Your arrival at VPC was right in the middle of a snow storm, wasn't it? Or that could have been someone else. I guess not much to do but wait.

I still have to get my paperwork to go register it at the DMV so I have a few things to do yet. Moving the giant LAN cabinet in my garage this weekend so the car will fit. Man, it's a long car

 

If I recall, Baltimore had a wet snow event (not much accumulation) about the time the car got there, but that should not have delayed the process at all.

 

Just to keep a continuing record of my EDP process, the Brilliant ACE was only in Halifax for about 12 hours. It left this morning. Mercifully, it is not stopping at every VPC as its next port is Brunswick, GA (ETA on 4/21).
On a related note, you may recall that I purchased this car through Herbert Haemmer at MB of Escondido. I emailed Herbert yesterday asking if the paperwork from Germany had arrived at the dealer. He said coincidentally he just had it yesterday and was sending it out to me via FedEx (with the dealer endorsement for the lien holder I presume). I am supposed to take what I receive to the Florida DMV to get the car titled in Florida and registered.

At the DMV, I have to pay the 6% sales tax on the car directly to the DMV as well as an extra $50 towards our 1% Penny for Pinellas Sales Tax (it is capped at $50 for big purchases).

I realize some of this is redundant or irrelevant to most, but I offer it here for future EDP customers' reference. I know I had lots of questions throughout this whole process and I would have loved to have a very detailed summary of the whole process.

 

TomS, gorgeous car!! I ordered the same interior color. Is the dash covered with smooth nappa leather, or is it the pebbled leather? I hope it is the smooth leather! My dealer is not sure. Thanks

 

None of that pebbly stuff in this car. Our E350 has that stuff. I'm not a fan. I should add "Thanks!" It's a great combination. I figured light colored carpet would be impossible to keep clean but the seats are easier to clean regularly.

 

Thanks for the info! Will keep my order as is. I really like the smooth nappa leather on the dash and everywhere else.

 

My car's ship has been 40 miles off the coast of Brunswick for 8 hours now. Argh! Does anyone have direct knowledge or experience with your delivery ship being delayed from docking?

It looks like it cleared customs already electronically.

 

Looks like its due in at 2am. My former ship the Georgia Highway just left Brunswick. It had been there since yesterday.

 

That was 2:00 AM UTC which is in 15 minutes I'm sure it will be in by the time I wake up.

The VPC starts then so I might as well get comfortable.

 

I have found when tracking ships that the time is local not UTC despite what MarineTraffic says. Maybe they are just always late 4-5 hours depending on time of year. Lol

 

My 2015 has been sitting at Baltimore VPC and won't be released until May!

 

Oh. That helps on the time. Thanks

 

That's a little different situation though. My car is a 2014 so no MB holds like yours. I'm sure yours will be worth the wait.

 

Yup. Just empathizing with the wait! Lol

 

THIS IS A VERY LONG POST ABOUT REGISTERING YOUR EDP CAR IN FLORIDA IF YOU BUY FROM AN OUT-OF-STATE DEALER LIKE MB OF ESCONDIDO.

I went to the DMV today to get the registration process out of the way. I had to do this ONLY because I choose to order the car through Herbert in Escondido rather than my local Florida dealer. If the car was local, they would have handled this stuff for me. So, Herbert does give an extra 2% discount for out of state customers but here is where you are going to earn it. In my case, that extra 2% was $2400 so it was worth 90 minutes.

Note what I am about to convey applies to Florida. Your jurisdiction most definitely has different rules and procedures. So, plan accordingly...

Just a small recap...I purchased an 2014 S550 for delivery via the MB Euro Delivery program (EDP). Herbert of Escondido took care of this so this was an Out-Of-State dealer to me. I took delivery on March 18 at the Center of Excellence in Sindelfingen. I drove the car around Italy and dropped it off in Nice on March 27th. The car was trucked to Bremmerhaven and departed the port on April 10. The ship arrived in Brunswick, GA on 4/22. So, to recap, 26 days from drop-off OUTSIDE of Germany to the VPC. The car was electronically cleared by US Customs so no waiting there. That is FAR less than the 13 weeks horror stories they tell you with EDP but maybe this was an exception. It's cool that it was only been just UNDER 4 weeks since I dropped it off.

OK...now that we are all caught up...

I chose today to go to the DMV as Wednesdays in the middle of the month are the slow times. I waited about 30 minute to get served.

First, the less you say about Europe the better. Just stick to the fact that this is a car you purchased NEW from an out of state Mercedes dealer. I say that as I mentioned EDP by mistake and they started to ask all kinds of questions about the car to see if it was a US car. Also, remember that most DMV people will rarely have seen a Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin (MCO). This is what starts the title process. Your dealer will send this to you. Again, local dealer will handle this for you and you will never visit the DMV.

