Back from Euro Delivery (few pics)
05-21-2006, 06:42 PM
#1
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Back from Euro Delivery (few pics)
Well we just got back from a 3 week tour of London, Germany, Italy
& Monaco. Its great to be back home, but I miss my new baby already
We flew into London direct from LAX, toured most of London for a few days, had some tea with the Queen, and hit a few tennis ***** at Wimbledon for fun Now for the exciting part, we then flew to Stuttgart Germany arrived about 10AM, Mercedes was kind enough to supply vouchers for taxi's as well as one night stay at a very nice hotel in Stuttgart called the Graf Zeppelin. We took a taxi to the hotel, dropped off our bags, then jumped in another taxi, appropriately a E500 for the trip to the factory. The driver was very nice and took us on a quick little tour, as much as I wanted to say just hurry up and get to the factory, I couldn't resist the opportunity to drive by the Porsche family residence's.
One under construction.
There were 3 total, one was completely gated.
So after that we were back on track to our destination, we arrived at this enormous facility that has its own power plant, and is about the size of Monaco. They employ 40,000 men and women, 90% are men, and I didn't get catch the number of robots, but it was quite a few.
So we check in at the main desk and they send us over to the delivery department. We chose to make the English tour at 1:30 so we had a nice lunch courtesy of MBZ as well. A nice 85 Euro lunch was provided for all factory deliveries. Coming from London this was our first really nice meal, I had a nice filet with shrimp and my wife had some pasta.
So we were now off to our tour, we put on some headphones for a English translation of 15 minute video presentation. We are then escorted outside where we all get into a shuttle. The guide takes us through several different buildings, the first was where they make the molds of the body parts. Mostly all robots in here, and large equipment that turns large pieces of metal into nicely shaped body parts. We then head into the next building in which the parts start to all come together to make the frame of the car.
We then exit the shuttle and enter the S Class assembly line. They produce about 350 S class's per day, this was quite impressive to see, we stopped where the robot picks up the entire dash and carefully installs it from the drivers side, it comes within a inch of squeezing it through the door, it then levels it and screws in 4 bolts that attach it to the car.
So after walking throughout the assembly line we then headed back to the shuttle and made our way back to the main building. Saw a few undercover cars one looked like the new CL.
Anyway on to the fun part.. so we head back inside and the lady sends us over to the delivery center, its a large enclosed room probably about 10k square feet. If you look closely the back left car is ours!! It's now screaming my name as we eagerly wait for our name to be called.
So a nice lady finally calls our name and for some reason I felt like a kid wanting to hop skip and jump over to the car
Finally we meet at last, and I can honestly say it was the nicest Benz in the house 
The nice German girl showing my wife a few things.
So she went over all the features of the car, and she even helped enter all of our future hotels in the NAV system. Having the NAV in a foreign country was without a doubt a must, I'm sure it could be done without, but it was reassuring knowing Mrs. Nav wouldn't steer us wrong. Anyway after all of the drooling, she took a few pictures for us and we were out the door.
2 happy campers!!
So it was off to EH Harms which is the transit company that handles the shipment of the car back to the states. We gave her all the documents and information needed to have the car dropped in Nice near Monte Carlo.
So now off to the hotel, my first chance to drive it on the highway, of course I babied it a bit, but I just had to punch it on the on ramp due to the fact that I just had to Damn the sound of that V8 is just thrilling, so mean and a nice low rumble, and oh did I mention the immediate power, very impressive to say the least.
cont...
& Monaco. Its great to be back home, but I miss my new baby already
We flew into London direct from LAX, toured most of London for a few days, had some tea with the Queen, and hit a few tennis ***** at Wimbledon for fun
Now for the exciting part, we then flew to Stuttgart Germany arrived about 10AM, Mercedes was kind enough to supply vouchers for taxi's as well as one night stay at a very nice hotel in Stuttgart called the Graf Zeppelin. We took a taxi to the hotel, dropped off our bags, then jumped in another taxi, appropriately a E500 for the trip to the factory. The driver was very nice and took us on a quick little tour, as much as I wanted to say just hurry up and get to the factory, I couldn't resist the opportunity to drive by the Porsche family residence's.One under construction.
