if you bought the car forget about deprecition in options, all of your options are worthless when you go to resell...BUT when you sell the car the dealer that buys it will promote the fully loaded vehicle and ask top $, I spent $$$$$$$ just in options on the car knowing that I would not get a penny of it back.

P.S I would have taken the active curve system in a heart beat if it was available in my country

 

My understanding is calipers are red standard (ML63 Performance Package is standard on the GL63). I like the bells and whistles as I tend to keep my cars until new 7 year cycle unless I get a problem car.

 

Well buddy - for GL63 (like the SLS, etc) Red Calipers are a selectable option if you want them you get them, if you don't you choose not to.

Keep the beat !

 

Not anymore. Red calipers are standard with the 2013+ SLS GT.

 

They weren't a selectable option. They come with Performance Package as standard.

Added rear sun shades to order so, now the anticipatory wait begins!

669 HP @ 5500 RPM; 734 LB-FT @ 3800 RPM après Renntech massage.

 

Agreed, just reinforcing that Night View is completely worthless.

 

The GL63 is going to be a very rare/select bird.

For the US - on the "1st 100" - over this next weekend Mercedes will be rescheduling some part of the MY13 June production MY13 orders over to MY14 production - which I feel will be a new production schedule MY14 Sept/Oct

Yes, this is happening before the very 1st customer delivery of the GL63 - my personal feeling international demand after Zurich is very-very high...

Keep the beat !

 

I hope my June allocation gets pushed to MY14 otherwise I will have to let it go for a MY 14 allocation.

US launch is a sham - delaying US allocation more to fulfill international orders. At this speed we will be lucky to get MY15.

 

My dealer continues to say that there will be no 63's in US until July.

 

Tom - your dealer may be right. The way this launch is going I wouldn't be surprised if MB reroutes March and May allocation to meet international demand. It's just disappointing for us in the US. Since the demand is so high I wouldn't be surprised if the price goes way up for MY14. We will find out soon about March build in 2-3 weeks.

 

price could go up- and if supply remains limited then any available orders will have a higher mark up- i still feel if you need it soon get a 550 with your specs or wait for a MY14, in retrospect the depreciation of owning a car from the last month of that MY will hurt- and even if it doesnt its something to think about- on a car like this i know buyers dont care about depreciation but its a big one to begin with and will be bigger with MY as well.. because if you think about it - folks getting the MY14 will own their cars for as long as someone who got a MY in june or so and both will most likely dump that car around the same time - buyers at that time would be more interested in the 14... but if you like to keep it for several years then yes it wont really make a difference on depreciation cuz you wont care much at that point anyway! my 0.02

 

Sraza- I am on the same page as you. I am not in a rush to get a GL. I am leaning towards a MY14. Hopefully the allocations for US open up. Hope South Ocean is right about allocations.

 

US prices will go up a little - lots of talk here - but the reality we are talking about "maybe" a monthly production of March-May-June of total 60 for MY13..those are like sold - except for those dealers who are "faking it" looking to pickup over-list to local-in-state customers..

Of course you should be talking MY14 - maybe 30 per month starting Sept production would be my guess.

 

What does it mean if one is given a PO?

 

My Dealer also said that the 13's won't be out till July.......

 

If you have a PO number then your order has been confirms and accepted by the MB factory. A dealer allocation and a PO number go hand in hand. A dealer cannot sell you a MB if they don't have an allocation.

 

Correct, a PO represents factory confirmation in NetStar of a scheduled production date for a particular vehicle for a particular dealer.

The key #'s from a PO# are the last 7 digits - which for GL/ML would start with A followed by 6 digits. With the last 7, with NetStar access, non-invasive details on PO history and latest update from the factory on that PO are available on NetStar - straight shot takes about 5 minutes - actually internally at MB a very transparent MB/dealer/process.

For NetStar anti-hacking security, NetStar access is on secure VPN connection from the dealer to NetStar, general web access and Smartphone web access are not possible for security reasons, frankly very few (if any) MB dealers allow remote off-site VPN for security reasons as well.

Also, so you know, within the NetStar system, PO changes including scheduled production changes, do not normally produce push-to-dealer-alerts, so checking for PO changes is a manual PO take-a-look process.

Depending on dealership structure - specific sales consultants may or may not have NetStar access - in some dealership structures NetStar access is restricted to sales/inventory management.

In the case of GL's - over the past few months and recently I have had several PM conversations with members on this board that did have PO# information in hand - either from their confirmed order with their dealer - or in other cases PO information from dealers they were trying to make a deal with.

To Vance's credit, NetStar scheduled production dates have been accurately updated - I personally have not seen any last minute production surprises - like "oop's it another 2 weeks" - and particularly this season GL's have started and finished production on schedule, and released into transport even more smoothly than compared to last year. This is all to Vance's credit - frankly Vance has been more righteous about this than Germany.

