Need advice ASAP!!
 

Greetings all,

About to be a 1st time MB owner but had a quick question before I pull the trigger. I've worked out a deal to pay invoice for the C300 sport with MM, P2 and ipod, but the car needs to be shipped from NY to TX. I'll have to pay for the shipping costs, which is $1600.

My question is -- is it safe to assume that even if I went to a dealer in TX, they'd still charge me to ship this car down to TX?? The car is currently in MD and I've put down a deposit on it...If the shipping costs are unavoidable, then it's a no brainer as none of the dealers except MB Manhattan are willing to sell to me at invoice.

Any help ASAP would be much appreciated, as I'm going to be signing papers in 3 hours!!

I've never heard of a dealer asking the customer to pay for shipping, but if you are paying invoice for it, then I dont see the big deal with $1600, but seems like they are offsetting the cost regardless.

It's retarded for them to charge you the cost of shipping the car. Go to a different dealership.

$1600 seems high. It sounds like for a price like that your dealer might be trading vehicles and you're stuck for the shipping on both cars. You might want to confirm. A good way to find out is call an auto shipper and just get an estimate. A good one is www.autolog.net or www.dasautoshippers.com. If your paying invoice there's nothing for the dealer to work with so they typically charge you for shipping. I'm assuming it's a car that they don't have access to in the immediate area.

My dealer was going to charg me $1,000 to ship for a car similar to what I wanted. They didn't want me to go to that dealership to pick it up. I just ordered what i wanted and waited. I got the same price ($400 over invoice) as if I would have took what was available. $1,600 is too much imo. Order what you want and wait. Use the $1,600 for dealer/ aftermarket upgrades or gas.

You seriously expect the dealership to sell the car at invoice AND absorb the shipping costs from NY to TX? Dealers only inventory cars and parts, train and equip their service departments...I forgot that they're not entitled to make any return on their investment as well.

Guys,

Thanks for the comments. I've decided to go through with it, because other dealers are only willing to match total cost (i.e. charge me above invoice and absorb some of the shipping costs), so it doesn't matter. I can't escape the costs of shipping, so I'm just going to be happy with my final price and enjoy the heck out of this car!

I can't wait to get this baby in my driveway!!

My dealership was offering the shipping for free. There was a car that was similar to the specs that I wanted at another dealershipand the dealership said they'd swap for free, but I just decided to opt for a custom one built in germany instead as I didn't *need* the car right now. I paid $500 above invoice. Dealerships are still making money even when selling under invoice. Without doing the actual math, I'm sure the dealership is still coming out ahead.