There were 3 total, one was completely gated.
So after that we were back on track to our destination, we arrived at this enormous facility that has its own power plant, and is about the size of Monaco. They employ 40,000 men and women, 90% are men, and I didn't get catch the number of robots, but it was quite a few.
So we check in at the main desk and they send us over to the delivery department. We chose to make the English tour at 1:30 so we had a nice lunch courtesy of MBZ as well. A nice 85 Euro lunch was provided for all factory deliveries. Coming from London this was our first really nice meal, I had a nice filet with shrimp and my wife had some pasta.
So we were now off to our tour, we put on some headphones for a English translation of 15 minute video presentation. We are then escorted outside where we all get into a shuttle. The guide takes us through several different buildings, the first was where they make the molds of the body parts. Mostly all robots in here, and large equipment that turns large pieces of metal into nicely shaped body parts. We then head into the next building in which the parts start to all come together to make the frame of the car.
We then exit the shuttle and enter the S Class assembly line. They produce about 350 S class's per day, this was quite impressive to see, we stopped where the robot picks up the entire dash and carefully installs it from the drivers side, it comes within a inch of squeezing it through the door, it then levels it and screws in 4 bolts that attach it to the car.
So after walking throughout the assembly line we then headed back to the shuttle and made our way back to the main building. Saw a few undercover cars one looked like the new CL.
Anyway on to the fun part.. so we head back inside and the lady sends us over to the delivery center, its a large enclosed room probably about 10k square feet. If you look closely the back left car is ours!! It's now screaming my name as we eagerly wait for our name to be called.
So a nice lady finally calls our name and for some reason I felt like a kid wanting to hop skip and jump over to the car
Finally we meet at last, and I can honestly say it was the nicest Benz in the house The nice German girl showing my wife a few things.
So she went over all the features of the car, and she even helped enter all of our future hotels in the NAV system. Having the NAV in a foreign country was without a doubt a must, I'm sure it could be done without, but it was reassuring knowing Mrs. Nav wouldn't steer us wrong. Anyway after all of the drooling, she took a few pictures for us and we were out the door.
2 happy campers!!
So it was off to EH Harms which is the transit company that handles the shipment of the car back to the states. We gave her all the documents and information needed to have the car dropped in Nice near Monte Carlo.
So now off to the hotel, my first chance to drive it on the highway, of course I babied it a bit, but I just had to punch it on the on ramp due to the fact that I just had to
Damn the sound of that V8 is just thrilling, so mean and a nice low rumble, and oh did I mention the immediate power, very impressive to say the least.cont...
Last edited by Kevin M.; 05-21-2006 at 09:25 PM.
05-21-2006, 06:45 PM
#2
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Thread Starter
page 2..
Went back to the hotel grabbed a quick bite to eat at the near by mall, and then we went for a little drive around Stuttgart. Found a nice area to snap some pics of the views.
So we headed home for the night, and I think I got a ticket, I say I think cause we were heading down a road I was side by side with another car and we were probably doing about 55km in a 40km, all of a sudden he brakes for no reason, then this flash goes off, and I suddenly have that feeling as if a cop turns on his lights to pull you over, we all know that felling right?
Anyway that was fun for about 10 seconds, then I said oh well I'm sure they will find me in do time.
Back to the hotel and I encounter my first language barrier, parking in the underground garage, you enter one area, then there is a second area for the hotel parking, you are supposed to take the one ticket put it in the machine and it opens the gate, well no worky, so I hit the intercom and I nice German fellow starts rapping away, of course I haven't a clue what he's saying, so I say "I don't speak German", and guess what he says back?
he says in English..... I DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH!
after finding this very amusing my wife found a guy to translate for us....
