Curious- I see that European Delivery offers a 7% discount, which means the car can pretty much be bought at invoice. Since the current version of the E has been historically selling at invoice within several months or so after release, what is the advantage, if any, of Eurp delivery? Am I missing something?

 

1. Dealers will sell an ED car with an additional discount below the 7%.

2. A trip to Europe and a luxury car to drive while there.

There's quite a bit of additional information if you search ED or European Delivery across all of the boards here.

 

All depends on your location. Some areas will not ever discount the car to invoice or below unless at model year change over or big factory incentives. if you already happen to be going you might as well.

 

The Sindelfingen customer delivery facility is VERY cool.

Chance to pick up some accessories for your car you can't get in USA.

Luggage nets, spare bulb kits, etc.

Plus enthusiast clothing, including DTM stuff.

 

Besides 7% off you get a night at a Frankfort hotel, lunch or breakfast at the factory, a taxi voucher from the airport to the hotel and one from the hotel to the factory. Also you do not pay the $795.00 destination charge. And then it is up to you how much more you can negotiate off the price or no charge add-ons like an I-pod adapter or bluetooth adapter etc. The factory tour is very cool and they give you vouchers for the Museum which is also very nice

 

Welcome home, Steve. I'm anxiously awaiting to hear details about your trip and your impressions of your new E550.

 

IMHO the best thing about European delivery is the ability to drive the car very quickly without any guilt that you are breaking a law. Also, southern Bavaria is a joy to drive through. Enjoy.

 

We did the rally package that is described on the website, after Frankfort there are 4 hotels. All the hotels are 4 star or better the rooms large and the service excellent. The rally package includes breakfast at three of the hotels and one of them included a 5 course dinner for 2 which was excellent. Another hotel gave you 105 euro credit for dinner, the wife and I only spent 80 euro on dinner so they applied the 25 euro to another charge we had. I did not expect that. The Munich hotel was the least special hotel in the package but was still excellent. The process of picking up the car is very well handled. After taking all the pictures and having my wife briefed on her new car we took off for a quick stop at the shipping agent to tell them where and when to pick up our car for shipment. They are located just across the street from the delivery center. Then we set out for the first hotel. They let you borrow a European nav dvd which in my opinion having the nav system available is an absolute necessity. Our car is a flint gray E550 with the sport package and Package 2 plus the trunk closer, side window blinds and folding rear seats. It is beautiful we think, The interior is very well put together with high quality materials. The nav system is a big step up from my 2002 c32 amg, but still not as clever or easy to use our old 2000 Honda. However the thing that made the biggest impression on us was the engine and transmission, the engine revs so smoothly it is amazing and the transmission shifts often but is very smooth you need only tip into the throttle to get going quickly. I did the driving on the autobahn, I never floored the car in deference to the break in caution in the owners manual. (The manual said don't rev it past 2/3 of red line or cause the transmission to kick down because you floored it.) However while adhering to those rules I was still able to do 132 mph on the autobahn and the rpm was just over 3100. There is some wind noise above 110 or 120 but it is not obnoxious. The car feels VERY stable over 100. Unlike any american car I have ever driven over 100. Also I did not know but when you set the cruise control the car will even use the brakes to keep the set speed. At the end in Munich you merely hand the hotel an envelope with some doc's and one key and that is that. Of course now the hard part we wait about 8 weeks for our car to show up at the dealer. Then we have to pay tax and licence for our car. It was a great experience, we look forward to doing it again.
PS we almost got the E350 and we are so glad we opted for the 550, besides the engine which is awesome the airmatic and active damping is very worthwhile. The 4 zone climate control was not that impressive.

 

Thenks for the very well written report of your trip, Steve. It makes me wish I had taken advantage of the European Delivery program. It sounds like the perfect vacation. Oh well, maybe next time. My car will arrive at the Long Beach VPC on 9/24/06 and should be in my garage exactly 4 months after I placed my order. This "patience" crap is not my strong suit.

 

Cyclerider
Congrats on your car. 5 months is about what I will have waited since I won't see my car again until early Nov. I ordered it in June, paid for it in August ( the one downside of euro delivery). Have you been able to track your car yourself or do you have to ask the dealer, and how long was your car on the boat. Also if you don't mind were you able to do better than msrp.

thanks

Steve

 

stevec32 - PM sent

 

i actually lived in sindelfingen for a short time (6 months). i was working in boeblingen (another town next to sindelfingen). stuggart is a nice fun big city.

i never actually made it out to the mercedes factory though. i should have though but back then i didn't even think about being able to afford a mercedes. i was driving around in an entry model audi a4 over there flooring it on the autobahn.

anyway, ED on mercedes doesn't seem like it has the same level of incentive as the BMWs though.

 

I thought that MB offers more than BMW; http://www.bmwusa.com/bmwexperience/...ry/savings.htm

No where does it mention the taxi vouchers, the free hotel room for one night, etc. Please explain your point.

P.S.
MB also offers the 2 for 1 Lufthansa deal. Just like BMW you'll have to pay the tax on the second ticket.

