clos

First time posting but been reading on this forum for a while. I wanted to get some feedback as to how long the wait was when you ordered your cls. I went to the dealer the other day, sat down and spoke to my sales rep about ordering the car and he said it would take at least 9 months.

Now some of you may say no way too long to wait, but if im spending 100k on a car I want to make sure that it has my options not the dealers options.

So I ordered my cls55, im in miami and there aren't any with the optiong that i'm lookinh for.

Thanks
Clos

idrive

way too long...

you should be able to order the car the way you want, and have it in about 2-3 months. 4 months tops.

Your dealer must have a waiting list?? Would be the only reason it would take so long. IMO
From the day of my deposit/order, I had the car in 79 days I counted everyone of them....

traumadoc

I live part time in Miami and also in Kentucky. It was a no brainer to call around to some of the more "rural" dealers. In no time, I made a call to a dealer 65 miles from our house (in Charleston West Virginia). He had just received a build slot. I took it and voila... it will be here early November. About 2 months total. You may want to call around because $110k is a lot more money in "these parts" than in Miami and the cars just don't sell as fast. You may have to go get it but the drive home will be fun!

traumadoc

I saw one in front of Prime 112 last month. Definitely you will get preferential parking next to the Phantoms, F430's and Bentley GT's

BurnR8

I got mine in one day. It helps that the owner of the dealership is a friend :-), but he had one come in, special order, the original guy flaked and he called me. I had all of two seconds to make up my mind, so I just grunted once for yes and came down to get the car....smiling ever since.... there are some out there and wait time should not be 9 months for anything but a BABY! good luck.

20C4S

i hope in 9 month u're getting the CLS63 not 55. i ordered mine out of state & car showed up within 3 month. i don't know how big is ur dealer but ordering a car really depends on if the dealer has allocation or not. ask ur sales & he should be able to tell u a time frame (i hope ur sales guy took u seriously because most of them like to close the deal asap & hate to drag the deal, or he might not be there anymore in 9 month). if they're small they might not have enough allocation for hot AMG cars. let me know if u don't mind getting a car from out of state because i found my guy is very helpful & gave my update every week.

FloridaE55

Well, if you see my signature you can see what happened so far.
My dealership can be considered big (MB of Tampa) but they still have NO EXACT INFO on the delivery-date, actually not even a timeframe. Last time I talked to my SA (2 weeks ago), he told me I would be in the top 10 for this car (160 behind me) but Mercedes would currently face some kind of shortage on 55-engines since they would all be handmade (I knew that before... )..

When I ordered I was told I would get mine by the end of the year but since they still didn't confirm/finalize the order, I doubt they can hold on to this delivery-date....

idrive

Your dealer sucks

FloridaE55

Yeah, and mine isn't giving me any updates at all...I gave him updates concerning the 030-package right from the beginning. One of the sales-managers looked at my 030-content, listing all details about the package (it was titled "Rumours about...."), looked at me and grabbed his pen, underlining the word "RUMOURS", like telling me "dream on, this package will NEVER be available" . I told him right in the face that the package has already been confirmed by other dealers. It was such a great feeling when Mercedes published this package a few weeks later showing him that I knew more about his business than he did....

clos

there is a waiting list for the car when i was at the dealer they only had a green 500 it was the only one they had..don't know what number im on the list but did not think it was too odd since i've only seen a hand full of 55 in the miami area..

hey traumadoc when did you see the 55 @ prime112 I was there on wednesday having lunch... I own a clinic on the beach

AMGLAB

Florida E55, your dealer knows what is going on in terms of delivery of your car. They get slots with production dates. Cars are built in 3 decades each month. The 1st, 10th and 20th. The dealers know the production date for their slots. There is a little black out period of about 1-2 weeks afer the car is built, before it is shipped, when they have no current information. Once the car is shipped, they get reports every other day on the estimated landing date. There is some variance once the car hits the port (several days) before it is trucked to the dealer. MB is very big and they are very efficient in delivering their cars. I am sure some mistakes do happen, but not very many. If your dealer is not telling you clear information, it could be because they are playing games with "your" slot. MB of Tampa probably gets 2-3 slots per month for a CLS 55. Ask your dealer for the slot's production date you should have it in 6-8 weeks once it is built and your dealer's shipping report will verify this. Ask to see it.

AMG reportedly builds 18,000 engines a year and they know what is allocated to the CLS 55 ( I have read about 2000) Although this makes it a limited production car it is not rare.

lorinserbenz

Who at MB of Tampa is feeding you this BS? I called and I can get a CLS in three months with whatever I want.
I agree with you about knowing more than the dealer as to specs and options, however sometimes its better to act like the dealer is always right. Having the "I know more than you" attitude might explain why they are jerking you off.

