Marcus Benz just e-mailed me and informed me MY CAR has been built and is undergoing inspections and will soon be assigned a ship to Los Angeles. Cant wait Wolf

 

I've been on the list for quite a long time. I've never been this excited about a car!

Congrats Wolf

 

 

Hi Guys


As you may be aware I am No. 9 in the UK for an SLK55... I was getting so excited until I was told that I may have to relocate to south-west Florida early next year!!! Can anyone advise just how long I would have to wait to get hold of a car if I ordered in the US now?

Rgds


MJT

 

why dont u ship it from the uk to florida?

 

UK spec car, which would be right-hand drive? Don't think that would work... I've tried to contact Mercedes-Benz of Fort Myers without success so a waiting time from you guys would suffice for now.

Rgds


Marky-Mark

 

what dealer did you get your car from fredfromny? mb of manhattan?

 

Go for it, I say (moves me up one place in the queue )

 

Judging by his license plate frame, looks like MB of Huntington. Ah, my old 'hood.

 

Just reading my email at 12:25 am...Marcus Benz sent me an email saying my SLK55 is due to arrive in Los Angeles on 12/8 and should be ready for delivery on 12/12 oe 12/13 Wolf

 

I am sure you can't wait for 12/12 or12/13...rite

Any mod are you gonna do with the car??

 

Mine is on the terrain! I should get it next week. I am very exited! I hope you get yours soon too.

 

Well, almost ;-)
Just came back from my dealer, signing all the papers:
My car is arriving in LA the 22nd of November, at the dealership at the 26th !!!
Now, I'm going back to Germany and won't be back until the 29th, so I'll take delivery of my SLK55 (w/ every option) the 30th and will post - if anyone's interested ;-)

All the best,
Dan

 

First of all I am happy for you. It looks like we got a dog race going on! I will post pictures too.

Second: WAS ZUM TEUFEL You monitor everybody’s threads? Do you get an alert when someone posts/replies? In any case, keep up the good work!

 

Hat mit dem Teufel nix zu tun - nur Glueck ! :-)

Thank you - and same for you, obviously ! :-) And no, only monitoring the GOOD threads of course !

Looks like some of us all will be happy for christmas (and before) in any case !

All the best,
Dan

 

Ich habe nicht sogar verteilung noch und morgens zuerst auf der liste empfangen. sehr dissapointing!!!

Last word I got from dealer is that my Sales Manager sat down with my dealer's rep and was told that they did not yet get the allocation, and still have a chance to get the car this year! Hopefully soon!

 

Dinko,
believe me, I know how frustrating this is - I threw quite a few fits with my poor sales guy (poor in as much that he probably didn't have a lot of say or control in this matter).
I can maybe 'calm' you by saying, I was bumped to a car that had an allocation and hence I could have exactly the way I wanted - without having to wait for my originally ordered car. I am SURE now, that would not have made it here till the February / March time frame....

Honestly, I wish you all the best and hopefully you'll get good news soon !!
They WOULD have to get your a build spot pretty much 'now' to make it this year.... I hate to say it, but with all the holidays, I'd probably not count on it - as I didn't either....

Again, ALL THE BEST,
Dan

 

Dan,
Appreciate the answer. You were 'bumped' to a car that had an allocation? Could you please elaborate that, and perhaps what I could do to get the car sooner?

Perhaps adding the last option to the car (Hands-Free Option) ?

Thanks!

 

It's nothing fancy really. To cut a looong story short - The dealer was getting one car ahead of me. However, they also received one of the 'special' cars MB gave dealers as a bonus (Markus Benz & you talked about it earlier). They were able to shift my order around (i.e. my original order they will now use for someone else that walks in) due to the fact that they had an extra one. As they knew I would only have the car in exactly my specs and colour (some of the 'bonus' cars come sans nav DVD, no lighting pack etc. etc.) I worked something out with them - in short, I paid a very little premium, I mentioned having to consider other dealers etc.
THere's more to the story, but the bottomline is - I didn't do that much. It was after the fact that I knew (through my sales guy to give him credit !) they had an extra car that I asked them to let me partake in this somewhat. A bit of it was luck, no doubt, a bit of it me breaking down and paying premium (again, very little or I would have not done it) for the benefit of time.

Anyway, hope that answers the question. Feel free to PM me, and I can give you the rest of the story (don't want to put it all on the public board) - but again, there isnt' THAT much to it....

Fact is, it seems, at least for SoCal, I know of NO dealership that is getting more than a single ORDERED car this year (and some, not naming names ask for a preposterous 15k premium !!!). SOME dealers do get 2 - but that seems to be solely due to the 'bonus' allocation for certain dealers that MBenz alluded to earlier (and that you if I recall, first reported on on the board :-) ).

 

PS - you COULD check with your dealer (or dare I say, other dealerships) IF they are getting one of these bonus cars (though the West Coast ones are all arriving next week, Canada included - so the east coast might already have been delivered). Maybe they will a)find a car that is EXACTLY what you ordered or b) they can get you on a car with a build date / allocation if it freed up (since they gave their BONUS car to that person). In the end, be aware as I said of the premiums. I was aghast at the 15k premiums asked by at least 2 SoCal dealers straight up. Don't know about you, but I wouldn't even consider that....

Best,
Dan

 

I'm like #5 on my MB list. The guy in #1 spot put his order in August 2002. THAT is planning ahead!

Ahh well, my Sales guy is fighting for me & felt bad so he walked me around the back. There is a stand alone/separate & small storage room was a brand new SLR. It was pretty slick (very nice interior).

-Matt

 

Glueck? Wirklich! Komm doch alter! Teufel hat dir ein frueher Weihnachtsgeschenk geschickt! Zum Teufel mit Glueck!

Christmas present? May be for you in LA; not here in Vancouver! I can visualize you cruising your SLK55 top down with windows up, down to Malibu! And I can visualize my SLK55 hibernating in my garage with me in it fielding with the buttons and checking out the HK system! You know the small matter of white stuff!

I can not believe what you guys have to go through to buy a special car in the States! So hectic and crazy! Reading your stories reminds me of over-the top Hollywood movies! But I still love LA. I really miss my regular trips to LA; since we sold our office building on Wilshire Blvd.

 

:-) Naja, war nicht alles Glueck. Glueck, Teufel UND Geld. Daraufhin kommt's am Ende immer raus - jedenfalls mit Auto Verkaeufern! :-)

It's interesting for ME to see the contrast between car salesmen (and women) and car shopping in the US and Germany in general. The first time I bought a car in the US was quite a shocker to me ;-)
And that boils down to tactics still today: The whole culture of paying premium, haggling, basically trying to outsmart each other I'll never quite get used to, but at least I learned to play the game.

By the way, Winter nights in LA can get QUITE cold. And sometimes it rains for days on end ;-) Been to Vanouver many times, though never in thick of winter :-) Tell you what though, I'd drive the car in Winter in Berlin, with the heat blaring, rather than have it sit in the garage.

Cheers,
Daniel