Lurkerlisa

Cross post from the GLC300 Forum

We are about to go in and do the deal for our June European delivery - YAY!

I'm wondering what discount, other than the 7% already given, we should try for or is 7% the most we could expect?

Thank you in advance for any advice!


Lisa

CliffJumper

You can negotiate more, but I find that MB dealers are _far_ more reluctant to negotiate on ED than BMW dealers.

I believe this guy will do an additional 3.5% off for most cars (he's a flat price, take it or leave it guy), but he's the only one that was willing to do so. Unfortunately, he didn't have an allocation for my car, so I got about 2% off on top of the ED discount for my car.
http://www.mbeuropeandelivery.com

Flanker

With the good salesperson, who knows what he is doing, you can expect additional 3% (on top of 7%).
This, together with the waved Destination charge should bring total savings to ~11-12 %

Flanker

If you fail to get add'l 3% in Chicago, I can recommend a guy in Lake Forest, who did my ED.

Lurkerlisa

I am working with Kanuz. Does your guy happen to be there?

Flanker

Yes. Ryan Herbig was great every step of the way. And I was buying a car, which wasn't officially released in the US yet.
rherbig@knauz.com

Flanker

You can also talk to Andreas Rehder there (who grew up 100 km south of Stuttgart) - he can give you great tips for your vacation.

If you talk to Ryan or Andreas, tell them Alexei recommended them

BillyD

I've done 3 EDP deliveries in the past 5 years and here is my experience:
1) If a dealer tells you he doesn't have an "allocation", move on to another dealer. There are no allocations for the cars in the EDP. Any car a dealer orders is a net-extra car for them.
2) Since it is not out of their allocation, anything they make is an extra profit. If they tell you that " they could sell the car at full price etc", move on. The car is not part of their allocation and if not ordered for ED, they wouldn't have the car.
3) I agree that 3% above the EDP discount (it's not 7% on all models) should be achievable, but you'll have to shop around. Also, any dealership that is part of a large "parent" organization of MB dealerships may not be able to offer additional discounts because of their central billing process.
4) If you're dealing with the type of dealer mentioned in #3 above, you could still negotiate something like pre-paid maintenance or extended warranty thrown in for free.

Hope this helps.

CliffJumper

Just like BMW ED, That's not the case for limited production or in-demand cars. My E63s wagon was certainly out of existing allocation and not an "extra" since we were at the of the build cycle.

Lurkerlisa

I want to thank all of you for taking the time to give your insight and advice! I will keep you posted. Altough, I will take the car no matter what - I MUST have it - I am obsessed! Don't tell them lol

Swahrez

I wish I would've joined this forum BEFORE ordering my car. I guess 7% will have to do.

BillyD

I stand by my statement: Any Mercedes Benz EDP car delivery is not out of the dealer's allocation and is an extra car they would not have otherwise gotten.
This is an important factor when negotiating price above whatever the EDP discount happens to be for the model in question.

Lurkerlisa

Yeah, I got nothing extra. They were all like, "7% is all anyone gets, blah, blah. Big demand, blah, blah." I should have walked, but I aready had airfare for the euro delivery and I REALLY wanted the car.

MFahrer

I'm starting my negotiating on Friday for a Euro Delivery. Nice to know that some of you received an additional percentage off of the standard 5-7% discount (depending on the car). Has anyone had any recent experience negotiating (what % off in addition to standard discount did you get)?
And any confirmation that the car doesn't come out of allocation? (I've already had one dealer say yes and another said no).

ted_jane

I received an additional 5% off. The dealer receives a flat 10% commission on EDP cars, so we basically split the commission. The commission is calculated on the full price of the car including options, less the delivery charge and any additional European car insurance beyond the standard 15 days of insurance.

I ordered my car in early January. I am currently writing this from an apartment in Rome and my car is sitting in a secure garage down the street.

MFahrer

Thanks for the information! Enjoy the rest of your vacation and post some pics when you get back!

bergamini

Most dealers I found in Midwest were firm on the 7%, but perhaps that could have been tied to the model I was selecting which is pretty high in demand and sparse on most dealers' lots -- the GLC 300. Maybe on a fancier model they are more willing to wiggle but most dealers around here get a GLC and sell it within a week or have it spoken for before it arrives.

I did negotiate an additional 1% on mine. I believe the dealers get 10% or $5K for each ED, I can't remember. My sticker was just over $50K so they were roughly the same for me.

When you factor in the 7% ED discount, the 1% the dealer gave me and the waived delivery fee (which is 2% in my case), I got about 10% off sticker. More importantly, some of the stupid options that a lot of dealer lot vehicles have that I don't need/want (lighted star, towing package, chrome bits, etc.) that can add thousands of dollars are avoided by getting exactly the car you want with ED. The closest car I could find had $2K in options I didn't want, so in a backwards sort of way that's another 4% I saved