looked sweet and couldn’t keep myself from admiring it from each and every angle.

Interestingly, there are a few small little difference between this car and what I was about to drive days later. First and foremost, the grille and lower bumper triangular side intakes, shown here in full high-gloss black instead of our test car’s silver-edged on black variants.

The M240i xDrive Coupe here also lacks out test car’s fender extension pieces even though it’s running some rather (great looking) big diameter wheels.

It still looked tremendous in Thundernight though. I really want one.

I remember seeing this little Isetta the last time I was here.

When you really really really want a white car.

Pretty, if a little unimaginative.

Moving on, for those who prefer a much needed splash of colour into their life, here’s the M-car showcase. I really love how manufacturers are brining back all these crazy shades of paint.

My favourite though has to be this Mint Green M4, such a crazy yet unique colour. If I ever had the means to buy a brand new M4, It’ll be specced in this mad rad shade.