In Florida, they do VIN verification for cars. Normally if you buy a car from your Brother-in-law, someone needs to verify the VIN. That can be a cop or someone else. You can also bring it to the DMV. THAT DOES NOT APPLY HERE! The manufacturer's origin certificate is all you need for VIN verification. You do NOT need the car present in Florida—mine is still in Brunswick. This was not an issue for me but I state this just in case it comes up. As I said earlier, you are doing things they do not normally see, so the clerks might try to apply their knowledge of the common tasks to this. Be persistent and ask to speak to the boss if they pushback on anything.

The first clerk could not handle my registration so he turned me over to another. The second clerk had only been there 3 months and had never seen an MCO. But, he was very helpful and made it a smooth process by not getting flustered. He went to speak to the boss and she came back and explained what he needed to do. I had all the right paperwork so no problems. Unfortunately, the clerk had a question about the odometer statement and he asked a different floor supervisor. This is where we got into some trouble. The floor supervisor said we need a odometer accuracy statement. I explained that I did not believe that to be the case when one has an MCO. I also mentioned that the boss explains we had everything we needed. The clerk, much to his credit, continued processing my form based on what the boss told him. The two supervisors read some rules or something and finally agreed we were OK. Sadly, the supervisor that was so certain I needed the odometer statement did not think to apologize. Everything proceeded from that point. I was issued a Florida tag and a registration. The process took 90 minutes total (with 30 of that being the initial wait).

I ended up paying about $6800 to register the car as I had to pay the sales tax on the car plus the registration fee ($95 for 14 months).

So, if you are an EDP customer and buy from an out-of-state dealer, plan on spending some time to do this one afternoon. I guess it would be nicer if as part of the courtesy delivery to the local dealer, Mercedes could add the service to file this paperwork from the local dealer and get you a tag, but that would be money the dealer has to pay the local delivery dealer I guess for the service. Still, they handle MCOs and new cars all the time with the state DMV, so this is really where it should be done. I wonder what BMW does?

I presume for those that did EDP with a local dealer, they handle all of this for you.

Regarding progress on the car, the ship left Brunswick (although it technically never docked according to MarineTraffic). I presume that means my car is at the VPC as it cleared customs already according to the IFF site.

I emailed Herbert and asked for a status and also the name of the person I will work with at the local dealer. He still owes that to me. I am trying to not be too impatient so I will just get a status this weekend as I think Herbert is off on Wednesdays.

Obviously this is very long, but when I was first thinking about Euro Delivery I had many questions. Hopefully this will answer some questions for folks looking into EDP.

 

Tom,
I am looking at an European delivery and have to thank you for your detailed description of the process. I think I will use Herbert also for the order.

 

Tom,

Have you had your mobile transceiver installed yet? If so, where did you finally put the head unit? Pictures?

 

I do not have the car yet, but right now, I'm looking at installing an Icom 880 D-Star radio and a low-profile, black Diamond mount on the back. The antenna is black to so this should blend in pretty well. I starred at the hole saw for 3 minutes yesterday but I just don't have the nerve to drill that hole in the deck

When I was in the car in Europe, I did scope out some possible locations. A removable mount on the spot where you put the CDs and SD media card might work. I am going to have to sit int he car for an hour and just explore to see what would work best. I am also going to bring the car to Blvd Customs here in Clearwater to runt he wires and make it look factory.

As soon as I figure it out, I will post a new thread.

Tom

 

Tom, sorry about this but I'm lost on this subject. What in the world is an Icom 880 D-Star radio? Why do you need it? I thought this car has every possible radio option you could possibly want.

 

Not a problem. I am an amateur radio operator and I posted a question awhile ago about installing the radio (I was interested in the battery location which I now know is in the trunk). Someone else was also interested and he asked me after reading this thread.

For the record in case anyone is interested, an IC 880H is a VHF/UFHF radio that hams can use to communicate with each other hams locally or through an worldwide linking system.

The radio has a tiny control head that has to be installed in the front and 3 cables run to the back. So, if anyone is looking at snaking other types of mobile electronics to the trunk or elsewhere (hidden RADAR detector anyone?), this would be a similar idea.

It is OT for this thread through but I answered it here as it was asked here.

Just in case anyone is interested, http://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio has more information on amateur radio—like this group needs another hobby

Now back to bugging Herbert for a status update on my car!

 

I checked with Montvale and they said it is on the truck heading this way. Should be tomorrow morning or even tonight!

 

Excellent news Tom! I know the waiting can be excruciating.

 

6 days from docking in Brunswick to it being released to a truck. All total from drop off in Nice France to delivery at my dealer turns out to be 5 1/2 weeks. I would never have believed it.

 

OK so everything I said about the speed of this, forget!!! Mercedes now says it was NOT on the truck and it is in D3 status but with a dealer ETA of 5/5 (Monday). Maybe they found something when it went on the truck Oh well...

 

Oh Tom! This reminds me SO much of the situation I was in with my car. I was told by the sales guy who was in turn told by the VPC folks that it was released and on the truck from Baltimore to KC. Then days later, we find out, oops! It was not on the truck yet. Evidently, it's the transportation company that screwed up. Well, the transport company then promised on a Wednesday that it would reach the dealer by Friday. This time it turned out to be true. Amazing what these people get away with.