I was just told by my dealer that my E300 with the P3 package build would be delayed with unknown new delivery date!

Anyone else experiencing this issue? Anyone know the cause & expected resolution?

 

What was your original order/build/delivery date?

 

Delivery NLT 1 September. As of now, I don't think they've even scheduled the build.

 

Hmmmm. The most recent dealer order guide in another thread notes P03 has "limited availability" but they are definitely out in the wild - test drive one a week or so ago. Have one on order for late Sept build but no indication of a delay (yet).

 

I just picked up a luxury with q03 and second screen.

 

I am responding to Ryan Nelson's message. I have the same problem. I ordered the car from Smithtown Mercedes Benz. They told me my order of 2107 E300 with P# option will take until end of October.

Shivaji Sengupta

 

I'm wondering if my dealer was deliberately over-optimistic just to sell me the car...

 

We ordered a p-3, with second screen on July 1st. In the Midwest. At the time dealer told us approximately 8 weeks. We emailed the dealer about two weeks ago to ask if he had a build date yet or if it was on its way. He replied that he would let us know when it was coming. Still haven't heard anything. Don't know if it's built and on its way or not.

 

My car was produced on 6/30 with P3 and was sent to the port in Bremerhaven for shipment (arrived on 7/14). However, it's been stuck in a no-shipment block since then. My dealer has tried to determine what is going on with the vehicle and all he's received is that it is in "rework". There were approximately 3,000 cars affected that were placed on hold. I've no clue when, or if, my car will shipped. I've been on lease extension for months now. Maybe I should just buy out my current ride and try again next year when MB gets its act together. To say that this is all disappointing is an understatement.

 

We contacted our dealer for an update today. (4matic, P-3, second screen, in the US) He checked his computer and said it showed a production date of 9/1. We ordered on 7/1. Hopefully we will have it by the end of Sept. He said he didn't know of any production delays.

 

I wish you good luck on that production date (2 weeks hence). My original production date with P3 was the third week in May. Ultimately, the car got produced the last week in June and now sits somewhere (perhaps back at the factory) waiting on parts. I've received no updates for over a week now and I am quickly losing my patience with the wait and see. Others are reporting build dates now in December.

 

Trust me, as much as you're looking forward to your new car, it's MUCH better for it to be delayed at the manufacturer level than to have it delivered to you non-functional.

I say this, owning a 2015 E350, and it's been at the dealership for >7 months duration so far.

 

Our fully loaded. 2016 E350 Luxury Sedan has been flawless. We special ordered it this last spring. Too bad they don't still offer this beautiful Nappa Leather interior.

 

Timeless 221 esque design, though the 213 pairs quite well with the 222 S class.

 

Mine is also a luxury version, also loaded. I'm not sure why the dealers didn't order more of the luxury trim -- I think it's superior-looking, classy, and timeless. It really bothers me that I've had so many problems with mine. I think the luxury 2014-2016 E350 is superior to the new W213.

Unfortunately, I'm looking at 100% failure rates for the W212 E-Class. Every single loaner E350 I've driven has had problems of some sort, and I believe I've driven 4 loaner E350s thus far. 1x 2014, 1x 2015, 2x 2016. All have had stepper motor issues. One of the 2016 also had speakers out of phase.

The 2016 E350 loaner I picked up on Monday didn't even make it off the dealer lot -- "Auxiliary Battery Malfunction" popped up on the screen as I was halfway through the parking lot. After going back to the service drive I turned off the car. Their techs turned it on, proclaimed there were no errors displaying, no stored error codes (as they always say with my car) and wondered why I wasn't willing to drive it. I refused. They rolled a GLC around. Then the alarm on the E started going off and nothing they did was able to silence it. The alarm was still blaring as I drove away in the GLC loaner.

I still stand by what I said originally in this thread -- You're better off with there being a production hold at the factory, rather than get the car delivered on-time.

If anything, this is a positive sign! It shows MB's internal controls are working! They're doing exactly what they're supposed to do -- catch problems before the customers have to deal with multiple, endless trips to the dealer.

