khaug

Just back from Sindelfingen/Stuttgart. Here are some random comments which may be helpful if you're contemplating doing Euro Delivery:

-M-B USA was VERY helpful and good to work with. Lisa saved us beaucoup $$ on airline tickets, and got us a favorable rate on our hotel accomodations.

-Parking at the Graf Zeppelin is underground, accessed from Kronenstrasse, behind the hotel entrance. Drive into the courtyard, drive down into the underground garage (good luck, S-Class folks!), take ticket, watch for signs for Zeppelin parking. NOTE WHETHER OR NOT THE ZEPPELIN LOT HAS VACANCIES, if not go down to public part of lot. Valet parking is not really an option here.

-The breakfast at the Graf Zeppelin is to die for. We found their restaurants to fall short of this standard. The Block House, just across the street, had excellent steaks and ribs, at reasonable prices with an English menu available.

-The railroad station across the street form the Graf Zeppelin has a "Geldautomat" (ATM) where you can get cash (Euros) with your ATM card - the preferred method.

-Good as the Graf Zeppelin is, be sure to check your bill before checking out. They proposed to charge us double for parking (16 Euros/day) several days we were there and had failed to credit us for the free night M-B vouchers for E-D customers. This would have been a net 200+ Euro loss to us. The desk clerk corrected all these problems without any hesitation!!!

-Be aware that someone (customs, E. H. Harms, who knows!) will remove the following objects form your car during its shipoment to the USA: Floor mats, First Aid Kit, Safety Triangle, rear E-D Plate, during shipment to the USA. You can save this stuff and bring it back in your luggage. The E. H. Harms folks in Sindelfingen were hugely helpful, even lending me a screwdriver to remove the rear plate on our car.

-We got the Navigation system on our car, and it was invaluable! At the M-B Kundencenter, our tech programmed in the address of the Graf Zeppelin, so we could go out in the countryside and do gentle breakin miles, then call up the location of our hotel and get guidance back there. The system is excellent! M-B will loan you the Euro DVD while your there at no additional charge.

-If you're contemplating doing Euro Delivery, go for it! It was a great experience!!!!! German drivers are excellent, and seeing 205 kph in our CDI on the Autobahn was a revelation!

johna1

Great to hear your experiences.

I wish i could get my car on to an autobahn too. Did your car pull up to that speed smoothly?

khaug

Yes. The car really pulls from 110 - 180 kph in 5th gear. Above this the acceleration falls off a little, but it was still accelerating well when I backed off at 205, and undoubtedly would have reached its limited maximum speed of 210 if I'd let it.

Magazines have reported a top speed of 240 kph for the Euro (no speed limiter) E320 CDI. I believe it.

MB-JIM

I don't believe that you have to remove the mats unless there has been a recent change in policy. Ever since they furnished mats with the car, they are insuring that they will be in the car upon delivery to your dealer. Also, you will receive an additional set of US style mats that are put into the trunk at the VPC. Make sure the dealer doesn't steal them.
The tourist plates will stay with the car unless someone steals them. Customs has no interest in the plates.

E55AMG99

For some reason, they remove the EU mats and replace them with US mats. With my 2 ED cars, one time they pulled them in Germany and the other they were in the trunk along with the EU plates and other EU specific items. They might pull them at the VPC but neither car looked like it was pre processed. I was at the dealer both times when the cars arrived. We were told by the dealer and by the factory that the mats for the EU do not meet US standards. They look and feel EXACTLY the same. Only the bureaucrats in Washington D.C. know the real reason

saffrontiger

E55AMG99,
Who is that girl in your avatar? She is stunning.

pa28pilot

I'm going in November. Thanks for that information.

So did you cover enough ground to get out of the break-in period before opening it up? I've broken in aircraft engines, but haven't done a car yet, so I'm skittish...

