No, you're not making generalizations...you're doing much worse. You're being flat-out dishonest and disingenuous. If I didn't already know you're a car salesman, I still would've had no problem guessing...

Here were your responses that I took issue with:

and...

So, like I said, you are doing a great job of demonstrating the same exact arrogant, ignorant, "blame the customer" attitude that I originally mentioned when I explained why I can't stand the idiots at most MB dealers.

Good job bro...

 

The dealers in my area let you take the cars home for the weekend or a couple days or so. When I was looking before I got my C Class I took home a 1999 E320 for the weekend along with a CLK320. They took a copy of my license. I left the car I drove to the dealer on there lot and returned their car in a couple days.

 

Not always. Our son who is 20 and drives a Mercedes pulled in to the dealership and they let him take out a C320. He came and visited me at work and I floored when they let him take out a 4 year old Mercedes on his own.

 

Maybe it varies from area to area? Brumos' sales dept. has never taken me seriously, and they've always been downright rude every time I've tried to deal with them. And this despite the fact that I regularly go there for service with different MB's that I've bought elsewhere because their sales department sucks. My service writer once asked me why I don't buy from them, and I told him honestly. His response, believe it or not, was "yeah I hear that a lot".

MB of Daytona has two faces...the sales dept was always great, but the service writers and the GM are a total nightmare. MB of Orange park is ok, other than the one incident where I had to replace a bottom seat cushion because they accidentally spilled brake cleaner on it and let it sit. They did replace it, but it was still a hassle. Besides for that, I have no major complaints with them.

I guess what I'm saying is, all in all, I just can't say that I've had a great experience at any of my local MB dealers. The service writers and techs are overworked and underpaid, which leads to screwups that they later try to weasel out of. And the salesmen around here all seem to be these game-playing 30-something guys with egos the size of texas, and who will put one over on you in 2 seconds flat if you don't watch yourself. Busta Riles is a walking talking example of the attitude I'm talking about.

For a brand that I remember as having top-notch customer service as recently as the late 1990s, it has all really gone downhill very quickly. I'm speaking from personal experience, I bought my first MB new in 1998, and have owned one model or another continuously since then. Like I said, maybe it's just my area, but at least around here customer service, both during and after the sale, has gone way downhill...

 

I can see how you would take offense to my statements as you quoted above. I absolutely had my feathers ruffled. I apologize to everyone who has to read this thread for my involvement in it.

OTOH, i take considerable offense to what you wrote here^^^. I decided to sell cars specifically for this reason....to eliminate this type of crap from happening to people who just want to get a reasonable deal and avoid hassle when buying a car.


Consider this for a moment: I work at a very reputable dealership in Canada. I personally have hundreds of satisfied customers that i have never played games with, lied to, or applied "silly rules" to (what are these silly rules?). I am also in a smaller market. How could your statements NOT make me angry.

Read through the 90+ posts that i have made since joining here. You will find that i have a passion for these cars, which is why we are all here. I have been helpful to other members who had questions about car deals, dealership protocol, pricing, option availability, etc. I sent some money to Juicee63 yesterday after reading his story.

I even helped out a guy who was importing a car from the US to Canada save thousands of dollars on work that he thought he needed to do on his car. Ask c43edmonton1 if i went out of my way to help him.

I am here for two reasons. To share information with fellow Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts in any way i can, as well as to find info for modding & improving my own cars.

 

It's funny, I read the entire thread and nobody, not anyone, tells the op that $45K for the '06 E55 is way, way too much. Well, you need to be at $35 for an '06 (unless CPO). Good luck.

 

Hey, back up a second. I just responded to the OP in this thread, saying that yeah I've had similar experiences with MB dealers' lackluster customer service. Next thing I know, you're here calling me an "a$$hole", and acting like an egotistical douchebag, and implying that somehow my dealer's poor service was my own fault. Ironically enough, you are an MB salesman, and this is exactly the type of attitude I was griping about in the first place when I made my original comment.

And say what you will, but there is no reasonable explanation for how you got from point A directly to making snide personal insults. There is no rational basis by which what I said to the OP should have been personally offensive to you. I live in Florida, you live in Canada. I've never met you, much less done business with you, and my original comments were nothing more than my own personal experiences, they weren't directed at you.

