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Aside from the obvious of not being able to travel out for the experience and just having the car ship when ready, what are the other issues people are having with canceled and upcoming ED's?
I'm still scheduled for a June ED and hopeful all is fairly back to normal worldwide by then. Not sure I'll take the car if I can't go get it and even additional discounting might not sway my decision. Has anyone negotiated additional savings or other benefits because of the impact of the current travel restriction?
Best regards to those affected in all ways by this pandemic.
It would be advisable to reach out to your dealer to discuss alternatives. I also had an ED scheduled for June 15th and, honestly, cannot imagine a scenario where things would be normalized enough for the original plan to still happen.
The information I have received so far is that it should at least be well possible for MB to drop-ship the vehicle directly to your dealership once it's built, which should take significantly less of a transit time than the usual ED shipping route (e.g. closer to 1month rather than 9-11 weeks). Normal ED discounts (including waived destination fee) would apply at the very least.
I haven't pushed the matter in terms of pursuing additional discounts, as I imagine the situation on the ground could very well be different 2 months from now than it is today ... but I'd love to hear about any success you (or others) might have on that front.
2015 E 250, 1999 BMW M Roadster, 1939 International Harvester, 2023 GLC
Mine is built in Mid Feb. I was set to go April 1, MB said they will hold, ship and wave destination charge or I can cancel the order at NC. My plan is to go in June
Mine has a May 1st tentative build date (originally planned to pick-up Jun15th, but would have them ship it instead). I gather that the following news make a major disruption of the schedule a near certainty:
I'm glad I did my ED last May. This year would be a real bummer. If the car has already been produced, then they should be able to hold it and let you reschedule. The biggest issue is obviously getting there and back. Nobody knows when this crisis will be under control. Even if you can get there and take delivery of the car, most everything is shut down. I'm in constant communication with friends and family in Germany and Switzerland and things are not looking good in Europe at the moment. I just heard that Magna Steyr who is building the G wagon for Mercedes is shutting down their factory in Graz, Austria, so it's very possible that the Mercedes factories in Germany could get shut down as well at some point leading to production delays. On the other hand I've been hearing that people are cancelling their orders, so that could move up remaining orders. Obviously for ED the production is scheduled to line up with the delivery date, but the additional factor is getting the registration and insurances sorted out, and if the public offices are shutting down or reducing their staff that could lead to delays as well. I don't think we've seen the worst yet, so at this point it's hard to tell if you'll be able to do an ED in June. I would say it's wait and see for now. You have some time, but this crisis can easily last into August the way it's going currently.
It looks like there is some kind of quarantine on shipping.
The vessel carrying my car just cruised up and anchored off Long Island with a bunch of other ships.
It departed Bremerhaven 13 days ago (3/6) so hoping all the crew is healthy and its just a short few days delay.
I'd rather have that issue than wondering if my car will actually get produced before the 2021 facelift changeover, good luck and if it's Cardinal Red with black natural grain Ash wood interior trim AND you don't want it, I might be able to help you.
I guess I should clarify - it is a 2020 facelift / MBUX GLC 300.
The Ship went into of NYC last night instead of first stop of Baywood, NJ.
I hope this is just to get some clearance to continue.
COVID-19 has effectively killed my European Delivery E63S which was to be built next month.
In fact, according to my dealer, no more 2020 E Class will be built this year. He didn't offer many details and wasn't sure if it was May and later production or not. I asked for clarification and if there were going to be any that were no longer of interest to other dealer that we might be able to get.
I just got the work 20 mins ago so I'm searching around for all the info I can find to include any 2020 E63S, Cardinal red with AMG Drive Unit but it could hardly fill the void of my European Delivery vacation I had planned.
Curses Covid-19 indeed! I have an order in for a June 15th delivery as well (C43 AMG Coupe) but have not yet heard back from my SA as he is out on leave until May 1. I just came to grips with having to cancel my trip due to travel restrictions and now I probably won't even be able to get the car here? Ah well, in the end my health and the health of others is more important than any car. I will try and post updates when I get them. Thanks to everyone who has posted with information!
