My lease ends in about 10 months and I am looking to buy the C-Class when it ends. I was interested in the C300, but the MBUSA website shows the C350 can be had for $33,945.00 via European Delivery. Even if I decide not to take the trip, I am sure this number can be used as a bargaining chip if buying from a dealer. By the way, the C300 Luxury is available at $30,597.00. The C300 Sport is not listed. I guess they are made in South America for the US market.

can u explain what euro delivery is?
Can we get the car to US? What are the tax / fees involved?

Could you explain please? How much is shipping the car?

EURO delivery is very well explained on MBWorld and a little less on MBUSA. Don't be lazy and do a little research, STFF, yourself.

Is Euro delivery new to MB? You pay less for the car because of tariffs ... I think?

But you go take delivery of the car at the factory, drive it around for a bit and then drop it off at a shipping center to make the trip to a US port. It then goes through the same VPC as a new car, and is trucked to your dealer for re-delivery.

The upside is the cheaper cost. The downsides are 1) you still have to buy round trip airfare and pay for the travelling. With my wife, this would more than negate any cost savings. We'd be there for 3wks min and spend at least 20k. 2) You have to pay for the car upon initial delivery. So you're making payments on the car for the two months it takes for the boat to come over before it's re-delivered. Also, you have to have your own private insurance on the car. I've read a couple of e-horror-stories about damage in shipping and the manufacturer washing their hands of it because it's between you, the shipping company and your insurance. It's not the manufacturer's car anymore.

If you're going to be taking an EU vacation anyway, it's a great way to save some dough as long as you know what you're getting into.

That and you get to drive the autobahn.

I have taken European delivery 20 times on Mercedes cars and once on a Porsche. The Mercedes program is quite good. The cars on ED save you 7% and you don't pay the shipping charge. That means your effective savings is about 8.5% off MSRP.
The car is fully insured for 15 days while in Europe and is covered in shipping right up to the time the car is handed over to you by your dealer. Your only additional costs at that time are any dealer charges plus T&L. If there has been any damage in transit, it is repaired at the VPC which is supposed to have a factory quality body shop. That is at no cost to you.
While in Germany, you get a coupon good for a taxi from the airport to your hotel or the factory. You also get a free lunch at the factory. One hotel night is paid for and you can buy the Alps Rally for four additional nights. One of my faborite hotels on the rally is the Interalpen in
Austria.
The downside is having to pay so far in advance of getting your car home. They ask for a $2,000 deposit when you place your order which may be three or four months in advance of your pickup date. Sometimes you can get a car on much shorter notice. Then you have to pay for the car in full 30 days before picking it up at the factory.
Once you drop off your car at the shipper, it will take about 4-6 weeks to get the car home depending whether you are on the East or West coast.
On the West coast I have had them take as long as 8 weeks and as few as 4.

i'm sorry. i'm a lazy person. I understand it from the other posts here now.

so how about tax? don't we have to pay whatever tax to get the car from Euro to US?

And when we register the car, we still have to pay for for sales tax, correct?

It does sounds like a lot of hassle unfortunately

maybe worth it if u buy an s class... but if you can afford s class, you won't care about 8-10% discount

Your taxes are no different than if you simply bought the car off the dealer's lot. All import costs and duty are included in the tourist purchase price of the car.
There is one drawback to Euro Delivery that I forgot to mention. You will have holes in your front bumper since your tourist plates are reauired on both the front and rear of the car.

ERR -

MB-Jim has is right on Euro delivery. We just ordered a C300 4Matic P2 that we're going over to pick up in April. The advantage isn't saving money...the $$ will be about even with buying it here. The advantage is you get a great European vacation in your beautiful new car and get to feel like a rock star getting a tour of the factory, having lunch with executives and taking your new car right out the door of the factory FOR THE SAME PRICE AS PICKING IT UP AT YOUR LOCAL DEALER!

- Peter

One more thing... Don't be afraid to ask your dealer for a discount off the discounted Euro Delivery price. I understand that he gets his normal markup off the tourist price. The only drawback I know of for the dealer is that he doesn't get any credit for the sale towards any of his sales quotas, but at the same time, your car doesn't subtract from his available cars.

I dare you to find a dealer than gives you a 7% discount + destination fee on a new car bought in US (~$3000 off).
Congratulations, you'll enjoy your european delivery, I took it 5 years ago for my C230 coupe and drove almost 2500 miles across europe.

Is there a listing posted anywhere that says exactly what W204 models are available for ED? I haven't found anything.
Cars will be picked up at the Kunden Center in Sindelfingen. I did the factory tour there last year, interesting... C class doors stamped from sheet metal, S class dash final assembly, E class panorama roof install....

The tour is available to anyone, just reserve in advance:
claudia.urban@daimlerchrysler.com

Go to MBUSA and go through the internal links provided on the European delivery page. It'll lead to to what cars are available at present, including pricing.

From your IP addy it seems that you are in the military in europe. Check with your base CU, or similar. I believe that there are special programs for you that can't be had by others. HTH

Totita -

WE CAN'T WAIT!!! ...not sure we'll get 2500 miles in but we're going to drive drive drive for 9 days!

- Peter

according to the mbusa.com website, only the C300 Luxury and C350 Sport are available for European Delievery and not the C300 Sport.

Military/ Diplomatic sales for MY08 doesn't include the normal 10% off MSRP for the new C Klasse. Every other MBZ model is discounted (except S Klasse and E63, SL55, SL65) I can't figure out how they can still offer 7% when ordered in the states....

That's probably because MB can't offer an additional 7% discount to the base price for the 300 Sport.

The only other reason I can think of would be that the 300 Sports will be made almost exclusively in SA, whereas the 300 Lux and 350's will be more readily available in Germany. I don't know if that is true, but it would explain why no Euro Delivery for 300 Sport

I'm curious why some models are not included in this program, except for the ones made here in the U.S.A. (Z4 and some SUVs/crossovers). I'm guessing the C300 sport is the cheapest model in the lineup, so the profit margins are not as big, so it's understandable. I believe the sticker for all C-class models were identical for country of origin.

The models not included:
All AMG models (except for the SLK)
Z4
CL-class
S-class
SLR-class
ML-class
G-class
GL-class
R-class

Have you been able to obtain a discount from the dealer on the ED MSRP?

I have always been able to get a discount from the dealer on tourist delivery. Don't let them tell you that there isn't the markup for them they get on non-tourist cars so they must stick to the ED price. One gripe the dealer's have with tourist cars is that they don't get any credit for the sale as far as sales goals.

I believe the price difference is due to importing a "used" car vs importing a "new" car. Since you drive the car in Europe it is used when it arrives in the US.

For the 3 Series, wholesale prices can be found on various websites, and it is possible to negotiate $1,000-1,200 over ED invoice, which is about 4-5% off ED MSRP. Can you provide some specific example for MB?

Even if a model isn't listed, you can try to get your dealer to contact mbusa to get a ED for that model. The dealer will be reluctant though, as any special order car for ED won't count towards their sales. So if they sell you an AMG model for ED, they won't get more allocation for selling a high dollar model. Hope that makes sense.

The ED site was showing a C300 Sport as available for ordering yesterday, but I checked it now and it's gone!!

Anyone know if it'll be put back on?