 

We did Euro delivery two years ago, and it was one of the great experiences of our lives. We stayed in Stuttgart and did day trips to get break-in miles on the car. M-B loaned us a Euro DVD for our car's nav system while we were there, which hugely simplified getting around.

M-B made all our travel arrangements and got lower-cost air fares and hotel rates than I'd been able to find on my own. In addition, we got the factory tour, taxi vouchers, a meal at the M-B customer center and one evening at the Graf Zeppelin, a 4-star hotel in Stuttgart. All this besides M-B-paid registration, insurance and shipping of our car back to our dealer.

Near the end of our 10-day stay, we headed out for the Bugatti museum in Mulhouse, France, about 125 miles down the A5 Autobahn. With the car broken in, we cruised at 120 - 125 mph. It was glorious. This is clearly the speed range the car is designed for, and I really regret the need to drive slower in the USA because of our inept drivers and crumbling roads!

The Euro delivery plan was one of the great bargains of my life, and we'll certainly do it again if we ever replace our '05. By contrast, we're currently awaiting delivery of a Porsche GT3. I looked into Euro delivery on this car and was shocked to find that Porsche charges $4,000 for the privilege! Not likely!

 

you guys basically answered this question in this thread. you don't really get all that much in ED for a mercedes b/c you can already buy the car at 7% off.

with BMW, they don't sell their cars at invoice so the 7% savings is usually a couple thousand dollars saved from the best deal.

i know a lot of guys who ended up doing ED on bmw and most of the friends who have looked into it for MB ended up passing on the deal. but if you do want to go to germany anyway, i think ED is good deal. if you're doing it just to save money, you probably don't come out too far ahead.

RVD.

 

You sure about that??

 

Yes, you can buy MBs at that discount. It all depends on where you are located, the time of the year, the length the model has been out, etc. But to make a blanket statement like that is incorrect.


Then you better look at the site again where it shows that data.

 

One other point: I have found that most of the time, you can make a much better deal if you are buying a car out of the dealer's inventory. If you are ordering the car (to get exactly what you want), then the discounts are often times less (but not always). When you do a Euro delivery, you always get that discount, and you can custom order the car however you want (that is, custom within the available options).

And I've known plenty of people who have bought BMWs at a discount.

 

does mercedes have a ED invoice price that is lower than regular invoice? i ask this b/c i ran some numbers with a 2006 bmw 750Li and it came out like:

base (no options)
msrp: $75,800
invoice: $70,495
ED invoice: $64,150

with a deal of $1000 over ED invoice (which is tough but doable b/c i did it), it ended up at ~$5k below invoice and ~$11k below msrp.

at the local dealers, i couldn't find anyone willing to sell these cars at regular invoice.....the best deals were around $1500 over invoice.

in the end, i didn't end up doing ED because i really can't wait 3 months for them to build the car + 2 months for delivery but with some proper planning, i will probably go this route if i buy another bmw. i ended up with a 2006 750Li with a bunch of options (msrp $85k, negotiated down to about $1500 over invoice) and so far so good.

if mercedes has numbers that are similar, i'd consider an S class next (well, maybe).

Rock.

 

Mercedes-Benz's EDP price is essentially the same as regular invoice. Some people report getting an additional discount off of the EDP price that's posted by MB. I tried recently, but I was unsuccessful in getting anyone to budge off of the EDP price. They basically said that the price was set by MB Corporate, and that it was against the "rules" to sell below that price. That doesn't mean that it isn't done, but I don't expect you're going to see anything close 7% off of the EDP price. (7% is the difference between MSRP and regular invoice). Please don't let what I'm saying discourage you from trying, because I'm certainly no expert.

I ended up placing my order for pretty close to invoice price for "standard" delivery.

 

Oh, I heard all that dealer BS too. I emailed 47 SE US dealers, and ultimately settled with an additional 4% or 11% off list. Of course they deal.

 

Excellent strategy!

 

Dammit! I only e-mailed 23. I was astonished at how many didn't even bother to reply, and in my e-mail I detailed exactly what I intended to order.

 

To be honest, about half didn’t reply. Some had the usual BS lines: “We lose money on those deals.” “The factory won’t let us go lower.” , etc., etc. Perhaps the most unusual response was a two-page typed letter mailed from a dealer GM 350 miles away who extolled the value of their personalized service and the importance of interaction with their staff. They talked about values that one would expect in an eharmony.com questionnaire. I was looking to buy a car, not marry them!

From dealers who would discount, I was told that European is essentially a paper-pushing transaction. There’s no traditional financial outlay for them (i.e. floorplanning the car) but that it can be a headache as ED customers have lots of questions and can frequently change their orders. It was a great experience for me as any questions were pleasantly addressed by the ED staff in Montvale.

 

I got a couple of those personalized service type responses too. And even the dealer that I ended up ordering with was trying the "I'll take such good care of you after the sale...". I said, "How, likely never going to see me again."

There was an amusing post here on mbworld.org about the e-class requiring an intimate relationship with the dealership. Uh... pass.