Curses Covid-19 indeed! I have an order in for a June 15th delivery as well (C43 AMG Coupe) but have not yet heard back from my SA as he is out on leave until May 1. I just came to grips with having to cancel my trip due to travel restrictions and now I probably won't even be able to get the car here? Ah well, in the end my health and the health of others is more important than any car. I will try and post updates when I get them. Thanks to everyone who has posted with information!
I certainly feel your frustration. I had an ED scheduled for the same date (Jun 15th from Bremen) for a CLS450. I had discussed options with my dealer in early March, before things started closing down, and he indicated that - after speaking to the ED program coordinators at MB - they would have offered the option to drop-ship the vehicle (possibly getting it here even before the ED date; depends on what the build date would have been) while honoring the ED discount.
The question, however, you might want to ask yourself is: without the experience of the Euro Delivery, is it still worth it for you if they ship it here? the C43 coupe, as all 43 AMGs, gets just a 5% discount through the ED program. These days, with everything that's going on, I would be sure you could get a much, much stronger discount on dealer stock. You'd probably also find dealers all over the country willing to ship you a car off their stock at their cost, on top of a generous discount.
As for me, I just went ahead and cancelled my ED order. Instead of the CLS450 I would get from Germany at a $7k discount (I was motivated by the ED experience, which I've done and loved before, more than the discount), I ended up getting $18k off a GT53 from an out-of-state dealer's stock. I bet I'll enjoy it more too.
EFTY, sounds like you made out pretty well. For me it wasn't really about the discount as much as it was about the entire EDP experience and brand immersion which included a tour of the AMG factory as well. Plus, I have been looking at E63s for the past 4 years and finally decided that in order to get what I wanted, special ordering was the only way. Even if I could negotiate a great deal I wouldn't get the car without the experience in Europe. I keep asking MBUSA and my SA if there are any E63s currently in production that dealers no longer want and there was one so far but it didn't check enough boxes for me.
EFTY, sounds like you made out pretty well. For me it wasn't really about the discount as much as it was about the entire EDP experience and brand immersion which included a tour of the AMG factory as well. Plus, I have been looking at E63s for the past 4 years and finally decided that in order to get what I wanted, special ordering was the only way. Even if I could negotiate a great deal I wouldn't get the car without the experience in Europe. I keep asking MBUSA and my SA if there are any E63s currently in production that dealers no longer want and there was one so far but it didn't check enough boxes for me.
I'm totally with you on this. I did my last car via ED (a 2018 GLC43Coupe) and the experience was amazing, from the delivery at the Center of Excellence, to a month driving around Europe. It was so great that I was planning to do it again this year, not so much for the savings, but the experience mostly.
My fear is that this pandemic might kill off the EDP completely ... Audi discontinued theirs just last year, and even MB started pulling back on the goodies associated with the delivery (e.g. no complimentary hotel stay anymore ...). I sincerely hope that this won't happen but you never know these days.
I'm totally with you on this. I did my last car via ED (a 2018 GLC43Coupe) and the experience was amazing, from the delivery at the Center of Excellence, to a month driving around Europe. It was so great that I was planning to do it again this year, not so much for the savings, but the experience mostly.
My fear is that this pandemic might kill off the EDP completely ... Audi discontinued theirs just last year, and even MB started pulling back on the goodies associated with the delivery (e.g. no complimentary hotel stay anymore ...). I sincerely hope that this won't happen but you never know these days.
Agreed, EDP is about the experience and not the discount. I've done EDP on my last two cars. The first one with Audi and the second one with MB/AMG. There's a good chance I wouldn't have bought either car if it wasn't for EDP. Cars at this level IMO are about the experience, and picking it up at the factory and then road trip around Europe for several weeks makes it special. Audi actually ended EDP in 2018 already, not last year. Their stated reason was due to more and more of their cars being built outside of Germany, but it has also been suspected that it was due to the financial fallout from the diesel scandal and the subsequent need to cut spending. Strangely, they continue to do factory deliveries for customers in Europe, so the reason they stated is a bit fishy, but it allowed them to lay off the EDP staff. This crisis will cause a financial fallout for all car manufacturers, so I'm with you in hoping MB isn't gonna cancel the program. I did my EDP last May and they still offered the complimentary hotel stay, but I didn't take advantage of it as I have an acquaintance in the Stuttgart area who I stayed with. When did they stop the complimentary hotel night? Not that it matters much to me, but curious.
