davand

My wife and I are due to collect our new SLK from Germany in January 2005 under the Mercedes Personal Collection programme. The only concern that we have is that the weather in January may well be terrible. If it is, I think the last thing we would want to do is to drive all the way back to England with a brand new car however, we don't really want to miss out on the apportunity to pick our new car up in this way.

What would you do?. Collect the car and risk appalling weather or pick it up from our nearest dealer and drive all 12 miles back home with it?!!

Motzkoman

I would risk the weather...although I am down for October and the weather should be OK...

steve-p

If you don't do it, I'm sure you will always regret it. I'm hoping to get mine next summer but if it turns out to be autumn/winter, I'm still going to pick it up from the factory and drive it home. At least when I get back to the UK the dealer will have to clean it for me! Snow would not be ideal, so I do understand your concerns.

Lirim318

Don't see it as just picking up a car, rather treat it as a weekend getaway with your wife. Use the opportunity to visit Germany and all the little towns along the way....take full advantage of the autobahn . As for how the weather's gonna be in January, unless you are psychic you'll never know....but in my opinion it's well worth taking the risk.

sinbat

Didn't know that MB even offer the delivery from one country to another in Europe. Question for you....is the Chunnel accessible by car or does it have to be transport via train or ferry?

davand

Personal collection includes travel via Eurotunnel to the UK. You simply drive your new car on and the journey takes 35 minutes. Moe info at:

http://www.eurotunnel.com/ukcMain/uk...rs/ukpJourney/

For more info on Personal Collection within Europe:

http://www.mercedes.co.uk/pc/index.html

Click on New Models, then click new SLK and click personal collection link and all the info is there.

davand

I think you guys have swayed it for me. We will collect the car and damn the weather!!.

SL Boy

Dont worry - I did a personal collection from Stuttgart in February this year. There was lots of snow but unlike the UK, the Germans and French have these things sorted. All motorways and main roads were passable and perfectly safe. I was told they dont use salt so no risk of damage to car.

NastyAluQuadra

You can risk it, but bear in mind German winters are a bit more extreme than UK ones. You'll probably be alright, but there is a minor risk it'll snow a shed load. All the Germans will be on winter tyres which are pretty important at this time of year. Having said that Bavaria is worse, and Stuttgart is not so bad. You only have a very small chance of having any problems. I'd ask the advice of the collection centre, and make it clear your car won't have winter tyres etc., and you're just collecting to take back to UK. They'll probably say no problem.