DavidNJ

Ordered:

'05 E320 CDI

Alabaster White/Ash Inserts

Light Package
Entertainment Package
Heating Package
Rear Seat Package
Sun Roof
Nav-DVD
Parktronic
Tire Pressure Monitor
Sat Radio

Will add phone with voice activation when the codes for the new phone are available

European Delivery in August.

While I wanted the Premium Package, my wife wanted the heated steering wheel, so no Premium Package. Also went with the sunroof rather than the package with the rear shade. Wasn't sure the rear shade added any real value.

Down to the wire on the decision of sunroof vs Panorama sunroof. Ended up with the regular sunroof because of concerns with summer heat, extra noise, and looks much dirtier than the white from the same dust. We weren't sure we made the right the decision and discussed it the whole way home.

Still disappointed that we weren't able to get the heated steering wheel with the Premium package or the 4-place climate control with charcoal filter and automatic recirculation.

Happy to be looking forward to 30mpg with $1.80/gal fuel in a 20+ gallon tank.

David

BudC

Congratulations!

The Premium Package isn't much of a bargain anymore.

Diesel fuel in the Phoenix area is $2.199/gallon but then Premium is $2.419.

We're thinking of a September delivery. Airline prices drop quite a bit after the 1st of September. It seems like most of Europe is on vacation in August so that's why we will choose September.

northbenz

When you upgrade code on the phone can't you switch to the panorama roof? Since you are not getting the savings from the premium package, the panoramic roof becomes even more attractive. I share your concerns about the color combination though of a white car and black panoramic roof. It could look too much like a skunk. Guess if you went with another color though I would have to urge you to get the panoramic. It's not just the panoramic feature but also the upgraded ceiling interior with the neat center ceiling lighting console that goes with it.

The way I look at it is that this is a feature you cannot even get on the S Class.

DavidNJ

How is the ceiling upgraded? Did notice the nice center light module.

The phone is a VPC item, the roof part of the car and is locked in on Monday. We have to maybe 10:30 Monday to finalize.

Dealer had three cars with Panorama roof: dark grey/charcoal. white/charcoal, white/ash. It was 90 degrees and we looked at them until my wife could't take the heat.

Cocerns were about summer heat with out the solar cooling, black getting dirtier than white (although no swirl marks on glass), and noise from the cloths sun shade rather than the cloth covered plastic (cardboard) shade in the regular sunroof cars.

Would a Panorama roof have higher resale?

David

northbenz

Its primarily the nice light module which I was referring to. Reminds me of the way the Maybach looks inside. That's a real bummer that MB won't alow the solar fans as an option with the new diesel E. Since your dealer has several with pano roof in stock maybe he'd let you take a long test drive in it to see if it really is uncomforable in hot weather. It is hard to know whether the pano roof will add to resale value beyond its cost, but if there are two competing cars and one does not have it, the pano equipped is going to get the sale first. When we picked up our E on Euro delivery it was in the winter in Germany and I can at least tell you that the pano roof did not make it any colder.

Another factor to consider is whether you will be having back seat passengers often or rarely. The pano roof does make it feel a lot more spacious in the back, especially for teenagers or adult sized passengers.

Oslo

Are you sure about this? Over here (Europe) you can change options until 3-4 weeks before production

IluvS500

congrats, and remember.......we want pics!!!

DavidNJ

northbenz: It was 90+ degrees here (boy are we in for a hot summer), the roof on the white sunroof car easy to touch, even a little cool. The black glass Panorama was too hot to touch. Literally. On the white car it really makes a custom car look.

Usual rear seat passengers are yesterdays newspapers (NY Times and Wall Street Journal). Occasionally a mother-in-law (about 5% of the time) or a work associate, friend, or neighbor. The mother-in-law would probably prefer the roof closed.

For the front seat passengers, the Panorama allowed light from the rear to go over the shoulder. The more directional front-only sunroof creats some shadows that appear muted with the rear roof.

Oslo: The ED car will is built a month before delivery. Time to process the paperwork. So we are 3-4 weeks before the start of production. Paperwork has to be delivered to MBUSA on Monday. By messenger. Since the phone won't be installed until late August/early September in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, it can be added when the purchase is finalized.

If we pickup August 2nd, we will have a week before pickup and a little less than a week with the car. If we delay (no earler than the 16th, we would probably do 2 weeks in Germany/Austria. My father was from Vienna.

David

Oslo

You are right. I forgot that the production will close down the second week of July due to summer holyday. It will be a looong waiting time. I think you made the right decision when it comes to the sunroof due to contrast between black and white. White is a very rare colour over here. I have yet to see one.

Good luck with your new car, and remember that quality has improved a lot during the last 6-8 months. As BudC said, be prepared for heavy traffic in August, and try to avoid the Autobahn. You can easily be trapped for hours.

Otto

congratulations.

premium package is a good deal but without it, you can have a better loaded car. I live in jersey I have pano roof, I don't feel hot in the summer -- I seldom close roof shade. I think pano roof makes you car unique. the rear shade depends on you have passangers in the rear. for example, kids. why bother to have a feature you never use? if you don't have rear passagers then 4 zone is another waste but it gives you a better looking digital climate control (I don't like the dial ones). heated steering wheel and seats are useful in the winter.

pano roof may not give you a better resale value but if you have rear passagers, it is great, my son told me he saw a airplane while I drove the car, this worths money on the pano roof immediately.

DavidNJ

OSLO, BudC,

How bad is the Blackforest Alpine-Rally Route in August? How bad is Munich to Vienna via Salzburg? There are a lot of Autobahnen on that roule.