When did they stop the complimentary hotel night? Not that it matters much to me, but curious.
If I recall correctly that change (no hotel stay) was implemented sometime in Q4 2019. Shortly after they replaced the $100 taxi voucher with complimentary limo transfers from/to STR airport or hotel, which is nice I guess ...
If I recall correctly that change (no hotel stay) was implemented sometime in Q4 2019. Shortly after they replaced the $100 taxi voucher with complimentary limo transfers from/to STR airport or hotel, which is nice I guess ...
Thanks. I see the change on the website now. Looks like they dropped the $400 Delta voucher as well. I also didn't take advantage of that, because there were no good Delta flights from here. I'm guessing there were logistical reasons for these changes. Audi used to do Limo transfers, so I found the $100 taxi voucher a bit odd in the first place and restricting airline vouchers to a single airline that doesn't have direct or convenient flights from where one lives was rather useless, too. The taxi voucher wasn't actually even a voucher anymore when I did it. It was just a $100 discount on the order. The Delta voucher on the other hand was still a voucher, but you had to book through their travel site to get it.
I certainly feel your frustration. I had an ED scheduled for the same date (Jun 15th from Bremen) for a CLS450. I had discussed options with my dealer in early March, before things started closing down, and he indicated that - after speaking to the ED program coordinators at MB - they would have offered the option to drop-ship the vehicle (possibly getting it here even before the ED date; depends on what the build date would have been) while honoring the ED discount.
The question, however, you might want to ask yourself is: without the experience of the Euro Delivery, is it still worth it for you if they ship it here? the C43 coupe, as all 43 AMGs, gets just a 5% discount through the ED program. These days, with everything that's going on, I would be sure you could get a much, much stronger discount on dealer stock. You'd probably also find dealers all over the country willing to ship you a car off their stock at their cost, on top of a generous discount.
As for me, I just went ahead and cancelled my ED order. Instead of the CLS450 I would get from Germany at a $7k discount (I was motivated by the ED experience, which I've done and loved before, more than the discount), I ended up getting $18k off a GT53 from an out-of-state dealer's stock. I bet I'll enjoy it more too.
A GT53, nice!!! I am keeping all my options open and looking at dealer stock but I guess no one builds them like I would! I must have unique tastes. I did get more than the standard 5% from my dealer but as you said, I think dealers would be willing to do even better on the stock sitting on their lots now.
But like others are saying, ED is all about the experience. I have done it twice before, for my own BMW in 2011 and once with my mom for her E-Class a few years ago. I thought the BMW experience was much better but was really looking forward to the Center of Excellence this time. It would be a shame if they discontinued such a wonderful program. I'm super attached to my BMW because I got it exactly as I wanted (which makes finding one in dealer stock a bit of a challenge) but more so because it went through 10 countries with me. I still have people asking me about my Euro license plate and taking pictures of it. Once in San Francisco a guy even tried to speak to me in German after seeing the Swiss and Austrian toll stickers on my windshield! It's funnier I guess if you know that I'm Asian...
So while I would love to do another ED and never though I would buy a car any other way, my BMW is on its last legs before a major warranty runs out and will require tons in repairs. I really love the C43 coupe, too. Since it is a slow seller for Mercedes, it already looked like it was going to be axed in the lineup for the US market by next year. I fear the economic crisis will hasten its demise so I think it's now or never if I want one. If only the MBUSA website made it easier to search dealer inventory!
A GT53, nice!!! I am keeping all my options open and looking at dealer stock but I guess no one builds them like I would! I must have unique tastes. I did get more than the standard 5% from my dealer but as you said, I think dealers would be willing to do even better on the stock sitting on their lots now.
