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There is the desire to get a never-touched (except German MB technicians) E450 or S580. Delivery to California. I understand that handling a vehicle is complex and 10+ different people may drive my(!) car (place onto a ship, drive off a ship, trucks, dealership, etc.).
Is there a way to avoid this and get an untouched manufacturer-wrapped MB? I guess shipping in a container can be an option. Any experience with this?
If this is impossible, how to avoid touching my car at least by dealership personnel?
Do you just want the experience of being the first person to really drive the car? You could do European delivery.
Are you worried about actual damage during the shipping process, or is this more of a theoretical OCD thing? The interior is pretty well protected when these cars ship, with plastic wrap on the seats, steering wheel, center console, etc. that gets removed at the dealership. Mercedes doesn't want the various transport people damaging their cars either.
The dealer would probably accommodate your desire to be present when they unwrap the car, but they're not going to let you drive it off the truck.
If you're worried about the dealership damaging your car, what are you going to do when you need warranty service? Insist on driving it on and off the lift yourself? They won't let you do that either. This won't be practical to maintain.
We are not talking about exotic cars here. You can get a Lamborghini shipped to you in a crate straight from the factory for example and be there when it gets unboxed, but a regular E or S Class, no way Jose. They do this kinda stuff for collector cars. As said above, if you wanted to drive the car fresh off the factory lot yourself w/o anybody outside the factory touching it, then that's what European Delivery was about. Unfortunately, that program got terminated in the middle of the Pandemic. I had the pleasure of doing ED twice, once with Audi and once with Mercedes, and the latter was in 2019 just before the world went upside down. In my case it was an AMG and if you take delivery of an AMG or also an S Class at the factory, you get a special delivery at the Center of Excellence with three course meal and personalized service. They only do 4 deliveries in the morning and 4 in the afternoon at the Center of Excellence. Everybody else has to pick their car up on the other side of the delivery center in a big hall. The Center of Excellence has a lounge area next to the car where they hand the keys to you on a pillow and unveil the car and then after being shown the ropes to your car they serve a nice meal. We were seated next to an AMG GT R Pro on display.
It's a moot point now since the program no longer exists, but at the end the car still had to be shipped to its final destination and go through the VPC and dealership for essentially the second delivery, but at that time the car had already been driven by you. Mine had 6000 miles on it after the 2 months I spent driving it throughout Europe, so it was in a way a used car.
My car was ready to be unveiled when I arrived. All four cars that were being delivered were covered and then later unveiled to the customers.
Nice view from our table having lunch.
Last edited by superswiss; 08-26-2024 at 01:48 PM.
The dealer would probably accommodate your desire to be present when they unwrap the car, but they're not going to let you drive it off the truck.
this can also work.
Originally Posted by avalys
If you're worried about the dealership damaging your car, what are you going to do when you need warranty service? Insist on driving it on and off the lift yourself? They won't let you do that either. This won't be practical to maintain.
08-15-2024, 01:51 PM
. I think I have enough to proceed.
