I am planning a MY 2020 E450 wagon ED for late October - early November and would appreciate some advice on the timeline I should follow.
I imagine the preliminary MY'20 DOG should be available about now, (does anyone know where I might find it?).
With the final options and pricing set in the spring (not withstanding any tariff complications) I'm thinking I would place an order around July for a pickup late October to early November.

Does this sound about right?
Thanks

 

See this thread for order guide:
https://mbworld.org/forums/glc-class...ng-orders.html

You can also ask about order timing questions. Just be aware you need to be somewhat flexible on delivery dates when doing an EDP. I placed my EDP order in December with plans for a late March - early April trip. Final delivery date was May 5th due to back ordered parts.

Whatever you do, don't finalize plane reservations until you have a firm delivery date.

 

Bit of a delayed answer here. If I recall correctly, the recommended lead time is about 3 months before your desired delivery date, so for an early November delivery you should place your order around end of July, beginning of August, but you should confirm with your dealership. Looks like the E450 comes with all-season tires from the factory, but you should make sure they are M+S tires. In Germany for example by law you are required to have at least M+S tires between November and Easter during winter conditions. Similar requirements exist in Austria and Switzerland. There are no programs to rent winter tires, so if they are not M+S tires and you get into an incident, the fines are pretty steep as high as 5000 Euro.

Tariff complications should not affect you most likely. I don't have a 100% confirmation on this and I'm not an expert, but as opposed to regular delivery vehicles, ED deliveries clear customs as a personally owned vehicle in your name and not as a new product yet to be sold.

As for potential delays, they do give you the delivery date pretty early on and it's pretty much firm. If the car isn't ready by the delivery date, they provide you with a loaner car for up to 2 weeks instead. Obviously that would be a bummer, but I suppose if you find out that there are delays before leaving the USA, then you can always delay your delivery.

I'm doing ED with a C63S. My delivery date is May 6, so I'll be leaving in about a month. The car has finished production and my dealer should contact me any day now to collect payment. In case you didn't know, payment for ED is due about 30 days before delivery. To make sure there is ample time, I placed my order in November, and I got the order confirmation and requested delivery date at the beginning of December and the car finished production on 2/18, over two months ahead of the actual delivery. They need time to process the registration and insurance, but this should give you an idea of the timeline and production schedule. I actually requested the May delivery date to make sure it's after the winter and it happens to be my birthday.

 

The sooner the better, you could probably get a confirmation as early as 6 months prior. I got my confirmation on Jan 25 for a July 1 delivery. I’d recommend Herbert Haemmer of MB of El Cajon, CA.

 

I just went through the EDP process and got my car delivered 2 weeks ago to the US.
Here is my timeline:
- Order placed for the E53 Coupe in August 2018.
- The car was set to be released to the US market in December 2018.
- I took delivery on January 16, 2019.
- I dropped off the car on January 22, 2019
- It made it to the ship February 19, 2019
- It made it to the US on March, 11, 2019
- I picked it up from the dealership on March 18, 2019


Things to be aware of:
- If you are financing the car, the earliest date you can get is a month after the official release date.
- You can't get the car before its official release date.
- If you are financing the car or paying for it upfront, you have to make the first payment or pay for the car about a month before the german delivery.
- Tires, Tires, Tires and Tires. If your car comes with summer tires, it's illegal to drive them from Nov to Apr. You would need all season or winter tires. You may take the risk and drive with summer tires (That's what I did), but it's not recommended. According to the locals, if you have an accident even if it's your fault, the insurance companies will use your tires as a reason to try not covering your car. I looked for all possible option, but couldn't find a solution around this issue,
- Don't plan on leaving anything you care about in the car, it could be thrown out or taken. I left my AMG calendar gift and it was still there when I got the car, but my Mercedes fragrance bottle was taken.

If you have any questions, please let me know. I researched everything to death and have been through it.

 

Oh man, 2 months wait… Where did you drop off the car and where are you located in the US?

I'm doing ED in 3 weeks too

 

I dropped it off in Stuttgart and I live in Dallas, Texas.
The biggest wait was in Germany. From drop off to the ship sailing was 1 month. Based on what I read, my car moved pretty quickly in the US. Others had their cars in the VPC for 2 weeks.

 

I'm hoping that by dropping off in Bremerhaven the time from drop off to ship sailing will be shorter as the car won't have to get transported to the port first. My last ED took 10 weeks from drop off to dealership at the West Coast, but I dropped off in Zurich. It was with Audi and not Mercedes, but they both use the same logistics companies to ship the car. Dropping off outside Germany apparently adds 3 weeks, which I didn't know at the time, so this time I'm dropping it off at the port for hopefully the fastest delivery possible.

 

This is the reason I dropped my ‘19 S63 Euro Delivery off in Bremerhaven where the car boards the ship. It took a total of 38 days from drop off in Bremerhaven Germany to my pickup at the dealer.

 

Yes it will be much quicker to drop off in Bremerhaven. I dropped off my ‘19 S63 in Bremerhaven Germany at the port in November and had my car delivered to me at my dealer in Pittsburgh 38 days later.

 

I assume you took a train back to Frankfurt?

 

Nope. I rented a car (Audi A7) from Sixt in Bremerhaven and drove back to Stuttgart since I got an awesome priced airline ticket from Pittsburgh through Atlanta to Stuttgart and back on Delta. I took a taxi from the Bremerhaven drop off point the day I dropped off the new car. The ladies at BLG were great! They called a taxi for me for the short taxi ride from the drop off to Sixt (a couple of miles away from the BLG drop off point).