I got the impression that ANYTHING not listed on the order certificate gets yanked on the trip across the pond. I'll use the larger luggage - how do you declare all of that junk to customs?

levind

I brought an extra folding bag for all the car items. I did not declare them on customs and I was not searched. I figure if they asked, I would have told them that the items were already paid for and the customs certificate already generated. I had all the paperwork for the car. I did not expect any trouble.

MB-JIM

I say again that the mats will not be removed if they are listed on the shipper by Harms. I can only say that I have picked up MB's 18 times, most recently this past May, and never have I had mats taken out as long as they are listed. Even when mats weren't automatically put in the car, if you bought them at the delivery center store and showed the receipt to Harms they would list the mats and I never had them removed.

The first aid kit and emergency triangle will be removed since they don't meet some silly US requirements. I always bring the German first aid kit home and use that in my car. Tht German kit is designed for serious auto accidents while the US one is more like something you would use in your home.

The triangle is worth bringing home if you don't mind carrying it. If you happen to hand carry the first aid kit be sure to remove the sizzors or you will have a problem in securtity at the airport.

levind

In '98 we shipped a car back. We bought a set of all-weather mats in the factory boutique and left them in the car. Harms listed them on the shipping roster. When the car arrived, the two front mats were missing, but the two in the rear were still there. MBUSA replaced the set, but they weren't nearly as nice as the ones from the factory.

E55AMG99

Andrea something or other. Brazilian, I think.

khaug

Have a couple of hours in a PA28 myself. It was subsequently rented, run out of fuel, landed 2 mi short of the airport and totalled. Duh!

To answer your question, mostly yes. We drove around on south German back roads for a couple of days, then did a few hundred gentle autobahn Km before my "banzai charge". The car had done c. 1700 Km (>1000 mi) when I extended it. It is flat wonderful at high speeds. The Nav system was marvelous for breaking in the car. You can go out onto back roads, wander around at will, ask the database to find you fast food for lunch, then ask it to take you back to your hotel when it's time.

Never had to declare the floor mats & stuff. We weren't searched. I decided I'd simply tell Customs the truth if the issue arose.

Have fun on your trip!

BoSoxFan

You'd be surprised how many miles you can put on when there are no speed limits even during the break-in period. I've done a couple of ED's but never for an MB. Four years ago, I picked up a Porsche and put on over 3,600 km (2,160 mi.) in a week. On a Saturday, I drove from Wuerzburg to Leipzig and back - well over 600 km for that one trip. Avoid the major autobahns on weekdays, especially the A3, A5, and A6 in the triangle formed by Frankfurt, Nuremburg, and Heidelberg; the truck traffic will have you at a crawl for much of the time. The A81 from Stuttgart to Wuerzburg usually has little traffic and few speed zones once you get out of the Stuttgart area. I picked up my car on a Monday and my strategy was to try to pile on the km's by Friday so I could open it up on Saturday and Sunday when the roads were not as congested. The first few days, I stuck pretty much to secondary roads and that also helped to continually vary the engine speeds as recommended. Just remember that on secondary roads the speed limits are STRICTLY enforced: 100km between towns and 50km inside a town (indicated by the little yellow town name signs) unless otherwise posted.

Srgtfury

I read in the MBZ momentum Fall '04 mag that the E55 is excluded from the discounted pricing Euro delivery program. Has anyone received any net discounted pricing?

Thank you very much

Fury

CALBenzo

You mean that's not you! I'm truly disappointed.

northbenz

The one time the European delivery supplied mats did not come back with the car along with the extra set in the trunk was when the radio had been lifted. The dock people theorized that someone on the ship had used the mats to wrap the radio in when stealing it. This was back in the days (1977) when you could order your Mercedes without a radio and I had had a Blaupunkt model with a cassette player/recorder put in at a location near Stuttgart. Back then the cars didn't go through the VPC so there were no extra mats added. Just to be safe though, earlier this year when I bought winter gummi mats at the Kundencenter for my E320 4Matic I did bring those home as luggage. No need for an extra suitcase, just put them back into the heavy plastic bag they came in and taped it securely.