DJ_SROi

Hello,

I am longtime BMW M user, and are now ready to jump into a 2019 C63S Convertible. The car has surpassed me and has made me question my old standing loyalty to BMW M cars. I think we have been missing out on some great features and others offered by MB.

I am planning to do a European delivery, but have received much too conflicting information from Dealers as they seem to want to push cars in stock rather than ED cars.

There a few questions I would like some clarity from the community if they can help, as there are many posts

1. How long does it normally take? Confirming production date? build process?
2. What discounts are available? what additional discounts can be requested?
3. Are there pre set factors dealers need to follow. Money factor? Residuals? for ED Cars.
4. Many of the BMW cars you can order colors that they call individual - colors out of the normal palette, as well as custom interiors. Can this be achieved?
5. Any ED experience recommendations and Donts?

Thank you

superswiss

Welcome aboard. I can answer most of these questions for you. First off, ED can be a bit of a pain, because most sales associates have never done it. I heard from the GM at my dealership that MB only does about 20 EDs a month, so that's only a little over 200 cars a year. Not exactly a high volume proposition. Expect to have to coach your dealership along. Try to find one where the GM is on board and they have at least one sales associate who has done it before. ED for an AMG can be a special experience, though. I'm doing it for a C63S Coupe and picking up on May 6. They organized delivery at the Center of Excellence, which includes a three course lunch, and private presentation of the car in a separate private lounge area. This type of delivery experience is only available to S Class, CLS, SL and AMG. In addition as an AMG owner, you get a private tour at the AMG factory to see the engine production etc.

1. I believe they recommend at least 3 months in advance of the desired delivery date, but I could be wrong on that. I placed my order at the beginning of November to give them plenty of time to get everything right and I requested a beginning of May delivery. They basically plan back from the requested delivery date to make sure the car will be ready when you pick it up. I got the order confirmation at the beginning of December and my car went into production the week before last. I got all the delivery confirmations last week and the next final stage is to pay for it 30 days before I leave. This is my second ED, but the first one was with Audi. One thing that's different with MB is that the delivery date is fixed. If for some reason your car is not ready, they will give you a loaner for up to 2 weeks. With Audi I had to wait until the car was ready before they confirmed the delivery date and I could make travel arrangements. This time I made the travel arrangements shortly after I got the order confirmation in December. I'm also staying for 2 months, so even if there had been a delay, I probably would have gotten my car eventually during my stay.
2. It's 5% for AMG models and they wave the destination charge. Technically, you can negotiate an additional discount with your dealership, but mine was pretty firm on the standard discount. Didn't bother me.
3. I don't know. I'm paying cash for mine. The only constraint that I came across is that with leasing there is a 30 day limit for the car to stay in Europe, so leasing wasn't an option for me anyway, since I planned on staying for 2 months.
4. As far as I know MB doesn't have an individual program in North America, but again I could be wrong on that. I know in Europe they do do customization. I will actually get to see how it works for AMG. I know from Audi that if you order a custom color it will delay the order up to several months.
5. Well, I could go on here. The thing is I am from Europe. Born and raised in Switzerland, so for me the whole thing is a trip home. I'm intimately familiar with European customs and my native tongue is German. So, my perspective is a little different. But I would recommend to stay for a while. Keep in mind that you gonna have to break the car in for 1000 miles. So if you actually wanna experience top speed on the Autobahn it may take a while before you can do it and if you are not driving enough or not staying long enough it might not be in the cards. ED includes 15 days of insurance, but you can extend that up to 12 months. It has to be done in advance as the registration is tied to the length of the insurance. Insurance can only be increased in monthly increments and they just adjust the premium for the 15 free days. So essentially if you want to say longer than 15 days, insurance has to be bought for at least 1 month, then 2 months etc. up to 12 months. Now the other thing to be aware of is that the rear differential needs to be serviced at 2000 miles. So if you are staying for a while or driving a lot you gonna have to get your first service done in Europe. That's gonna be the case for me. For reference, last time with my Audi I stayed 1 month and drove a total of 4000 miles. MB will put you in touch with their travel agency, through which you can book your flights and the one night of hotel that is included. They also offer several travel packages with a predefined route through Europe. So if you don't know where you wanna go or don't want to plan your own routes, then that's perhaps something of interest. I didn't take advantage of any of that. Delta doesn't have convenient flights from here, so I ended up not taking advantage of their Delta voucher and I have an acquaintance in Stuttgart, so I'll be staying with him instead of taking advantage of the one night hotel. I'll plan my visit as I go. First two weeks will be in Switzerland with my folks, and the rest I'll figure out. I will do some work while I'm over there as well. I have customers in Europe I will visit. Last time I crisscrossed all over central Europe through Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. This time I wanna drive to the UK through the Eurotunnel. Always wanted to do that, and my sister in law lives in London. At some point my wife will join me for a couple of weeks, but not sure when yet.