OK so the next day we have a tour set up at the Porsche factory, after arriving 20 minutes late due to traffic and having to park a half mile away, we luckily catch up with our tour that just started. Now the Porsche factory is very small in comparison to MBZ. They do have 2 other plants I believe, this one was located in Stuttgart. The factory was currently only building 911's at the time. I believe they just build the 911 and the boxster in Stuttgart, other plants produce the Cayenne and GT, which was the last day of production of the GT as well. Seeing how these cars are built really makes you appreciate your car much more. Porsche only has 1 yes 1 robot on there hole assembly line, and that robot's job is to install the front windshield and thats it! Of course its quite a process in doing so. I saw many 997 TT's being built, all left hand drive getting ready to head to the states, since they had bumperettes on them. The assembly line is 2 levels. We walked most of the plant, and over to another building where the engines are built and tested. At first it looked as if this was also a assembly line because the engines and the guys working on them were moving slowly as the cars do. But actually one guy and one guy only builds the engine from start to finish. He builds 3 engines per day, and the reason for the moving assembly line is that all of the tools needed for each part are right above him, so as he moves he grabs the parts needed and the exact tool for the job is above his head. Amazing to see this!! We were right next to them, I could have grabbed a few bolts for a souvenir
Also a interesting story, you know how all of the AMG engines have the guys name that built the engine stamped on the top, well Porsche used to do the same thing, until they were starting to get special requests from buyers for a specific guy to build their engine. So they stopped this a long time ago, according to our guide. Anyway we made our way to the end of the line were the marriage is complete, the chassis meets the shell for the first time and its officially called a car at that time. This was amazing to see the engine & tranny sitting on a rolling frame with brakes and suspension, then it was lifted up into the chassis... it was like nothing I have seen before, and they all make it look so easy. So we head outside and see all of the cars that were produced that day, about 150 911's are made each day. Another interesting fact, did you know they can drink beer during there breaks? gotta love the Germans!
Some TT eye candy...
So we departed directly from the Porsche factory and headed to Lake Como Italy. 280 miles total, took about 6 1/2 hours stopping in Zurich, and of course a couple of photo ops.
Lake Como was beautiful to say the least, we stayed at Villa D'Este which was a beautiful Villa that overlooked the lake.
The view from our room..
Went back to the hotel grabbed a quick bite to eat at the near by mall, and then we went for a little drive around Stuttgart. Found a nice area to snap some pics of the views.
So we headed home for the night, and I think I got a ticket, I say I think cause we were heading down a road I was side by side with another car and we were probably doing about 55km in a 40km, all of a sudden he brakes for no reason, then this flash goes off, and I suddenly have that feeling as if a cop turns on his lights to pull you over, we all know that felling right?
Anyway that was fun for about 10 seconds, then I said oh well I'm sure they will find me in do time. Back to the hotel and I encounter my first language barrier, parking in the underground garage, you enter one area, then there is a second area for the hotel parking, you are supposed to take the one ticket put it in the machine and it opens the gate, well no worky, so I hit the intercom and I nice German fellow starts rapping away, of course I haven't a clue what he's saying, so I say "I don't speak German", and guess what he says back?
he says in English..... I DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH!
after finding this very amusing my wife found a guy to translate for us....OK so the next day we have a tour set up at the Porsche factory, after arriving 20 minutes late due to traffic and having to park a half mile away, we luckily catch up with our tour that just started. Now the Porsche factory is very small in comparison to MBZ. They do have 2 other plants I believe, this one was located in Stuttgart. The factory was currently only building 911's at the time. I believe they just build the 911 and the boxster in Stuttgart, other plants produce the Cayenne and GT, which was the last day of production of the GT as well. Seeing how these cars are built really makes you appreciate your car much more. Porsche only has 1 yes 1 robot on there hole assembly line, and that robot's job is to install the front windshield and thats it! Of course its quite a process in doing so. I saw many 997 TT's being built, all left hand drive getting ready to head to the states, since they had bumperettes on them. The assembly line is 2 levels. We walked most of the plant, and over to another building where the engines are built and tested. At first it looked as if this was also a assembly line because the engines and the guys working on them were moving slowly as the cars do. But actually one guy and one guy only builds the engine from start to finish. He builds 3 engines per day, and the reason for the moving assembly line is that all of the tools needed for each part are right above him, so as he moves he grabs the parts needed and the exact tool for the job is above his head. Amazing to see this!! We were right next to them, I could have grabbed a few bolts for a souvenir
Also a interesting story, you know how all of the AMG engines have the guys name that built the engine stamped on the top, well Porsche used to do the same thing, until they were starting to get special requests from buyers for a specific guy to build their engine. So they stopped this a long time ago, according to our guide. Anyway we made our way to the end of the line were the marriage is complete, the chassis meets the shell for the first time and its officially called a car at that time. This was amazing to see the engine & tranny sitting on a rolling frame with brakes and suspension, then it was lifted up into the chassis... it was like nothing I have seen before, and they all make it look so easy. So we head outside and see all of the cars that were produced that day, about 150 911's are made each day. Another interesting fact, did you know they can drink beer during there breaks? gotta love the Germans!
