On December 17th I left NYC headed to Stuttgart to pickup a 2014 S550 through the European Delivery program. I had been planning for this trip since I placed my order sometime in September.

My car build: 2014 S550 RWD, 040 black with 514 Exclusive Nut Brown nappa leather, black poplar trim, warmth and comfort package, Sport package plus one, driver assist, air balance, & Magic Body Control.

The experience was nothing short of incredible. I started with contacting Mercedes-Benz of Manhattan. I visited them with the prospect of ED. They did not seem too enthusiastic to the point of not returning phone calls or messages. I later found out they only did 2 deliveries last year, which is a surprise for such a large dealership. I ended up doing a lot of online research and reached out to many dealers who had experience with the program. I chose to work with Mr. Herbert Haemmer of MB of Escondido, despite the fact that his dealership his across the country in California.

I first want to stress that not only do I have no relationship with Mr. Haemmer besides being a first-time customer of his, but also I’ve never met him either. The main reason why Mr. Haemmer gained my family’s business was because he is extremely knowledgably, diligent and professional in his work. Beyond the great deal that we were able to secure on the car (with our own financing), he was easily accessible for all of our numerous calls and emails. Based upon my experience with him and the actual trip, which I will get to in a moment, I highly recommend him for anyone who is interested in European Delivery. And if you are not, I still suggest looking into the details of the program because it is truly fantastic, especially for us S-class owners who save a lot of money through the program, in my case- nearly $13,000.


Now to the good stuff- we arrived in Stuttgart early on the 18th and headed straight to the factory. Incidentally, Mercedes-Benz USA sent us two ED packets by accident so we had a total of 4 taxi vouchers instead of the standard two. I figured we’d do the factory tour, have lunch then head to the hotel, which is exactly what we did. The tour was about an hour, in English, and it went through the sheet metal pressing process. Since the factory was to close for holidays on the 20th, this week was pretty quiet and not much activity going on. After the tour, we had a great lunch at the delivery center (“Kundencenter”) restaurant. We then headed for our hotel in Stuttgart, the AM Schlossgarten Hotel located right in the middle of the town center and right next to the famous German Christmas market, which is held in nearly every major German town. Mr. Haemmer booked this night for us through his connections and the hotel was top notch, especially the service.

On the morning of the 19th, delivery day, we headed to the museum and spent about two hours viewing all the exhibits. My favorite was the 600 pullman favored by most heads of state, especially Eastern European dictators of the 60’s and 70’s. We used another taxi voucher to head to the delivery center where we sat down with Ms. Traute Kurtz who would handle all of our paperwork. Ms. Kurtz took all of our paperwork and told us that all the paperwork would be finalized in about an hour, so we could now go ahead and take delivery of the car, have lunch then come back and pickup the documents before we departed the delivery center. She introduced us to Roi, who would be our vehicle specialist that was to introduce us to the car and all of its features. Instead of taking delivery in the main hall with everyone else, we were taken to the “Center of Excellence”. This center was a separate room/hall away from the main delivery section that, I presume, catered to the most VIP of clients. Maybe because we were one of the last Americans to take delivery for 2013? I’m not too sure why, but we were pleasantly surprised to find out we were chosen for this experience without any prior knowledge or request.

We walked into a corner of the hall where a lounge was setup with lit candles, and two car keys on top of a pillow. Next, was our new car covered in a black sheet which I took off for the unveiling. Words cannot express how I felt seeing the car we had designed nearly 3 months ago for the first time. It was absolutely breathtaking. Even though it was my our 4th S-class, this one was truly special because we actually ordered it exactly the way we wanted, not just off the stateside Mercedes lot. Roi spent about an hour with us showing the features of the car, most of which I had spent quite some time studying online before picking up. He then led us to a set table nearby for our top-tier lunch. Some food and a little wine later, we proceeded back to Ms. Kurtz desk to receive our German Temporary Registration, insurance, and plates. Roi put them on the car for us, and a after a few pictures, we were off!

The car itself is stunning. The exclusive nappa leather interior is amazing, especially the fine details like alcantara headliner, leather roof handles, extra exclusive wood trim, and those awesome 20” wheels. The funny-in-pictures looking steering wheel works much better in person, so does the color of the nut brown/black trim. Steering is much smoother than the W221, as is the suspension. Active steering works just as advertised when line markers are clear and visible. I’m not so sure if it will work as well here in NYC compared to Germany. Magic body was nice too, and I’d get it again only because of the ABC suspension, not so much because of the road scanner. Its nice, but it’s a bit of fine tuning. Only (if any) complaints I had with the car was the eco system turned on after every startup, the exclusive wood trim on the driver door was a bit uncomfortable for resting your leg (used to the open space of the W221), and the Burmester could be a tad bit louder, although it is quite clear. So basically, I have no real woes. The interior quality is, in my opinion just as a good as a Rolls Ghost, which I drive regularly and light years better than the W221 or a BMW 750li, which I also drive daily (we have a limousine company here in NYC).

For the sake of limiting this write-up only for the delivery experience, I will not get into any detail about the rest of the trip. But in a nutshell, in the course of 5 days, we visited Stuttgart, Strasbourg, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Bremen and dropped off the car at BLG Logistics in Bremerhaven. I decided to drop-off the car in Bremerhaven (one of the optional drop-off locations) because it is where the cars are shipped to the states from. I figured I’m knocking off about 2 weeks of waiting time by doing this alone. At the drop-off location, the car was checked for damage (none) and mileage (835 miles). I took the safety triangle, first aid kit, and manual books back with me on the flight. As of now, the car will depart Bremerhaven on the 3rd of January.

