I believe it is real aluminum trim and the door sill does have stitch pattern on it .

 

Nice finishing touches. ^^^

 

Congrats! You have fold-in mirrors (finally), correct? I've been complaining about that for the last 2+ yrs...

 

Yes power folding mirror it can set to fold when you lock the door .

 

Im soo Jelly!

Congrats, its a beauty!!! Out of curiosity, how much discount are they giving on the cars?

 

It was about 9% off msrp price , I think I'm doing good , it is special order not off the lot .

 

echiu77: How long did it take for your car to arrive? I'm waiting on a custom E350. Supposedly it's currently being built and to arrive sometime in December, but that's as much detail as I've been given. I'm worried about how long it'll take at the port /VPC.

 

I had my order since end of August and is first year of e400.

 

White with pano roof looks awesome (that's what I have in an E350). Looks good, but can't say I'm a huge fan of that white background on the gauges...actually, I think the gauges are a weak part of MB. Audi and BMW have much better styles imho.

 

Just want to know how do you get to negotiate on a custom order. And that 9% off is really sweet deal. Congratulations.

 

500 open house bonus 2000 incentive plus rest negotiation discount .

 

It's actually a silver background, but you can get them entirely black (which is what I did with my E350). My biggest objection to the silver was being able to see the indicator light symbols when they weren't illuminated. The black/black gauges hide them very well.

 

that's awesome: I've configured all 4 of the Benz I have purchased, best I got was 2K off.......and that was the max on each car

 

Easy. You have the cash, the dealer wants your cash. Shop as you would otherwise, but make sure you have a build-sheet in-hand so you're comparing the deals on the same car.

I started with my local dealer, which the company I work for has been buying cars from for 2 decades now. MSRP was all they were willing to do on a custom-order. I felt quite insulted by this and broadened my search to most of the dealers in my state (Florida) and some in Georgia. Build-sheet in hand, I'd e-mail their internet sales guys a copy of the spec sheet and ask for their best price. The results which came back were all over the board. Get enough offers on the table and patterns emerge. THEN I narrowed in on the best deals and contacted them directly to see if I could get a little more from them and got the dealers to compete against each other. Quite simply, "I've got x% off from another dealer, do you want to improve your offer?"

It'll take about 10-14 days but you'll eventually get to where dealers aren't willing to match offers, then you know you've hit the floor.

 

Almost 21% off here in socal on cars that are in the lots, start a bidding war, but it takes time as you said. Dont allow them to win!

 

I got 100% loan at 2.34 interest rates trough dealer's td bank .

 

That's 5years loan , if I can pickup from the lot that will be more discount .

 

Anyone know what the lease residuals and money factors are on the e400 currently? Any extra incentives coming soon for the end of the year?

 

Damn, 21% off. Like Black Friday every day on the E Class. I don't get why they don't just lower the MSRP, it'd level the resale market more respectably as well.

 

Those "20% off" deals are for 2014 stock still on the lot. There's a reason many of them are still on the lot -- undesirable color/equipment combinations. I drove through a dealer tonight who had 4 identical white exterior / black interior cars, all stripped models (Premium 1 only). Same dealer refused to go any lower than MSRP on a `15, so it looks like it's their own dumb fault for holding onto them for so long.

 

I'll buy two 2015 e400 from you with 21% off and I'll give you 6% each , how is that

 

a lot of dealer don't even have 2015 e400 in stock yet

 

21% off is an outlier for sure when compared to the rest of the country and what others are paying for the e class at any time of the year. Most won't get that even with aggressive and artful negotiations. Many won't even get that on lightly use models of the most current model year

An "undesirable" e class for 21% off can become awfully desirable in the end

 

Why mess up the good thing

 

I'm not sure I would call it a "big difference" - the 400 is no 550. It does seem to have better highway pull, and it seems quieter than the 350. Stop/Start is perhaps a bit jerkier on shutdown but the car is new so I'll let it accumulate some mileage before I pass judgment. Otherwise it drives the same as the 350 to me.

Overall a very nice evolution of the 350 but not a 550 replacement by any stretch of the imagination. The Canadian approach of replacing the 350 with the 400 was the right move IMO, there's no reason in my mind to offer the 350 and 400 side-by-side as MBUSA has done (regardless of the 550 strategy).