Some TT eye candy...
So we departed directly from the Porsche factory and headed to Lake Como Italy. 280 miles total, took about 6 1/2 hours stopping in Zurich, and of course a couple of photo ops.
Lake Como was beautiful to say the least, we stayed at Villa D'Este which was a beautiful Villa that overlooked the lake.
The view from our room..
Last edited by Kevin M.; 05-21-2006 at 09:28 PM.
05-21-2006, 06:46 PM
#3
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Thread Starter
page 3
So from Lake Como we were off to Venice.. time for a little Autostrate!!
I wish the US would one day be able to adopt the driving habits of the Europeans. Most areas of the Autostrate do not have speed limits, this was quite enjoyable. A quick flash of the high beams and the car in front would actually move over to the other lane! Living in Cali where fast lanes mean absolutely nothing, people actually observe these rules in Europe. And most of the time they would see me coming and just move over. We averaged about 90 to 100 MPH on the Autostrate, with a few spurts to 130 range just because the damn car sounds so good!!
So 238 miles later we arrived in Venice, and took the ferry over to Lido Island where we stayed the Westin Excelsior. I chose Lido Island for the reason of keeping the car close, and its just a 10 minute boat ride over to St. Mark's Square.
Folding mirrors would have been nice.
Well it was good time to read the manual.
Anyways Venice was nice, we spent a few days there seeing all of the sites. Of course I had to wash my baby since she got rained on coming through Switzerland.
Thats the Excelsior in the background
St. Mark's Square
Departing Venice and on our way to Rome now... 330 miles total
A couple of night shots...
New Gallardo $205k Euros please..that includes VAT
Fountain of Trevi
So after 4 days in Rome we were off to Florence.. 174 miles
So from Lake Como we were off to Venice.. time for a little Autostrate!!
I wish the US would one day be able to adopt the driving habits of the Europeans. Most areas of the Autostrate do not have speed limits, this was quite enjoyable. A quick flash of the high beams and the car in front would actually move over to the other lane! Living in Cali where fast lanes mean absolutely nothing, people actually observe these rules in Europe. And most of the time they would see me coming and just move over. We averaged about 90 to 100 MPH on the Autostrate, with a few spurts to 130 range just because the damn car sounds so good!!
So 238 miles later we arrived in Venice, and took the ferry over to Lido Island where we stayed the Westin Excelsior. I chose Lido Island for the reason of keeping the car close, and its just a 10 minute boat ride over to St. Mark's Square.
Folding mirrors would have been nice.
Well it was good time to read the manual.Anyways Venice was nice, we spent a few days there seeing all of the sites. Of course I had to wash my baby since she got rained on coming through Switzerland.
Thats the Excelsior in the background
St. Mark's Square
Departing Venice and on our way to Rome now... 330 miles total
A couple of night shots...
New Gallardo $205k Euros please..that includes VAT
Fountain of Trevi
So after 4 days in Rome we were off to Florence.. 174 miles
Last edited by Kevin M.; 05-21-2006 at 08:35 PM.
05-21-2006, 06:47 PM
#4
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Thread Starter
page 4..
Back on the Autostrate we go....
Arriving in Florence we stayed at the Westin Excelsior on the river.
Went to a little town about 25 minutes away, they had a nice mall with all of the outlets. The wife loved this
After touring Florence and hanging out with statue of David, we were off to Modena, which is where I have a few relatives about 95 miles North of Florence. We stayed one night with them, and then made our way over to Monte Carlo which was about 280 miles.