If you've never driven in Europe, then I would suggest you familiarize yourself with the rules of the road. Speeding tickets in Switzerland for example can be steep. The fine is based on your income and we Swiss take speed limits very seriously. Well, I don't, but the Swiss in general do . They will also not hesitate to impound your car and turn it into a nice square piece of metal. Don't expect to get it back if the violation is severe enough. All over Europe they have stationary radar detectors that snap a picture of you and your car and they will mail the fine all the way to the US. Fines in Germany are not big deal. I've gotten a few. My favorite one was a 10 Euro fine for going something like 5 kph over in a 50 zone. It cost me $20 to wire the money back then . At least now you can pay online by credit card. Road discipline is the other thing. Don't be that American who thinks camping on the left lane is acceptable. Passing on the right is illegal in Europe and gets fined heavily if you are caught, so folks mostly obey driving on the right. The road discipline has gone somewhat to the crapper in recent years, though, even in Germany. The younger generation like here isn't as much into cars anymore, so you'll come across drivers who misjudge your speed if you let it loose once the car is broken in, so be prepared to step into the irons at all times. If you've never driven fast on the Autobahn, work your way up to it. It's more taxing than you think and this car's top speed is 180 mph (290 kph). Not many cars that can keep up with that.

Ask away if there are specific things that you'd like to know.

Xec

Going to chime in on individualization options (in Mercedes-speak, it's called "designo Manufaktur").

See the attached order guide. Only custom options on the C-class is the interior upholstery and stitching. If I could suggest one, it'd definitely be X17 Classic Red. Simply stunning in the new G63.

esquesk

1. How long does it normally take? Confirming production date? build process?
You'll want to get your order in at least 3 months before. Take into account MY cutover as well. From ED dropoff, expect about 6-8 weeks for shipping + 10 days at VPC.

2. What discounts are available? what additional discounts can be requested?
5% + 1K off destination. You can typically get more than that but it's YMMV.

3. Are there pre set factors dealers need to follow. Money factor? Residuals? for ED Cars.
Can't speak to leases since AMG's typically don't lease well. MBFS offers higher rates for ED but most lenders will not fund a loan without a VIN. You typically finance with MBFS since they understand their own program and then refinance afterwards.

4. Many of the BMW cars you can order colors that they call individual - colors out of the normal palette, as well as custom interiors. Can this be achieved?
Yes - but this needs to be done with a experienced ED SA as it has to be requested via e-mail and causes some complications in terms of guaranteed delivery date.

5. Any ED experience recommendations and Donts?
Find an experienced SA. I recommend giving Herbert Haemmer a call - even if he doesn't get you the best deal, he'll make your life a hell of a lot easier and that was worth a few hundred bucks for me.

FDNewbie

One thing I'd throw out is, while European Delivery is a cool and fun experience, it's definitely not worth it if you're just looking for the 7% discount; you can get much better than 7% off stateside, without the added expense of the trip. FYI.

mrguitar

Hey, welcome. I'm in the exact same boat. Currently in an '16 Yas Marina Blue F83 and have an order in for a Cashmere White W205 AS now...i'm definitely excited, but I'm still 2 loooong months away from receiving my car...

Anyway, I've done all the research. There is a guy out here in CA that does specialize in Euro Delivery. If you want an intro, I'd be happy to do so. Just PM me. He does a really good discount that is typically much better than buying direct from a dealer. THAT SAID, i did discover that (at least for leasing), the Money Factor is significantly higher on an ED vehicle...like over a percent higher. That made me go back to revisiting buying from a US dealer...

Another thing to note when doing ED is that MBZ will install a front license plate, as mandated by German traffic laws. This may seem small to most, but it was a deal-killer to me. I hate the front plate look. I believe ED is for the experience more than anything else...shouldn't be primarily for getting the best price...bc you still have to buy plane tickets (albeit slightly discounted), and if you stay longer than a couple days, you have to pay for hotel, food, gas, transportation, etc. These can add onto the total cost in the end. Probably a lot of fun, though.

The dealer I ended up with is from NY and the buying experience has been awesome. Very courteous, professional and a great deal, to boot. PM me if you want me to make this introduction as well. I don't have any skin in the game other than that my sales experience has been top notch.

Good luck!

Ed

esquesk

It is pretty hard to get better than 7% on a custom build though. You can absolutely get 10% off something off the lot that somebody else spec'd but you're giving some of that discount back for options you don't want.