 

After emailing MB Corporate yesterday, I finally received a call from my dealership's Sales Manager today.

The result: I finally have a build timeframe, but I'm very unhappy to find out my P3 E-Class was "always going to take this long." When I placed my order 9 weeks ago I did so with the clear understanding I would receive my car in 2 months, not the 6 months he told me today. This all seems perilously close to bate-and-switch...or Mercedes of Charlottesville has serious communication problems. In addition, he aid he had this information last week, and it took this long to pass it on to me. When I talked with my salesman, roughly 3 weeks ago, he was just as mystified as I was why it was taking so long.


The Sales Manager implied the misunderstanding is my fault. I came within seconds of cancelling my order while talking with him today. However, I don't want to make a decision in anger. I'm going to take a couple days to consider my options and then decide whether to wait on the car or cancel and go with a different make.


Mercedes and I are getting off to a very bad start!

 

I'd say the dealership probably is to blame. At some dealerships, the front-line salesmen have access to StarNET and the dealer's ordering pages. At other dealerships, usually larger ones, they have a separate person in charge of inventory (who may not even work at that location) and the front-line salesmen do not have access to any of the systems.

Back when I ordered my 2015, my salesman actually let me sit at their computer and play in StarNET to configure my car. We could see the delays for various options clearly in StarNET. I was told in the ordering process that shipping / production times were approximate. It was explained to me that delays for certain options were somewhat common, due to supplier / inventory issues, problems discovered during production, or due to national holidays & such. My car arrived within the delivery window the dealership gave me.

As far as giving up goes, having driven just about every car from ~$60k+ over the past few months while trying to figure out what to do with my unreliable 2015 E350, I can say that there isn't anything on the road like it, even more expensive cars, especially with DrivePilot/Distronic. The Tesla is the closest, BUT the interior on those is truly sub-par and the charging setup is completely impractical for me.

I did get to drive a E300 Sport with glass cockpit + Q3 package (P3 minus heads-up display) over the weekend and stand by what I said in the paragraph above -- there isn't anything comparable on the road today.

I still prefer my 2015 E350 Luxury due to the looks & V6 engine, but the E300 is a great car. The Luxury trim on the 2017 really adds some nice detail to the interior.

I think the best compliment was when I was at the service drive of the dealership on Monday (yet again...), as I exited I looked a silver E300 with glass cockpit in front of the door...and wondered why this one in the service drive had two separate screens when the one I drove had one continuous piece of glass. Then I realized I was looking at an S-Class.

If anything, use the delay to your advantage -- push for more $$ off or get a few extra benefits thrown in.

 

I guess I'm in culture shock. For the past 6 years I have been driving a Lexus LS460. In that time, my dealership experience has been flawless. In addition, not a single thing has gone wrong with my LS. Six years later I'm still in love with the car.

 

I drove Infinitis for 20 years prior to getting my E, 184,000 miles on my 1994 Q45, 225,000 miles on my 2004 M45.

Overall, yes, the Infiniti dealers generally were better. Both Lexus & Infiniti were launched in the 1990s and were unproven products. Without a pedigree to rely upon, they emphasized the ownership experience, so new dealerships were plush, loaner cars were standard, living room-style waiting rooms, koi ponds indoors. I remember when the Infiniti dealers used to pick up my car at my home or office and leave me with a loaner car. It would be many years before the German makes would catch up. It's only been in the past few years that the German-brand dealerships invested into their facilities.

It wasn't all good times with the dealers. I had issues with 2 of the 4 dealers my cars were serviced at. The one dealership went through a rough patch, ended up firing everyone and has been excellent ever since; the other completely screwed up a repair and wanted me to pay for it. After a few conversations, they finally repaired the car properly at their expense.

As far as major repairs go, the Q4, I replaced the valve cover gaskets & leaky evap coil @100,000M, 2 transmissions, 1 AC compressor. At time of trade, anti-lock brakes didn't work, airbags didn't work, wood was delaminating, leather on the dash & leather headliner was coming apart, and it needed a new AC compressor & was about to need a 3rd tranny.