Oslo

Very crowded. But the alpine route is awesome. If you plan to do the Autobahn early in the morning, you will be better off. But there are plenty of alternatives to the Autobahn, and many of them are fantastic. Plan ahead now that you have time for it. Use Internet and/or contact German Tourist Offices. Believe me, that is not a waist of time.

DavidNJ

Would we be better of picking the car up the first weekend in September? It we will have to rent a domestic car for a few weeks (our current lease will have expired), but if the trip is less crowed...maybe it will be better. Too many tourists mean crowed restaurants, higher prices, and more thieves. I imagine export plates without a lockable trunk will make it interesting.

Oslo

If you can postpone it until September, I would advice you to. The summer holydays ends in the last week of August. Do not worry too much about thefts. Just do not leave valuables visible. Germany isn't that bad.

DavidNJ

However, since the trunk is no longer lockable, any parking attendent can get to luggage there. During the Alpine Rally, that is where the luggage will be.

Oslo

:p :p You will have a hard time finding any Parking Attendents in Europe, except at Extremely expensive hotels.

northbenz

The summer before last we took the Rally route mid August. Glad we did not wait later as Germany was inundated with huge rainstorms and flooding after we returned. The rally hotels were not overcrowded and don't recall having to wait for meals. Also none of the Rally Hotels asked for our car keys. Theft is a much lesser problem on the Rally Route than it would be if you were heading into other countries besides Germany and Austria. The Euro delivery center advises you to not leave valuables in the car when you park at night anyway.

Only about half of the Rally route is on the Autobahn but there is plenty of time allotted to allow for adding extra hours. A car rolled over in front of us on the Autobahn and within minutes there was a medical helicopter there which landed on the roadway. That did close the road down and back up traffic for miles, but that could happen anytime of the year.

When we took the mountain pass route (as opposed to the tunnel route) in Austria we did encounter an Open Air Festival which required some detouring- but then you might enjoy the opportunity to party with the locals as there are a lot of such events in August while everyone is on holiday. Have a fun trip. Be flexible and you will have a great time.

Here is a link from Autoweek describing our encounter with the rollover on the autobahn (scroll down to the 6th paragraph , starting with, "The SL outdid both cars in the braking department ..."):

http://www.autoweek.com/search/searc...50294&record=1

northbenz

Here is an account of the above referenced encounter with the Open Air Fesitival in Austria as reported in the Spring 2003 issue of Mercedes Momentum magazine at page 60:

"My wife and I drove a beautiful [Diamond] Silver SL500 in the European Delivery Program's Black Forest-Alps Rally. To pass from Germany to Austria, there was an above-ground route and a dank tunnel route. Preferring the former, we followed a sign that read 'Open Air.' Immediately, our top-down SL500 was surrounded by beer stein-holding pedestrians who began grumbling in German. Apparently, the street was closed to traffic; Open Air was a festival, not the above-ground route. We inched our way through the crowd and passed a staged band to find a sign pointing to the Arlberg Pass, the true open-air route."

Dale Walther, Anchorage, Alaska

DavidNJ

Well, this should be my last post on this subject. I will actually be placing it in three threads that were related to this purchase.

The final car is an MY05 E320 CDI, Alabaster White/Ash leather, lighting, rear seat, and 426 premium (nav, drive dynamic seat, rear shades, rear side blinds, and entertainment package) packages and parktronic, tire pressure monitor, and sat radio. Phone w/VCS will be included when the new phone is announced. ED 9/3. So we won't have it in NJ until October.

The final decisions were a killer. Heated steering wheel or ventilated seats. Premium leather or standard interior.

The there were two deciding factors. After I pointed out the two strips of leather on the MY05 standard interior, my wife described it like as a vinyl skirt with a leather belt. Nearly as if MB was trying to fake-out the customers. The vinyl has leather-like stitching, and in a $50k car, you think it would be leather.

Second, although my wife may use a heated steering wheel 30% of the time, I only use it for the first 10 minutes or so on very cold days. On the other hand, the ventilated seats would be used on long sticky drives (our average trip is close to 1 hour because of the NYC commutes). Therefore, we would get more use out of it. And, the leather with the ventilated seats seems better than the leather without them.

Two factors weighed against this decision. Cost was one. The MY05 426 premium package plus separate ventilated seats is now $5200 vs. $3650 in MY04. Ouch!!!

Second, the convex tufted door trim (the airbag is in the seat) takes over an inch of effective width off the armrests compared to the concave standard interior.

Combined, they took the decision to the wire. However, we went with the ventilated seats.

I'd like to thank everyone for all their help.

David

RAD

Congrats David--enjoy the Euro delivery. My grandad did it a few times, and we had been planning on it, but couldn't work it in. Next time we will!

Randy B

I love my pano roof, and wish I would have gotten the ventilated seats down here in FL. However my car is Obsidan Black, and white with the black roof is not pretty in my opinion. So good luck with all and I hope you enjoy the Euro delivery. We will do that next time for sure.

Randy

DavidNJ

Well, I guess it is definite! Today I lost a $50+k check and the contract has a VIN! I think I have a car to pick up in Sindelfingen on 3 September.

levind

I went through the same routine last week! I pick mine up on 8/30.

BTW, I emailed the factory in Sindelfingen. They do not require reservations for the factory tour, and the first english speaking one is at 8:30.

DavidNJ

Yours is more expensive than mine! You didn't get the phone or sat radio?

What is the airmail for the factory tour? Are you also going to the Classic Center, MB Museum, or Porsche Museum?

David

ToyCollector

Congrats David!! Enjoy the trip.

Mine is built and likely somewhere on the Atlantic by now. Got my VIN printout last week. So nice to have the rep call me with the VIN and update last week (Atlanta Classic Cars) without my prodding.