In my scenerio, I pretty much had to do a custom order because nobody would spec a car like I would... I don't need the multimedia/nav (because carplay), hate leather seats, and have no need for ACC or any of the DAP's that seem to come on every dealer build. On top of the 10%+ discount I got on my build, my MSRP wasn't inflated by 6-7K with options I don't need or want.

DJ_SROi

Thank you for the detailed replies.
I agree the discount is not worth the expense if you don't want the experience. I want to take advantage and go thru the experience with MB as well.

I am waiting confirmation on AMG performance studio packages and availability.

Has anyone done these?

Thanks,

superswiss

The AMG Performance Studio package is for the C43. I thought you are looking at the C63. What makes up the Performance Studio package is pretty much separate options on the C63, such as the Night package and the black wheels and to beef up the optics, there is the new AMG Areodynamics package for the C63/S Coupe.

DJ_SROi

I agree with that. From what the dealer said, you can "custom" order an AMG Performance Studio on the C63S for additional colors and interiors.

Im assuming, they will charge a hefty fee.

phoenixblue

I know this is going to vary wildly from dealer to dealer, but I was able to negotiate 7.5% + window tint and some accessories for a custom build. I was actually planning on doing EDP, but found that most reps didn’t want to go through the trouble. So I ended up using EDP as some weird leverage to see which dealers would be willing to match EDP (including discounting to mimic removing the destination charge)... without actually having to do EDP. Then, dug a bit more to get to the final value. I did all of this over email by contacting all dealers within 3h driving distance. Your mileage may vary obviously.

esquesk

That's a pretty good discount on a domestic custom order! I asked every dealer in California to do that back in September and couldn't find one willing to do 5%.

mrguitar

The guy who specializes in Euro Delivery out here in CA is intimately familiar with the program (in fact, it's like all he does). He can go to like 8% of MSRP I've heard (don't quote me on that though). He is retiring soon as well...nice guy, I spoke with him for 30 minutes about the program.

NYCSoiL

I’m doing ED in the end of April, also with delivery at Center of Excellence. If somebody needs an expert SA here on the East Coast send me a PM.

steelhammerhand

Just got back from my delivery last week. Biggest thing I would say is schedule the AMG tour in advance. It's an individual tour, so availability is much more limited than the MB factory tour. And definitely find an experienced dealer; mine didn't even tell me that the AMG tour was an option. I was lucky that they still had an appointment available, but I had to rearrange our itinerary to make it happen. Absolutely worth doing though. The engine assembly line is really interesting and we got to see one their F1 safety cars getting touched up. They also raise a flag for each of the nationalities that are visiting that day, which was a neat touch.

FDNewbie

I understand what you're saying. I'm not gonna tell you that you can take off a ton of stuff that's considered base/included in the car, but if it's customizeable on MB USA's website, or in the Dealer Order Guide, it's fair game. I routinely get 10% off each completely special ordered AMG I order, because I'm incredibly picky. I want the color, wheels, trim, and options exactly the way I want. You just need to know the right person to go through.

I'm not a dealer, but I got a guy who can give deep discounts off MSRP on existing inventory or special order. Doesn't matter to him. A sale is a sale. If you're interested, shoot me a PM and maybe I can help you out.

Kudzubob

We are taking our European Delivery of our 2019 E450 Cabriolet on April 4. We live in Georgia and I actually had two dealers in the Atlanta area that gave me a better price than the California expert. We chose Jesse Cannon Wallace with Atlanta Classic Cars because she proved she had a vast knowledge of this program from previous experiences. They are a local dealer and a pleasure to work with. I just like the personal touch of a pleasant smile and handshake.
If you are talking with a dealer that will not budge off the initial 7% (5% on AMG) find another dealer. There are dealers in your area that will discount their percentage.

purplewidow

I can tell you that you can get Mercedes to do custom colors.. it is insanely costly.. like 7-11k usd costly.. I know bmw is like half that. I think it’s 7k for a color they have made before and 11k for a one off color.

nobbyv

You are mistaken, at least on the C-class. The only designo options available on the C-class (AMG or not) are interior options, and even then it's coupe/cabrio only.

purplewidow

then why did I get it offered to me by the dealer when I ordered my car and asked how much custom colors cost? And they have designo paints too for exterior and the coupe doesn’t offer designo interior.. the only c63s you can get designo interior is the sedan currently

superswiss

Misinformed sales associate probably. Here's the availability from the PDF posted above.

purplewidow

More SA misinformation...why does it say you can get the designo seats for coupe but you can't? Sa couldn't order it with designo I tried.. Even asked him about 6-7 weeks ago right before production and it wasn't available.

superswiss

I'm not sure, but it's possible that MB isn't accepting any for the initial production run.