monakh

I am moving from Ash to Charcoal (the other way). My E is brilliant silver, and frankly, it is way too bright inside for my taste (as I also have the pano roof).

However, it does contrast nicely with the Sport Package black burlwood. I really wish they would give you a choice of the type of wood with the Sport Package.

I have been thinking of changing the exterior color to Platinum Blue, any thoughts on the interior type (keeping in mind that I have the Sport Package)?

pat a.

The charcoal guys probably disagree with me, but I think that, with the Sport package, charcoal does not provide enough contract to the black maple. The wood type that they use does nto have a lot of grain to start with - with the charcoal interior, it doesn't look like there is wood there at all.

IMHO.

pat a.

As part of my NAV deal with MB, they are adding the tire pressure monitor to my new car at no cost.

My dealer originally refused to do anything above and beyond the standard MB offer, but I spoke to the MBUSA rep directly.

I had orginally panned to negotitate for even more than this, but it seemed like others on the forum had hit so much resistance, I was glad to get even this minor concession, so I said yes and ran.

Anyone out there have better luck, i.e. like getting a 2004 like autospies says should be possible?

MBinSCA

Great job with the tire pressure monitor. How did you approach your negotiations with MBUSA to get that concession? I'm interested to know what tact worked. Anybody else have success getting additional free options?

e500

1) I have the tire pressure monitor. It works perfectly. It is also very accurate. When I was ordering this car I asked the shop foreman about whether to get that option. He said the customers that come in complaining that iy doesn't work haven't read the service manual on how to properly reset it. I would get it again and as a matter of fact I am on my
E-class nav replacement.

2) There is no rule that I ever saw that said colors always have to contrast with each other. My previous car was a CLK 55 silver/charcoal with the dark birds-eye maple I think they called it.
My E500 sport is also silver/charcoal. In daylight the woodgrain shows up. On my nav replacement I'm going with silver/ash and adding the panorama roof to make the inside brighter. Someone else is doing the exact opposite because they think it's too bright.
Everyone has different tastes.

3) My dealer has also agreed to swap tires if the replacement comes with Touring CH95 tires.

drb

Is the replacement tire the Michilen Pilot? I have the ch95 which was very noisy and bumpy the first 2k miles. It is fairly smooth now.

jdhoang

I finally spoke with sales manager about getting some compensation for long wait. He says if he does this for me, he has to do it for everyone and that cost would come from the dealer, etc, etc. While I think the swap for a new car is fair, it is a little annoying to see people get treated differently. I paid full retail on the car in Oct 2002, and I know you can buy the car for $2~3k less these days. I guess that's the price you pay to be one of the first on the block. Besides, I didn't want to haggle anymore.

The end result is at least they agree to add options at dealer cost, and of course, change colors if I wanted. So, I switched interior color from Stone to Ash, switched sunroof to Panorama roof, and added launch promotion fold-down rear seats. Hopefully, I'll get car in July/August.

NavNut

Yikes, jdhoang,

If you swapped the old sunroof package for the Pano roof, you should be sure that you also get the HK stereo upgrade... I believe the sunroof is bundled with that... with the Pano roof, you need to order the HK Stereo upgrade separately... Don't know how you worked the deal with your guy...

-NavNut

jdhoang

NavNut,

Thanks for the reminder. I did remember to specify swapping out E2 package (sunroof, HK upgrade) with Panorama and HK upgrade. Thanks again.

pat a.

My negotiation was based on the fact that the CD player was installed as an accesory, since none of the MB salespeeople bothered to point out that the single slot player would not be avaialble while alos navigating. And, the wood wheel was also added as an accesory. Since these would be ordered from the factory on the new car, I argued that my lease cost would be reduced if it was recalculated because they as options could be residualized. It turns out that the wood wheel is still not factory available (Beleiev it or not), but the CD player is - so in compensation for that cost, I got the tire pressure monitor.

When the MB dealership intilaly rejected any negotiation with me, the stated that if the offer was not good enough MB would buy back my car. Although I think I could have strcuk a better deal on a new one, since I am always over mileage and will have about 8 K miles on the existing car when it gets exchanged, I thought the better option for me would be the offerred car exchange.

e500

To: drb - the other tires I've seen coming with the sport pkg are the Conti Sport Contact 2 and the Michelin Pilot Primacy. There are many Michelin tires with Pilot in the name but they're definitely not putting Pilot Sports on the car. The interesting thing is if you look at both Tire Rack's site and Michelin's site the Pilot Primacy does not come in 245/45 in 17". the largest 17" is 235/45.
So I wonder what size those with the sport package and Michelins are getting. Unless it's a new size which they haven't updated yet.

To: Nav Nut - you are right. The retail difference between the package and the pano roof and HK sound system is $650 retail and about $600 cost. I was able to get my dealer to do it @ cost.

drb

Is the buyback amount the original cost or current depreciated blue book value?

pokerFACE

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before or not,

but has anyone talked to Steve (MBenzNL) if a W211 DVD Navi retrofit is possible?

I mean MB all says after-delivery retrofit of ANY Navigation is impossible.. but MBenzNL has been doing retrofits for W203 and W210 for a while.... how much more difficult would the W211 be?

monakh

You may want to read the Nav threads in their entirety to see just why this does not appear to be possible in the W211. According to AutoSpies, the problem lies in the SAT antenna being used for TeleAid and Nav at the same time. To this MB has not had a solution. This problem is uniquely different from the retrofits in the past (I think).

On topic. I am not having much luck with my dealer with regards to flexibility of options etc. We may wanna start a 'Nav: Who got what' thread. In fact, I will do just that.

Buellwinkle

That's not true, the C-Class would have the same problem but Steve installs a seperate antenna under the dash, seperate from the annoying Teleaid (does anyone actually renew this after the first year?). I'm thinking of getting a W211 only because they are extremely cheap used now because MB flooded the market due to this buyback offer, heck, W210's are worth more. I would like to know if Steve can do this because if I get a W211 I would like to add Nav to it.

bmms8

lol, nice responsive post, only 5 months old:p

Buellwinkle

So in the last 5 months, has Steve been able to get Nav systems put in the W211?

Heck, if I asked without first searching for a relative thread then I would be as guilty as most forum members.

bmms8

i see, i dont know if steve was able to or not, hopefully he can, since they have been out for a while.

Guest0001

You are right. I read on autospies you can get a Used W211 E Class (500-1000 miles) for 10,000 Off MSRP! Damn! Only If i didn't despise used cars!

mrandery

I just exchanged e-mails with him regarding this.

No luck yet - he said that the cost of obtaining the COMAND system for the 2003 W211 is too high.