However, with GL's PO's especially - on the PM conversations - what forum members understood from their dealer - was not the information at hand in Netstar.

In several cases, the scheduled production quoted members was not the updated scheduled production date - in several cases the production date had been updated by Vance 2-3 weeks before the dealer is confirming the member's deal.

That part can be real messy - and frankly inexcusable - in one recent case a member confirmed his order with his dealer based on 2nd decade April production schedule - when in fact almost 2 full weeks before that particular PO had been rescheduled to 1st week May - unless that particular dealer had the means to "trade-out" production slots with another dealer - which would not show in NetStar until that PO was traded out between dealers - like I say sometimes this stuff can get real messy.

My participation on Mercedes enthusiast forums started way before I flipped to the other side of the table - and so you know at no time will I ever trade off my participation in these forums to solicit/secure business.

I regularly get challenged by Mercedes on my continued forum participation - called on the carpet so to speak in person or on conference call by Mercedes - I would say about every 8 weeks I get challenged on some of the zaniest stuff - how about this one last month - "did you or did you not release the Mercedes CLA order guide to bah-blah forum"....

I appreciate the respect and confidentiality that Mercedes forum's maintain for their members - including mine.

Keep the beat !

 

Thank you Sam and Fabbrisd1.
This is what I see on my paper:

PO:0371576444

This does not follow fab's description.
What say you?

 

Fabbrisd1:

I for one really appreciate your perspectives and contributions to this forum, even if I do not always like what you have to say (i.e., further delays on the GL63 allocations) . . .

I have never thought you breached any confidences with MBUSA. The only things you have "exposed" are some shaky practices by less than forthright dealers out there. And I would hope that MBUSA wants the stories set straight, because the customer will ultimately learn the truth - as the car either will or won't arrive when and as "promised" , , ,

So as you say - please keep on "keeping the beat"

 

I must be fr*cked up - sorry I gave the breakdown for the VIN# designation - rather than the PO designation - must have been a senior moment - my apologies !

 

I need your help and advice. As some of you know, I have had my order in for a GL63 since last spring with my dealer and am first on the list whenever the dealer gets an allocation. My wife and I have had our hearts set on a Pearl Beige GL63 (I know, I know, we have questionable taste). I received word from my dealer tonight that MB is replacing Pearl Beige with Palladium Silver for MY2014. That is not a surprise given the very low take rate, but I thought I would have at least through MY 2014 before they dropped it. I do not yet know whether there are any other color changes or other enhancements for 2014.

So my question is whether I try to pick up a GL550 in Pearl Beige before the model year turns over. Not a huge fan of going with a late MY 2013. But I would get the look and color I want.

I could try 1Adam12's route and see if I can find an unsold allocation for MY2013 that is not charging over list (I won't do that out of principle). But I know from Fabbrisd1 that some of the MY2013 will slip to MY2014 (great for Sam) but I would only do that if I knew I could get a MY2013 in my preferred color.

1Adam12, you gave some good info on which dealers had unsold allocations. If I may ask, who did you contact in addition to those on the list you provided (i.e., Manhattan, Prestige, etc). That would at least save me some time starting from scratch. You can PM if that would be better.

Or I could bite the bullet and just go with a different color. That is certainly the easiest route (and most logical). But we really had our hearts set on that color after working through all of the combinations (and my dragging my wife to various dealerships to see each color in a GL).

This is far from a "real world" problem, but I am a bit bummed nonetheless.

What do you guys think?

 

I am sorry to hear MB's decision to can pearl beige. See if fab can give you a list of dealers with allocations. I know there are 3 dealers with allocations in TX - Dallas, Houston, and Boerne - all have sold units. I called AMG PCs in CA and most refused to sell out of state.

I called AMG PCs in Las Vegas, Atlanta, PA, IL, all in FL, AZ - all had big lines.

If you don't find a MY13 allocation - you can take mine if its still in MY13.

 

Sam

Thanks for the info on your efforts on trying to secure a MY2013 and for your very kind offer on your allocation. It sounds like it will be very difficult to secure a MY2013 from a dealer at this point. And I am not sure whether a dealer would allow for you to roll over your allocation to me if it is still for MY2013.

I have to sleep on this one to help me figure it out. I do really appreciate your comments.

Kind regards

 

All "1st 100" show in the system as Priority 1 - which is supposed to mean "customer sold" - however, I suspect in some cases that "sold"may be a misnomer by any partocular dealer.

With the current anti-export push by MB to their dealers, and rightly so, with GL63 there is particularly close scrutiny to sell close within their market areas.. financed...local registration... etc.

 

Fabbrisd1:

Thanks . . . Do you know yet if some of those have been pushed to MY2014 yet??

By the way, I am conscious of the irony here in my advising against 1Adam12 in his search for an end of MY2013 and here I am considering doing the same. Yikes!