E550Shopper

Has anyone here ordered Designo options in the US? No details are available on MBUSA.com, at all, but the website and the brochure say it's an option. I'm considering the following config on an E550:

X23 -- Designo Leather Granite Upholstery
W69 -- Designo Black Piano Lacquer Trim
Y83 -- Designo Black Alcantara Roof Lining
Y80 -- Designo Extended Leather Appointments
Y95 -- Designo Wood/Leather Steering Wheel

If anyone's successfully ordered any of these options, could you please let me know, and furthermore, let me know the mechanics of how you made your order, i.e., how did your salesperson enter the order into their system?

alsyli

I contacted MB USA several weeks ago about ordering the Exclusive package on the E-class. The rep said that the Exclusive package was not available but that Designo would be offered starting in 02/2011.

YYZ-E55

Y80 is not available on the E-Class Sedan (coupe/cab only). Everything else should be no problem.

E550Shopper

alsyli -- That's consistent with what a dealer here told me. Here's what I'm still trying to figure out:

(1) Does Feb 2011 *really* mean Feb 2011, or will it get pushed back to March, then April, then...
(2) Will all of the above options be available, or just some of them?
(3) Is there pricing information available for any of the above?
(4) Does Feb 2011 mean that you can't even order until Feb 2011? Or can you order before, and it just won't start being built until Feb 2011?

Any idea on these issues?

YYZ-E55: How do you know Y80 isn't available? And do you know that it will never be available, or just that it's not available now? Looks like you're in Canada -- is this perhaps a Canada-only policy?

It's odd, because it's clearly available in Canada's MY2010 Designo spec. And, it's also clearly available in the online UK / Germany Designo configurators for the sedans.

YYZ-E55

Y80 was incorrectly listed as being availabe for MY10 for Canada. There is no offering for MY11 in Canada (or USA). Y80 is part of the P34 package, which is not certified for North America. I've posted info on this in other threads.

If you want a leather dash, you can probably special order the ARTICO leather dashboard (code U09).

E550Shopper

I remember seeing this claim about Y80 on another thread, but not really sure I understand it. What about Y80 (or P34) needs to be "certified"?

And, even if it does need to be certified somehow, do we know that it won't be certified for the MY11 offering come February?

Don't mean to sound disrespectful here or anything, but if I'm going to pass on this option I just want to make sure I'm doing so on the basis of solid info. :-)

alsyli

I obviously have no inside info, but my impression from the e-mail was that Designo won't be available for *order* until 02/2011. Will it get delayed like the Bluetec? Hard to say. The rep at the LA auto show last year was so unknowledge about the diesel that I thought it was pointless talking to her.

I vaguely recall seeing an English-language PDF file w/ the various Designo options (including pricing info), although I don't remember where it was from. I assume that something similar will be available to US customers come next year.

As far as special ordering items, I asked the rep if I could special order the ruffled leather (interior) door panels (since that, and perhaps the stitched dashboard, whether it's leather or artico, are all I really want from the Exclusive package). The rep said that this could perhaps be done, but that I'd have to discuss it w/ a specific dealer and that it would be likely be "very expensive" (which I thought was a sort of hostile answer. I've gone to the trouble of looking up packages which aren't even available in the US, lady, I think you should know that I'm pretty serious about purchasing a car and have the means to do so....).

YYZ-E55

It would be very expensive because it would be a Center of Excellence request at that point, not a designo request. A Center of Excellence order requires that the car is pulled from the line and modified to order. designo is a more standardized process with an established framework to minimize costs.