We shopped for days to find a decent car with automatic transmission. We looked at new cars but at the time, the BMW dealer searched all American-spec BMWs in Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium and there wasn't one car that I liked that met our needs. The main one being, it had to be an automatic.

Our first issue occurred the day we signed the Bill of Sale. But, this was not the Green Monster's fault. The registration office gave us American-sized plates for our German-spec car. There was no way to attach the plate so we put it in the window and drove to the PX to get something to attach it to the car; zip ties, velcro, anything. However, if you do not have plates affixed to the car properly, it is grounds for a search and apparently the rent-a-cop gate guards have you hold you there until the MPs come and say it ok for you to enter the base. So, after the search and waiting for the 12-year old MP to come and authorize us to enter.
Then, once in the PX the only thing we could find to attach the plate to the Monster was boot strings. So, this is what we did. It was certainly a sad day for the Monster, I'm sure. We were told the previous owner took great care of her. Whatever, it got us through the gate.
The real trouble started, on our way back from Trier, which is 2 hours away, I tried to read the manual. The German manual. We were on the side of the road while typed different part names and terms into Google Translator to try to identify why the "exclamation point" light was lit up on the dashboard.
It was a happy day when we we found a new car and were authorized to place the Green Monster on the For Sale lot. But, I will admit that I was certainly feeling guilty about selling that car to anyone. I hope the Monster is better to her new owner.