We stayed at Hotel De Paris, which was a beautiful hotel right next to the Casino.
Hotel De Paris at night.
The Casino
Some ballers cars parked at the casino
On top of the Aquarium
Awesome aquarium too!!
And that pretty much concludes our trip, 1525 miles of driving in total. Im sure your all quite bored by now good thing I didn't attach all 1100 pictures we took
So now we wait 6 weeks for the car to be delivered, I have 3 things to show for it, one key, owners manual and this front license plate.
If you want to see more pics, click the link in my sig for a few more pics.
Back on the Autostrate we go....
Arriving in Florence we stayed at the Westin Excelsior on the river.
Went to a little town about 25 minutes away, they had a nice mall with all of the outlets. The wife loved this
After touring Florence and hanging out with statue of David, we were off to Modena, which is where I have a few relatives about 95 miles North of Florence. We stayed one night with them, and then made our way over to Monte Carlo which was about 280 miles.
We stayed at Hotel De Paris, which was a beautiful hotel right next to the Casino.
Hotel De Paris at night.
The Casino
Some ballers cars parked at the casino
On top of the Aquarium
Awesome aquarium too!!
And that pretty much concludes our trip, 1525 miles of driving in total. Im sure your all quite bored by now
good thing I didn't attach all 1100 pictures we took So now we wait 6 weeks for the car to be delivered, I have 3 things to show for it, one key, owners manual and this front license plate.
If you want to see more pics, click the link in my sig for a few more pics.
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05-22-2006, 01:55 AM
#11
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F10
Originally Posted by Pacific NW Guy
she is SWEET!
05-22-2006, 09:16 AM
#12
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'10 Panamera S, '06 AMG CLS55, '07 Miata MX5, '02 MB SPRINTER, '99 Spec Miata Race Car (2X)
Hey Kevin
thanks for the awesome report and great pics - best thing about traveling is that is always new - no matter where you are you are enjoying sensations that you just dont get at home
great car and AWESOME wifey
congrats
thanks for the awesome report and great pics - best thing about traveling is that is always new - no matter where you are you are enjoying sensations that you just dont get at home
great car and AWESOME wifey
congrats
05-22-2006, 09:37 AM
#13
Out Of Control!
Absolutely beautiful pics! Thanks for sharing. Just curious but is it cheaper buying the car over there than here in the US or did you just want to experience the process of buying it over there?
05-22-2006, 12:29 PM
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211 E55(sold) & 80cc shifter kart
thanks for the write up!! next time more chick pics maybe try and get the german chick and yours closer together and laying on the cars or something??
lolololololol
j/k sweet trip thanks for the write up, it made my day its beautiful over there!!
lolololololol
j/k sweet trip thanks for the write up, it made my day its beautiful over there!!
05-22-2006, 01:12 PM
#18
Senior Member
beautifull europe report, I actually bought my cls in SAMGF in monaco and enjoyed driving it back to Paris.
Didn't you went to the festival de cannes?
Didn't you went to the festival de cannes?
05-22-2006, 03:35 PM
#19
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'10 Panamera S, '06 AMG CLS55, '07 Miata MX5, '02 MB SPRINTER, '99 Spec Miata Race Car (2X)
What a sick bunch or perverts we are. I went to check out Kevin's pics on his site at Rennlist (via his sig) and every shot with wifey scores waaaaay high in the hit rankings - shots with cars (or Kevin) score waaaaay low!!!!
Hey but if you have a hot wifey..........
You rock Kevin!!!! So does Wifey......
Hey but if you have a hot wifey..........
You rock Kevin!!!! So does Wifey......
05-22-2006, 03:54 PM
#20
Super Member
Originally Posted by siswati
What a sick bunch or perverts we are. I went to check out Kevin's pics on his site at Rennlist (via his sig) and every shot with wifey scores waaaaay high in the hit rankings - shots with cars (or Kevin) score waaaaay low!!!!
Hey but if you have a hot wifey..........
You rock Kevin!!!! So does Wifey......
