European Delivery Report and First Drive (Sindelfingen to Maastricht)

[jspira]

A few weeks ago, I flew to Stuttgart and enjoyed my first Mercedes-Benz European Delivery (my 12th or 13th Euro. Delivery in total, actually). If you are thinking about doing European Delivery for MB or any brand, I strongly recommend it - and if you have any questions about the process, please feel free to ask. I picked up a Palladiumsilber Metallic E350 BlueTec, with virtually every option except night vision. The interior is beige leather. The car came with all of the June 2011 changes including the color LCD display, streaming Bluetooth audio, iPod adapter in center console, etc. An in-depth report of the delivery experience is here - along with four slideshows that go into great detail on each step. A report on the drive to Maastricht (which I did with my friend and colleague Christian Stampfer) is here - also with multiple slideshows. Excerpts and Fotos below. Mercedes-Benz European Delivery – The Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec Diesel Sedan Out of the five automakers that offer European Delivery programs in the United States – Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Volvo – only two, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, currently offer diesels via their program. Mercedes-Benz offers customers residing in the United States the opportunity to purchase a new Mercedes E-Class or S-Class diesel-powered sedan at a discount and pick it up at the factory in Germany. Mercedes-Benz first started offering factory delivery in 1953 in Sindelfingen and began offering European Delivery to Americans in 1957. <SNIP> The Road to Maastricht – Driving the Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec Diesel Sedan Maastricht, the capital of the province Limburg, is located in the southern part of the Netherlands. It was also our first destination after taking delivery of The Diesel Driver’s new long-term test car, a Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec diesel sedan. TDD Editor Jonathan Spira and I started out from the Mercedes-Benz Kundencenter (customer center) in Sindelfingen (near Stuttgart) on August 5 after taking delivery of our newest oilburner as part of Mercedes-Benz’ European Delivery program. The Kundencenter is directly integrated in the heart of Mercedes’ biggest production and test facility. Since the plant facilities are only a stoneīs throw away from the Autobahn, we followed the Rudolf-Diesel-Straße (what an appropriate street name for the start of our journey) for less than five minutes and entered the Autobahn A81 in the direction Stuttgart / München / Karlsruhe. In the first few minutes of driving our new long-term test car, <SNIP>

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[dfordham]

Link isn't working for me.

Regards,
Don


Edit: Works now!

Edit: Broken again!

[jspira]

As far as I know, the IT dept. was applying a few patches so there might have been a few min. downtime but that should be all.

[CEB]

Originally Posted by jspira

A few weeks ago, I flew to Stuttgart and enjoyed my first Mercedes-Benz European Delivery (my 12th or 13th Euro. Delivery in total, actually).

If you are thinking about doing European Delivery for MB or any brand, I strongly recommend it - and if you have any questions about the process, please feel free to ask.

I picked up a Palladiumsilber Metallic E350 BlueTec, with virtually every option except night vision. The interior is beige leather.

The car came with all of the June 2011 changes including the color LCD display, streaming Bluetooth audio, iPod adapter in center console, etc.

An in-depth report of the delivery experience is here - along with four slideshows that go into great detail on each step.

A report on the drive to Maastricht (which I did with my friend and colleague Christian Stampfer) is here - also with multiple slideshows.

Excerpts and Fotos below.

Mercedes-Benz European Delivery – The Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec Diesel Sedan

The Road to Maastricht – Driving the Mercedes-Benz E350 BlueTec Diesel Sedan

Are you following me from forum to forum?

335d or Bluetec? I'm in the market.

[jspira]

Originally Posted by CEB

Are you following me from forum to forum?

335d or Bluetec? I'm in the market.

Wow, can I say I didnīt know you are were here and plead innocence?

Re 335d or BlueTec, I presume you mean E350 BlueTec, they are still two different cars. You caīt order the 335d any more (E90 is at EOP now)

[giffie]

Great report!
That said, is it OK to drive at such speeds and constant speed for long distances in a brand new car without going thro a 'break-in' process?
Curious if there will be long-term issues if there is no 'break-in' procedure being followed...

[CEB]

Originally Posted by jspira

Wow, can I say I didnīt know you are were here and plead innocence?

Re 335d or BlueTec, I presume you mean E350 BlueTec, they are still two different cars. You caīt order the 335d any more (E90 is at EOP now)

Correct, the E350.

There are still a few 335d's floating about so I was contemplating one of those - but - after going 3500 miles is 5 days in my 335ix, I've decided that it is a little small on the inside and the very comfy sport seats on hour long drives don't go back far enough for those of us over 2 meters tall and my 55 year old hips didn't enjoy 10-12 hour drives.

My only concern about either is how they do in snow - with the correct snow tires of course.

[jspira]

Originally Posted by giffie

Great report!
That said, is it OK to drive at such speeds and constant speed for long distances in a brand new car without going thro a 'break-in' process?
Curious if there will be long-term issues if there is no 'break-in' procedure being followed...

When you refer to "such speeds" and the distance do you mean the drive I did or do you mean going fast in general.

With respect to my drive, we were extra careful for the first 500 km (seals haven't set yet and the tires are in break-in mode) and then we gradually drove faster.

I wasn't, however, going that fast. Only on the last drive (Arnhem to Bremerhaven) did I have a chance to go 180 km/h or faster and I was over 1000 km at that point on the car. In addition, I couldn't (thanks to traffic) go at that speed for very long. I'd say I stayed in a range of 130 km/h to 150 km/h and that is not too fast for the break-in period as long as you don't drive at the same speed and revs for a long period of time.

[fbezirgan]

If I recall correctly somewhere in Manual mentioned first 1500 km you do not drive faster than 150 km and you try to keep RPM not so high

[jspira]

Originally Posted by CEB

My only concern about either is how they do in snow - with the correct snow tires of course.

I guess I will find out at some point...