FloridaE55

My SA is Dennis Olsen. I know what you mean by having the wrong attitude, but I simply told this sales-manager (BTW, I don't think he's running this dealership) what I wanted to have on my car and that I could wait until I can order the 030-option (I have to pay for it so I should decide what car I get, right ??). I didn't show him in any way "hey, you see, I was right and you were wrong.." since I never dealed with him after the initial conversation. I only provided my SA with a listing of the 030-content since I thought it might be helpful for them to tell OTHER potential customers what this package actually consists of when their asking and sitting in front of NetStar. I would be embarrassed if I'd be a dealer and say "well, you can order this 10K-package but I have no clue what it contains..."

This sales-manager didn't like me from the beginning since he wanted to rush me in the purchase of a CLS500 they had on the lot the day I ordered my car. I told him I wanted an AMG although he told me BS that delivery takes 1-1 1/2 years, WHEN I'M LUCKY. When I told him I wanted an AMG, he asked me that it wouldn't make much sense to buy this car in the U.S... I think I needn't say much more about this guy but I never had an argument with him.

vixapphire

wow, is that the only dealership in the Tampa area? if someone talked like that to me, i'd give 'im the later and take my business elsewhere, loudly. then again, LA is the land of a MB dealer on every corner (not that that stops the occasional sales-douche from behaving as idiotically as your guy in tampa...), so at least we've got options. I'd be asking myself, "if this is how the guy purports to convince me to un-**** $100k, how is he going to be when i've got problems or need/want a little something extra as a favor once in awhile?" maybe buying from another florida dealership and resigning yourself to an extra "commute" (or non-MB loan car) at warranty-service time is something you should be considering.

FloridaE55

You're right! My SA at this dealership has always been friendly and I told him I'd like to do business with him instead of the sales-manager since I wouldn't be comfortable working with him. Since then, everything was fine.

Right now, I'm a bit confused since other members already received a confirmation by their dealership and a delivery-date although they ordered their car at the same time or even later than I did, and my dealership has still "no idea.."..

BTW, There is only one dealership in Tampa......(the next one is not as convenient to get to than this one...)

soco67

If you want a cls 55 just send me an email or a message and i will put you in contact with somebody that can really help you out

VelocitE55

I ordered my CLS55 on November 18th '04, 5 days after my '05 E55 was rear ended and frame damaged. My CLS55 was delivered on May 12th. You can get them now, but in most cases you are looking at a markup anywhere from $5K-$25K! By ordering the car and waiting for it, you can avoid a mark-up. Although at this point, I am sure its possible to locate one at sticker if you know the right people. good luck! The car is so worth it!

lorinserbenz

Somebody is yanking your chain, there is no reason for them not to give you a specific date. Maybe not the EXACT day but at least the month.

You have two other choices locally, Lokey and Crown if you order either one should give you the car at list.
Besides those two you could hit Glauser in Sarasota (bought by autoway), I have heard some people getting some kick a ss deals from them.

traumadoc

Hi Clos. It was last month. Beautiful Iridium Silver parked out front. Had some nice 3 piece rims. Where is your clinic on the beach? We have a condo near 17th and Alton on the bay. Spend 1 week per month there.

FloridaE55

I'll contact my SA this week and put him a bit "under pressure" to find out when I'll get my car. I want to avoid the other dealerships since Sarasota is too far away from where I'm living (almost 2h), and the other two mentioned dealerships are also more than an hour away.

Let's see what they are going to do when they feel my "breath in their neck"...

lorinserbenz

Lokey and Crown are both 15 minutes from Tampa... You must live in Orlando.

Tampa probably is your best bet since they do they most volume..

FloridaE55

I'm living in Land O' Lakes, 20 miles north of Tampa. Orlando is about 100 miles away. Trust me, Lokey and Crown are very inconvenient to reach from where I'm living, and who knows how often I have to get my car to them (in addition to scheduled maintenance)....

Hopefully, I'll get some good news concerning my delivery soon. And even if they need two or three additional weeks, it can take it - although waiting drives me nuts....

idrive

FloridaE55

My impression of your dealer... bad

If there is someone there, or they know of someone interested in the car you have coming, they will sell it out from under you for a higher price to another buyer. You may never know it was there.

They know when, where and what. You are dealing with dishonest people. IMHO

FloridaE55

Hmmm, never thought of this possibility!?
As I said before, I'll put some pressure on those guys....

clos

hey trauma,

sorry took so long for me to answer but we just spent a week with out power thanks to wilma.

i have seen the silver 55 around also; I know exactly which one you are talking about.

my clinic is on the 7th floor in the clock tower. 407 lincoln road corner of lincoln and washington where the bank of america is at.