durhas

Hello, likely will place an order this week. I was told by dealer 3-5 mos. my questions:

a. How realistic is time frame from others experience?
b. When does the 2021 build year began - should I just wait? (Really, just interested in new colors, if applicable)
c. What should I insist upon once I put my deposit down in terms of ordering milestones (eg, should I expect a firm build date with my deposit?)?

obbob

A. Timeframe is optimistic. If you are first in line, then 4-5 months is feasible. Factory was shutdown for a long time which likely caused a backorder. I would clarify and question the dealer alot on how they think this timeframe is possible. If they are willing to bend the truth at this stage, then they will act similarly in later stages.
B. Mercedes usually rolls to the new model year with August-September production, October delivery.
C. Fair terms are to have deposit refundable until the order is locked with the factory. Deposit size increases with the mass appeal of your spec. i.e. matte black on black interior = small deposit. Red on green = big deposit since if you back out it's going to be tough selling that car.

Bob Z.

iTrader: (1)

Read this thread and you will some answers. Orders are not real orders until you get an allocation and until then they are just Requests. 4-5 months from now is Sep./Oct. so they must have an order in the system now that they can change, which would be a 2020 of course. Allocations are not out yet for 2021s, which will first hit the US in Dec., just like past few years: https://mbworld.org/forums/g-class-w...formation.html

modenafan

I visited my dealer in December and let him know that I wanted to place an order for a 2020 G550. He said he had a March build with an April delivery available. I believe in January I placed my actual order with all my options. My car arrived at the dealership at the end of April as promised with all options that were ordered. The entire process went very smoothly.

MagnoWhitew222

[QUOTE=durhas;8081649]Hello, likely will place an order this week. I was told by dealer 3-5 mos. my questions:

a. How realistic is time frame from others experience?
b. When does the 2021 build year began - should I just wait? (Really, just interested in new colors, if applicable)
c. What should I insist upon once I put my deposit down in terms of ordering milestones (eg, should I expect a firm build date with my deposit?)?[/



I work at a dealer in nor cal. The g550 is hard to give a realistic expectation, because most orders are pre fulfilled. The dealer submits a request and depending on their allocation, that request can be picked up right away, or last a few months and even up to a year which we are experiencing at our dealer.
real expectation should be 9 months to a year.

if you are not color specific, you can find one at a dealer but there will most likely be a markup.

fabbrisd1

Well... I appreciate Modena's post - because frankly ordering a G-Wagen does NOT need to be Shadow-Boxing..

Let me clear up a few things here...

Graf has been on target for production schedule since May - when Graf says they can make that PO is when Graf will make that PO - transport has been a bit more "goofy" - normally built units go up to port by train that following weekend - currently there seems to be a train/capacity issue so some units don't get on a train until the 2nd following weekend.
At Port has been a bit goofy too - ship assignment at Port "can" take about 10 days - then 4 days for that boat load and leave - so two weeks at German Port has been about average at this moment.

1. Any competent MB dealer "knows exactly" what his G-Wagen allocation will be - because except in very specific dealer situations it will be EXACTLY what/when it was last year. The exceptional situations that change things a few units either way can include: change-of-ownership/new-facility (which is a + a couple), prior G's sold at that dealership were exported (which can mean minus a couple), hitting top MBUSA dealer benchmarks (+ a couple) etc.

2. All remaining 2020 G's have been allocated to dealers for production thru August - in general August production orders are still changeable (with factory confirmation) - these August "green" orders "today" will turn Yellow real soon - and then BOOM will be Red/non-changeable.

3. Sept production for 2021's is scheduled and allocated out to dealer's too. Please understand that Sept production does not necessarily mean end-October US 2021 release date. If I had to "guess" - I might expect 2021 earliest release date to be end-November or early-December

Bob Z.

iTrader: (1)

Good to know information. Any clues at what the price increase for 2021 will be? It appears the options are the same based on the initial Order Guide.

Hodog16

Good info, my build is in September so November/December delivery would work great.

I was happy to see the options didn't increase in price. I expect them to increase MSRP but hopefully it's a token increase and just once this time!

fabbrisd1

2021 will be "slightly" higher - in the range of 2% increase in base MSRP... no biggie.. if it was up to me I'd price G550 with a list of "6 required deluxe option choices" at $200K and the G63 same deluxe-only option choices at $250K... MB wouldn't hear me on that one .. so I pushed back a 2nd time and proposed dropping the G550, having only G63 and G-Maybach at $200K & $250K respectively .... at my age I don't care if I am labeled Crazy..

MB pricing for the new-gen G-Wagen is too low especially here in the US.... you should be happy that I don't call the shots on this one..

Lawrence1

interesting post. What is your "too low" assessment based on? Are you simply going off the current market value adjustments (i.e. markups) charged by dealers, which are beginning to vanish? or is there a more comprehensive analysis that led you to this conclusion? I don't know that a $200K+ G550 would sit well for with the current G550 buyer pool.

G-Dreaming

My understanding is the G class has the biggest profit margin for MB per vehicle in the entire fleet. Not understanding the logic here.