But like others are saying, ED is all about the experience. I have done it twice before, for my own BMW in 2011 and once with my mom for her E-Class a few years ago. I thought the BMW experience was much better but was really looking forward to the Center of Excellence this time. It would be a shame if they discontinued such a wonderful program. I'm super attached to my BMW because I got it exactly as I wanted (which makes finding one in dealer stock a bit of a challenge) but more so because it went through 10 countries with me. I still have people asking me about my Euro license plate and taking pictures of it. Once in San Francisco a guy even tried to speak to me in German after seeing the Swiss and Austrian toll stickers on my windshield! It's funnier I guess if you know that I'm Asian...
So while I would love to do another ED and never though I would buy a car any other way, my BMW is on its last legs before a major warranty runs out and will require tons in repairs. I really love the C43 coupe, too. Since it is a slow seller for Mercedes, it already looked like it was going to be axed in the lineup for the US market by next year. I fear the economic crisis will hasten its demise so I think it's now or never if I want one. If only the MBUSA website made it easier to search dealer inventory!
I like this search tool, if you happen to find it useful:
Use it the hacker way ... although the website interface doesn't allow you to specify a mile range above 200mi, just edit the link directly, as I did above (set to within 2500miles of Chicago, i.e. all of US)
Once you zero-in to what you like, just copy the VIN and do a google search ... you'll get the dealer's listing.
Much better than the MBUSA inventory search tool if you ask me ...
Most dealerships also put their inventory on Autotrader. That's how I found cars to test drive with specific options I was considering such as the performance seats.
Use it the hacker way ... although the website interface doesn't allow you to specify a mile range above 200mi, just edit the link directly, as I did above (set to within 2500miles of Chicago, i.e. all of US)
Once you zero-in to what you like, just copy the VIN and do a google search ... you'll get the dealer's listing.
Much better than the MBUSA inventory search tool if you ask me ...
Thanks for the tips everyone!
MBUSA is offering to drop ship the car once it is produced (so it sounds like once the factories get started again they will be able to produce my C43 AMG Coupe). But as you are all saying, a new car off the lot can bring hefty discounts lately. My negotiated price for this ED was almost 10% off MSRP. Efty_wi, when you got your GT, about what percent off of MSRP did that $18k represent? Just trying to gauge what kind of discount I can push for on top of the 10% I negotiated before this all happened. I was also thinking I could ask for a maintenance package to be added since that costs the dealer less than the price given to the buyer.
MBUSA is offering to drop ship the car once it is produced (so it sounds like once the factories get started again they will be able to produce my C43 AMG Coupe). But as you are all saying, a new car off the lot can bring hefty discounts lately. My negotiated price for this ED was almost 10% off MSRP. Efty_wi, when you got your GT, about what percent off of MSRP did that $18k represent? Just trying to gauge what kind of discount I can push for on top of the 10% I negotiated before this all happened. I was also thinking I could ask for a maintenance package to be added since that costs the dealer less than the price given to the buyer.
My MSRP was 119k, so the actual discount was about ~12% ($14k) on the sales price itself, plus a $4k lease loyalty incentive (that started just in April, or at least got up to that level just in April). It's those incentives that moved me towards a GT, in conjunction with the lease money factor that's way more reasonable on the '19 models at this point in time.
I hope you are successful in your negotiation; these days I would imagine you have more leverage than ever. Under normal circumstances, MB gives the dealer a flat 10% commission on ED orders, so whatever they kick back has to come from this share. Thus, there will be some upper bound on what they could do for you, but at least you're starting with the ED discount of 5% and no destination charge (almost another 1-2%?).
If you're leasing or financing, here's another couple of ideas to possibly save a bit more (in addition to negotiating sales price):
- MBFS commonly applies a small markup of .0002 on the money factor on ED leases (this I know with 100% certainty) to offset the 1 month they freeze your lease payment while the vehicle is in transit back to the US. I am almost sure a similar markup is in effect for financed (via loan) vehicles in ED. This would be an excellent set of circumstances to push them to waive that markup, or maybe they do it by default.
- If you're leasing, you can consider putting down 3 MSDs to bring down your money factor, and then call MBFS to ask for a 3-month deferral of payments due to COVID (which they summarily grant, as I'm seeing). It'll effectively be the same as a normal lease (it's almost like prepaying the first 3 months upon signing, and the returned MSDs on maturity will cover the deferred payments), but your monthly car payment will get a discount.
03-15-2020, 03:05 PM
