VelociRaptor

If youve wanted one then your in luck, will be hitting the dealers soon. Lots of white ones too.

bruntoj

Any of them with Lighting and Tow packages? I cant believe how hard it is to find a well equipped 550... I'm sitting on the fence right now because I don't want to initiate another painful order experience at a local dealer.

Any details you might recall would be appreciated, if only to satisfy my cyber-envy!

sosh

Why do you find ordering a painful experience. I find it the opposite and gives one the ability to have exactly what you want with no compromises. Most all of my MB's have been ordered.

bruntoj

The inept sales-guy made it painful. In 2008 mid-year I ordered a 550 and by, if I recall correctly, mid-October all I had was broken promises and frustration. How can a sales person for a world class company making luxury vehicles make excuses like "only my manager can use the computer, come back tomorrow and I'll have an answer for you"?

At one stage a competing dealer pulled up my order for me and showed me what was really happening with my order, and it didn't match what my salesperson had told me that same day.

After getting the run around from this guy for 6 months I made an appointment with his boss,explained what had happened, had him pull up the order to verify what the other dealer had shown me, and cancelled my order. I could dig out more detail but its just too painful to re-live the detail.

sosh

Sounds to me like you did have a bad experience and the sales guy was inept. Many are but are smart enough to let their manager take care of the details of ordering. Your's aparently was not. If he was as bad as you say its likely he will not be there for long. I had a bad one with the order for my current 2010 ML550. He gave me info that just did not make sense. This was my first encounter with him as the guy I had used for years and was excellent retired. After several meetings with him I went to his boss who knew he had a problem and agreed to handle my deal himself. I did use the sales guy's ineptness to my advantage with price negotiation. I ordered the ML and during my wait for it this sales guy was fired. I was even asked to write a note regarding how he handled me for the dealership's records as they were concerned about the firing as he was a minority. I then selected a new sales person, in this case a woman who turned out to be excellent. In fact I recently ordered a new E from her for Feb delivery. With most all of my MB's being special ordered this was a minor inconvience and I used the experience to my advantage and perhaps you should have done the same. My car came in on schedule and exactly the way I ordered it. What you must keep in mind is that in most dealerships the salesman (or woman) is an extension of the sales manager and has very little if any authority to negotiate prices or deals without the manager's approval.

C-rod

As much as l like my 350, the 550 would have been nicer....l miss the V8 power.....

roadrutz

My ML550 depreciates at six to eight times the rate at which I spend money on gas. I still can't figure out why people buy luxury vehicles with small engines in order to save money.

sosh

C Rod, the 550 has gads of power, torque and is very very smooth. Much smoother and much more power/torque than my 06 ML500. So far not even the slightest hint of any problems. Like you I think that its the best of all the 4 ML's I have had.

C-rod

"R"..l think the price points are a little high for my liking....With the ML350 starting @ $57,400 and the ML550 starting @ $69,700, it made it difficult to justify the extra $12,300 plus taxes for the 550....l think if the ML550 were more like $63,000..they would sell alot more 550's....Let's be honest, other than the engine, what justifies the additional $12,300 dollars ??? Listen guys, l would have loved to afford the 550 such as you gentlemen, but l feel they have priced the 550, into a "too expensive range for most people..." When you add the premium package and taxes..you are pushing $80,000 dollars !!!!! ln the end, you can only afford, what you can afford, it really has nothing to do with saving money.....

sosh

You must be talking about CDN dollars. My 550 had an MSRP of about 70K us. Quite frankly that is about my limit for an SUV. I can get a very nice new S Class for maybe 25K more. That may be my next one. Its also nice to see someone here who is fiscally conservative and responsible.As you said its not about saving money!!

C-rod

Yes..that is correct....Those numbers are from the MB Canada web-site...and thank-you for the compliment.....This is my 5th M-Class, but my first new one, so price was my #1 concern...l will enjoy this one for the next 3-4 years and then we will see....Enjoy your 550 "S".......

VelociRaptor

Last day of assembly today before Christmas/NewYear shutdown, there was more ML550s today than any other day. And yes, some had towing.