What's more, I've been a loyal MB customer for 11 years, and have every right to my own observations. Your overreaction to my original comments, which were entirely fair and weren't aimed at you in the first place, was totally uncalled for. Ultimately, you have exhibited the exact type of nut-swinging "blame the customer" behavior that has become pervasive with this brand over the past few years. And while I appreciate your point of view, and am certainly sorry that you were somehow offended by my original comments to the OP, your latest post is still nothing more than one more attempt to blame your overreaction on me.

 

So your comments here are not aimed at me? It seems as though they are aimed at all MB dealerships/salesmen.

Carl's sarcastic comment about buying signals followed by your above comments are what upset me.

I have apologized for my reaction already. Please show me how the above comments are not directed at me, and how they are not generalized remarks.

 

Ok, so maybe you can jog my memory on this one, because I can't seem to recall that time when I drove 2k miles each way up to Canada and bought a car from you? Or the time the service department at your dealership in Canada screwed up my car? Oh wait...yeah...that's because it didn't happen.

So, logically enough, me commenting on my own experiences with other MB dealers I've done business with couldn't possibly be directed at you, since I've never even met you, let alone done business with you or your dealer. My comments were reflective of the dealers I've done business with, and if you're not one of them, then you have no horse in this race. Don't you see a rational disconnect in taking personal offense to someone groaning about bad service 2k miles away and in another country?

Can you imagine what would happen if I ran around starting a fight every time somebody tells a stupid lawyer joke? We have to relax man, it's a jungle out there, and you're going to be offended often enough legitimately, you don't want to go around looking for "extra" things to get upset about.

 

Some dealerships even hesitate for short test drives. What really makes you think they'll offer it to you for a full day? If that offered it to you, they mind as well just loan out each and every car out to the people that stop by each day.

I know what you mean, you want to spend time in a car before you put out the big $$$. It's tough. For the typical car, you can usually go rent something, but its tough on the W211 AMG.

Good luck.

 

I have been around here long enough to know that $45k is too much, I just put it in the thread because that was their asking price and that's what I quoted when I told him. The car wasn't advertised as a CPO but when I asked about it, he said it was. Either way, it's water under the bridge.

 

Good chance the dealer took it in trade just as resale was plummeting, If he has 42 in the car, and it's worth 35 now, he'll watch it rot forever instead of cutting his losses, unless Pollyanna happens to wander on the lot and falls in love.

Not directed at any sales guys here, but I too get ignored by MB sales people, but it varies by the dealership. The first one I bought was a CPO from a combo MB and Honda under one roof. The salesguy was from the Honda side. Years later, I went back for another one, and the suited, slick haired MB guys sat at their desks and glared at me. Very bizarre. So I went over to my Honda salesman from previous time, and he took care of the deal in a normal, easy fashion. Apparently they had a rule that since the Honda guy was involved in a previous MB used purchase, he was allowed to sell any MB.

One observation I had while waiting for the paperwork was that the Honda showroom was bustling, and the sales staff were all casual and friendly, and doing brisk work. 30 feet away, the Gordon Gekkos in the MB showroom were all sitting idly at their empty desks, ignoring the one other customer aside from myself.

 

Exactly!!!

I work with over 200 dealers locally... giving up a used E55 for day is giving up a chance to sell it to someone else. It just doesnt happen to the everyday buyer.

Personally I have borrowed new E63's and SL55's for several days but you have know someone and provide a whole lot of value especially if its a franchise dealer you are working with. You might be get a used high line lot to let you borrow a car though for longer period of time. 24 hours; Im not sure about but maybe a good part of the day.

 

The car was an off-lease auction car according to the Carfax report. They can let it sit as long as they want or they can sell it tomorrow, either way, it won't be to me. They have a sister dealership down the road and both have used, auction e55's and both cars have been sitting for 3 months+. If they find a sucker to drop the coin and drive out of there for their asking prices, more power to them. I'm still on edge cause of my current truck experience. I did a 10 minute test drive and I wish I didn't, even though the dealer did say, "Take it and bring it back tomorrow." I should have. It's in the shop for what seems to be the 10th time. I am going to try to lemon law it instead of trading it away so my buying timeframe has just increased exponentially. Who knows... if the right car came along from the right person or dealer, I'd still take the loss just to get out of the truck. A word of advice, though. Don't ever buy a $46k luxury pickup truck and expect luxury or quality. It's still a pickup truck and mine just happens to be a POS pickup truck.