Hey but if you have a hot wifey..........
You rock Kevin!!!! So does Wifey......
LOL... i noticed that last night! i'm guilty
Should be proud Kevin! seems like she enjoy car events. my fiance doesnt really like that kind of stuff
05-22-2006, 04:04 PM
#21
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Thread Starter
Originally Posted by siswati
What a sick bunch or perverts we are. I went to check out Kevin's pics on his site at Rennlist (via his sig) and every shot with wifey scores waaaaay high in the hit rankings - shots with cars (or Kevin) score waaaaay low!!!!
Hey but if you have a hot wifey..........
You rock Kevin!!!! So does Wifey......
Hey but if you have a hot wifey..........
You rock Kevin!!!! So does Wifey......
05-22-2006, 06:10 PM
#22
MBWorld Fanatic!
Hey Kevin.....you got to experience the CLS55 for over a thousand miles. What is you favorite thing on the car....what is your least favorite?
What are your thoughts on the brakes? Are they a real pain in the butt to modulate?
Bye the way....your car looks awesome. Wife's not too shabby either.
Did you get alot of compliments on the car over there? Did people say stuff to you about the car?
Thanks
Stiggs
What are your thoughts on the brakes? Are they a real pain in the butt to modulate?
Bye the way....your car looks awesome. Wife's not too shabby either.
Did you get alot of compliments on the car over there? Did people say stuff to you about the car?
Thanks
Stiggs
05-23-2006, 09:40 AM
#23
MBWorld Fanatic!
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by Stiggs
Hey Kevin.....you got to experience the CLS55 for over a thousand miles. What is you favorite thing on the car....what is your least favorite?
What are your thoughts on the brakes? Are they a real pain in the butt to modulate?
Bye the way....your car looks awesome. Wife's not too shabby either.
Did you get alot of compliments on the car over there? Did people say stuff to you about the car?
Thanks
Stiggs
What are your thoughts on the brakes? Are they a real pain in the butt to modulate?
Bye the way....your car looks awesome. Wife's not too shabby either.
Did you get alot of compliments on the car over there? Did people say stuff to you about the car?
Thanks
Stiggs
Good questions, my favorite thing about the car would have to be the power and exhuast note. When cruising at about 95, and a faster car would come up on me, I'd either punch it or pull over, and going from 95 to 130 would happen in no time. To have that high end power along with the low end power is the best. When I got home I jumped in my 996 and it felt sluggish in comparision.
As far as my least favorite thing, I really had to get petty on this.. the car is virtually perfect, but If were to find a issue it would be the keyless locking feature. My Cayenne has the keyless feature as well, and whats nice about it is when two people are existing the car, I can close my door and hit the lock button, it wont actually lock until the passenger close his door. Unlike the CLS you have to wait for the passenger to close the door completely in order to lock all the doors. I read the manual to see if there was a setting that could be changed, but didn't find anything. But like I said the car is perfect, that is the only nit picking thing I could find.
The brakes are great, they aren't difficult to modulate, you get use to them within a few hundred miles.
I did get several thumbs up and noticed quite a few pictures being take of the car, I also had several people try to push me on the Autostrate, we would be doing about 100 or so, I'd move over to let them pass and they wouldn't so I moved back over to the fast lane and punched, they would try to keep up just to play with me, but the smaller engines were no match of the big V8. That was fun
05-23-2006, 12:07 PM
#24
Kevin, I recognize the view from your room in the Hotel de Paris. I had the room just to the left, overlooking the front of the casino. The line up of cars you caught is rather mild. On a Friday or Saturday night, it's Lambo's Ferrari's, Bentley's and Merc's. I can't imagine the view when the GP is running.
The wine cellar in the hotel is the largest in the world (for a hotel) at 700,000+ bottles. It was ravaged by the Germans in WWII but certain small areas escaped notice and the bottles survived - but that's not as exciting as a new CLS.
The wine cellar in the hotel is the largest in the world (for a hotel) at 700,000+ bottles. It was ravaged by the Germans in WWII but certain small areas escaped notice and the bottles survived - but that's not as exciting as a new CLS.
