I discovered on Wednesday (as I was pouring over the owners manual trying to figure out how to turn them on) that my new E55 is missing the ventilated seats that were on my buyers order. They are not in the car AND not on the window sticker. After confirming the buyers order listed them, the dealer said they would research. Their official response: That the seats were not available when my car was built so MB just ignored the option and built it without it. I'm told this often happens.

If this is true, I'm suprised about several things. One, that nobody bothered to ask me if I wanted the car built without the option, two, that the dealer did not spot the missing option when they received the car and did the pre-delivery, and three, that nobody bothered to tell me at delivery that the car was not as ordered. Perhaps suprised is the wrong term, angry/dismayed/disappointed all might be more descriptive.

Does this explanation ring true with the board; has anybody else run into similar issues, or am I more likely dealing with a order screw up at the dealership and this is their way of covering? Did the folks who ordered '03's with the command center know before they took delivery that the command center was not in the car?

In this, the Information age, I continue to be stunned at how poorly the buyers of high end, expensive automobiles are treated. I can give Fed Ex a package and $8.50 and they can tell me real time where the item is and when it will be delivered, and confirm delivery in real time. I give my car dealer $1,000, agree to buy a car costing more than $90K and they can't tell me with any certainty when the car will be anywhere and then when it does show up they can't even figure out it's not what I ordered.

 

I am sorry to hear about teh debacle you're experiencing. I, personally have not had a problem with my dealer. If you can give out which MB dealer you went to, others may comment on them.

 

the dealer is definitely jerking you around. Your car will probably have to be re-ordered.

 

I would be quite unhappy.

When I ordered my car, I called and talked to my dealer at least once a week to confirm what was ordered. I didn't want to take any chances that anything was going to be wrong.

I had her fax me the netstar print out when it was first entered and I always talked to her every friday even though nothing was changing. I didn't care if I bugged her, it's her job to answer my questions.

She probably understood my concerns so she always answered my questions and updated me on the status of the car, ie build date, shipment, arrival, etc.

Did you have any kind of print out from the dealership when you first ordered the car? Check on that and see if ventilated seats are included. If they are on it, then you should definately talk to your dealer about it. If they weren't specified in the first netstar print out it might be a more difficult case for you.

Good luck. I hope everything works out.

 

Your dealer dropped the ball. Did you order the Drive Dynamic seat? If so, the computer rejected it because if you order both, it would be the new for 2004, Comfort Package. I ordered both but my salesman was smart enough to make sure it was the comfort package that I got.

I would order another one or get a really good discount on the one they have.