The M45 left me stranded 3 times. The M45 wasn't a good car initially. Lots of annoying problems. By about 50,000 miles we finally got all of the bugs worked out of it. I would argue it was a better car at 100,000 miles than it was new.
As far as major problems, the M45 ate 3 AC compressors, valve cover gaskets @ 110k miles, engine always burned oil, sometimes going through up to 5 quarts in 3,500 miles. Airbag computer stopped working out of the "factory" warranty but was still covered under the mandatory 10-year federal warranty. Nissan refused to pay for it. Ended up getting a recall issued and forced them to pay for it. Stranded due to: Tranny shifter broke off internally when shifting from D to P, fuel gauge reporting 3/4 fuel when tank empty, crankshaft position sensor failed. At time of trade, the paint was shot, bonded-leather on the seat was worn out, shocks & suspension parts, valve cover gasket, some engine seal, steering pump (powers steering AND engine cooling fan), timing chain guides, etc. The last night I had it, I had an emergency call 160 miles away. I got in the car and floored it. 225,000 miles and it was still perfectly stable at 100 mph. It still had a lot of life left in it.

My friend's ~2012 RX400h has had its share of problems.

Overall, I was very happy with both the Q45 & M45. Considering that's ~400,000+ miles, the number of problems was minimal, but the cost of problems was atrocious. Replacing a single headlamp in the M45 required 4 hours of labor (no joke). You had to remove the wheel, remove the wheel well liner, pump down the AC & remove the condensing coil & all refrigerant lines underneath the hood, remove the bumper and grill to change a damn light bulb.

Comparing notes, my old man's Bentley vs. my M45, the Bentley is cheaper to keep on the road.

 

You are fortunate! My wife had a 2016 Lexus GX 460 for a few weeks. It was in for repairs most of that time. She traded it for an E350 wagon. Happy wife, happy life.

 

Between 1993 and 2012, I had eight, brand new, Lexus LS sedans. Everyone of them had air suspension and was their fully loaded or "Ultimate Luxury" model. I would probably still be driving a new LS, if the folks at Lexus had not LOST THEIR FRIGGING MINDS and saddled every model with their hideous "SPINDLE GRILL" design. When I saw that cartoonish front end that looks simply "glued on" to the LS, I headed right over to my MB dealer and leased a new, 2013 S550. I'm on my second new S550 now, a 2015 and have never looked back.

I would have to say that overall, my S550's have been as trouble free as my last LS460L's. That said, the service experience with Lexus was FAR superior to that of MB. MB always seems to want to argue with you when you complain about a problem. MB always seems to want to deny that there could be a problem with the finest sedan from "The Vaterland." Lexus, on the other hand, seemed to take everything I said as gospel and immediately went to work trying to fix the problem. In that respect, I miss Lexus. But, the bottom line is that I did not leave Lexus, Lexus left me, with their idiotic, ridiculous design philosophy. When I see these spindle grill cars now, I just laugh and laugh. Oh well.

 

I placed my e300 order with P3 and two screens on 8/20. I was notified on 9/14 that the salesman was able to modify a car the dealer already had in queue to my specs. I have a production date of the first week in December with delivery sometime in January. Six months.... 3 months longer that in took for my 2014 E350

 

Looks like we were all notified about it around the same date. Not sure what to think of this but my dealer also left me hanging for 2-ish months when he told me he should have news of it in a week.

 

Going back through old Dealer Ordering Guides, the dealers were aware that P3 was going to be delayed due to the Heads Up Display parts since May. Methinks anyone who was told otherwise was being told porkies by their dealer.

 

What city did order from? Okemos, Michigan
When did you order? July, 2019
When did you take delivery? Still not yet
How did that compare to your expected date when you placed your order? The planned production time was 1D in November, 2019. It was delayed to 12/16/2019 and I hope it can arrive ASAP since there will be heavy snow here in Michigan.