We then proceeded to take a train to Hamburg, where we spent our last night before departure back to NY. We stayed at the Fairmont Vier Jahreszeiten hotel, which was arranged by theMercedes ED program because the standard package covers one night in over 16 different hotels throughout Europe. This hotel was a true 5-star and a fantastic way to spend the last night after an exhaustive but fun trip.

After this experience, I am positive I will never buy another Mercedes straight from the dealer again. I hope you will consider the same. Please let me know if you have any questions about my experience and I will be happy to answer them. Thank you for looking and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

 

Great write up and pics, thanks for sharing!

 

god, that sounds fabulous. It's right near me in SD too. I'm tempted to do that for the 2015 model.

 

Thanks for sharing. Nice writeup & awesome pics! Congrats

 

Most dealers do not like European Delivery as they will lose money/not make any money on the vehicle.

 

Not necessarily. Dealers make 10% of final sale price and it's completely out of their allocation. In my case, dealer will never even see my car in person as it will never get onto their lot.

However, its my understanding, that dealers don't like ED because it's not immediate payment. Rather, they get paid once car is actually delivered to customer stateside. And I'm guessing profit margins are higher with off the lot cars.

 

so does the term "dealer contribution" mean that the dealer takes money out of their 10% to pass a saving to the customer?

 

The post reads that the owner was able to save approximately $13,000. Someone has to lose out on this money and its the dealership, there are many posts on this website with owners sharing the same story about how the dealerships avoid European delivery ( even when you have given them repeat business like the poster mentions).

 

MB dealers have just 7 % mark-up.
ED is not counted against the allocation and the profit is nowhere near the 10 %,
It is a bit complicated as the money comes as additional bonuses for making the number of cars sold.

 

Very nice. Sounds like a fantastic experience.

 

bottom line is they lose a massive amount of profit.

 

is that your sister? more pix of her please






congrats on the car OP, looks great!

 

Not really, otherwise they wouldn't do it at all. They don't tell you this, but MBUSA gives dealers 10% of final sale price. And this is not related to bonuses, allocations, etc. One of the stipulations is that 7% is taken off automatically. However, you may negotiate higher, which will just be less money out of that 10%.

Sure, I guess they would make much more money on a brand new S off the lot, however, this is program is pure paperwork and phone calls, so not too bad either. Its sort of like extra income for the dealership.

In any case, I'm not expert. I've just been doing alot of research these past few months and the bottom line is that instead of paying full msrp, i'm paying way less, which let me option the car a little better for my budget.

Only real downside- The month long wait for redelivery.

 

I took factory delivery of a new, 1986 Porsche Carrera Cabriolet. I set it up for an early February delivery, as I had to be in Germany on business at that time anyway. On delivery day it was snowing and I didn't want my new car to ever see rain, let alone snow, so I simply signed the papers and had the car shipped to my dealer in California. Well, the car showed up with a dented fender and some minor--but major to me--scuffs, scratches and overall less than brand new appearance. No miles as I recall, but as if the car was just not treated like the brand new car that it was. I found out after the fact that ED cars are shipped in a different manner than cars that will be "delivered" by stateside dealers. Even though I never took my car out of the factory in Germany, it was treated as a used car for shipment purposes. Anyway, if you, Mr. Skerdian, would be so kind as to tell us about how your stateside delivery went--especially since the selling dealer is on the other side of the country--I'm sure we would all like to hear about that upcoming part of your ED experience. Congratulations on your gorgeous new S.

 

Pls allow me to chime in. I took delivery of my 2011 M3 without any scratches or dents. In M forum, people talk about how some got into minor accidents while driving in Europe and cars have been delivered fixed and in perfect condition.
Perhaps things were a bit different in the 80s and its a fact that Porsche still makes thing unnecessarily complicated for euro delivery.
I highly recommend euro delivery. It's a load of fun. Will be contacting same sales person for my wife's S Klasse in Spring.
Just my .02

 

It makes no sense to compare 1986 to 2013 (nearly 30 year difference).

 

Great photos, beautiful car, interesting writeup. Congratulations and thank you for sharing.

 

Allow me to chime in..... ED is less expensive because vehicle is taxed differently because it is shipped stateside as a used vehicle, not as new ( lower tariffs ). At least that's what I've read. Anyhow great looking car, and great write up. Thanks for sharing.... I'm a local NYCer .... PM me your limo company I use limos on occasion , rather give a fellow forum member my cash than someone else

 

Great to see, you had very lovely experience and satisfied with your trip.
Happy New Year and safe driving

 

Two minutes of Google research and you can get the name of the company yourself... Skerdian +Limo will work nicely...

 

Skerdian,

Thanks for the great write-up. Please do let us know what condition your new S550 will arrive in. Hope you won’t need to report any damages, and will just please us all with another insightful story.

I’m going to order an S65 AMG this year and will hopefully be able to arrange for the European delivery as well. It would be good to learn from the experts as to the feasibility of wrapping the new car into "clear bra" protection in the local geography before driving to the port. Anybody has any ideas?

 

As I understand (and am scheduled to do in March), EDP delivery is no different than any other new car. MB still has to contract with their shipper and your EDP car is shipped right next to a non-EDP car on its way to the same US delivery center. If there are any shipping issues, MB fixes them. From reading the posts here, one would think every car has damage. Of course, we only hear the horror stories with no way to know how representative the sample is. I doubt the shipper would stay in business very long if every car was damaged. Unless the damage happened before you gave it to the shipper, I really cannot see a scenario where the car was damaged (but not repaired) before you get it back at your delivery dealer.

Tom
74 days to Stuttgart

 

Just for kicks I tried that... and all Google returned were ADS for limos, plus this thread.

I guess that just proves why google ads disguised as search results really are evil???

 

Skerdian is this you http://www.benilimos.com/

 

It is. Please pardon our exceptionally outdated website. We are a few days away from launching a new one. We dont have any of those car listed anymore except the range rover.