Quackledork

Oregon. I won't say who the dealer is, but you could probably figure it out. They've been friendly and responsive so far. But, my confidence is wavering. I said I would give them until the end of December ... well here it is.

HBerman

I know that my dealer in NC has allocation for a wagon for a March build. You should be able to arrange for the car to be delivered directly by your dealer. I'm not certain about the mechanics of this sale, but I'm sure that it can be done.

6G Schnell

Agree, I would search for the dealer that can deliver.
Also, not getting build date after long six months of waiting speaks enough about the dealer.
Believe Quackle... ordered the car and paid deposit while back in July.

NeoX

Mailed the sales-guy today again. The car is still in HFN Cuxhaven since 02.12!!. I'm amazed.
So the car hasn´t left germany, even though production was 27.11

I guess you guys will get the car before me as long you get it loaded onto a ship :-D

(Swden is i many ways an underdeveloped country, so I´m not that surprised)

SFT

At port - ship assigned. Don’t have the name of the ship yet.

HBerman

B8! All Right! My car shows B7 as of this AM, but we should be on the same ship I would think. However, some of the ships do not stop in Brunswick but do stop in Baltimore. I'll update later when I get the name of the boat/

HBerman

Do you have the name of the ship yet?

SFT

No

HBerman

Ok, thanks. The ship name would probably be on the car manifest.

Corsair66

I’m pretty sure that my sales guy is tired of my texting him for updates. 😎

Quackledork

Update. I took everybody's advice and found a dealership with a March 2021 allocation. Mercedes of Bellevue, near Seattle had an allocation. I put my build in today along with a deposit. I am not going to fuss over the deposit, since this dealership has never worked with me. I can understand if they want some assurances I am not some nutball.

I figure I will just ignore my local dealer...which is what they have been doing to me. If they happen to stumble upon an earlier allocation, then I can cancel this one. The local dealership asked for 5000 down, but then waived it. So, I think I will just leave it at that.

This entire process is stupid. Its a terrible way to sell a premium product. There should be some central list where you can put in an order and they are fulfilled in the order which they come in. And it should not matter what dealership you use. This whole allocation process basically creates impediments for us as consumers, for the benefit of high volume dealerships.

HBerman

A country-wide allocation is how most of the countries operate. The US is an exception where the high-value cars are doled out to the volume dealers which then forces dealer allocation trades on other models.

Slack Beries

Not that there couldn't be a centralized allocation and ordering process today but the franchise dealership model is going to encounter headwinds as EVs takeoff. Eventually there will be less ongoing maintenance and Cadillac is already in the news due to their dealers being unwilling to invest in EV readiness. There's also a growing minority of consumers who are willing to use subscriptions. Hopefully MB does try direct sales like Tesla.

Corsair66

The US dealership system is antiquated and entirely unnecessary today. Tesla has it exactly right - simply order online and go pick up the car when it comes in. I’ve never understood the entire “sales” concept, especially for luxury goods of any sort. Nobody can be talked into them; they essentially sell themselves. I don’t require a salesman to be anything more than an order facilitator and that can be readily done online these days. The whole process and its infrastructure in this country should be torched.

Quackledork

I almost bought a Tesla a few years ago. I decided against it for banal reasons (it wasn't luxurious enough). However, the sales process was supremely better. The dealership franchise model is so fundamentally broken. It creates so many unnecessary impediments. I am a perfect example of how broken this is. I wanted this new car months ago. I have money, I am ready to buy, and I am planning ahead. Yet my order has sat in limbo for months, with no communication or clarification. I should have been one of the first people in the USA to get a E63 wagon, but as it stands I wont get it for months, because I simply was at the wrong dealership. And the maker of the product will not do anything to remedy this.

I agree, this entire system needs to be burned to the ground. It is antiquated and inefficient.

Corsair66

Agreed on all points. I bought a Model S toward the end of 2016 and flipped it a year later. I enjoyed aspects of the technology, but didn’t care for the non-existent luxury (apart from the battery tech, it’s a $50K car and a shoddily-built one at that) and absolutely hated the company’s penchant for favoring whimsy over improvement. You didn’t miss out on anything special.

I’ll be sticking with MB for my daily driver going forward and varying my toy cars while always favoring Ferrari. Next up: a 599 GTB.

SFT

I’m pretty sure AMG allocations are based on the number of AMG vehicles a dealer sells - not simply the sale of run of the mill benzes. The other thing to keep in mind - E63 wagons are probable one of the rarest cars MB produces - particularly in the US. They are hard to come by. Take one look at Bring a Trailer and see how much they are going for - crazy prices.

6G Schnell

This is the part of the whole story.

AMG production is limited by EU emission standards, as the first step. This means X AMG cars can be produced based on Y regular cars sold.

The second limit is MBUSA that gives AMG allocation to the US dealers based on their volume.
Bottom line is, if somebody shopping for an AMG in the US should go to the higher volume dealer.
Simple and logical, no smoke and mirrors.....

Wassaby

I have one build available and I'm in WA state. There is no pain because the car will be registered to your address in OR not WA. DM let me know if you want to place your order and we can chat on the phone.

Wassaby

You're 100% correct on allocations.

NeoX

Since you bring it up, I´m almost 100% sure what’s going on. My car was produced 27.11 but they sort of refuse to put it on a boat. I was sure to have it delivered on a boat this week, but for some reason the car never left the harbor in cuxhaven (germany). The car has been there since 2.12. Deliver the car to sweden in december would have it registered in december. With the EU emission rules (is it only EU? not world wide?) have it registered here, my car is calculated with the totals of 2020 so it will add to the average. Mercedes knows that next year they will sell more EVs, therefore they are fine with delivering more E63s.*

This also explains why they delayed the start of production of the car. There has been no intent to have any facelifted E63s on the road during 2021, or just a limited number of vehicles (mostly press and pre-production). This could also explain the difficulty for you to order the car. You know the process of course in US (and it differs from other countries), but I get the feeling that Mercedes doesn´t really want you to select this car. They want you of course to by a Mercedes, not just the filthy E63S :-)

I´m constantly scanning social media, like Instagram and YouTube. I have not yet seen a single video of a car delivered and driven by a "common" person. All videos and cars seems to been driven by "youtubers", owned by dealerships etc. Correct me if I´m, wrong here, but I haven´t seen any.

(* In sweden there was a similar situation autumn 2019. Car manufactures refused to deliver hybrids during end of 2019 because they wanted them to be calculated for the new emission rules of 2020. Every hybrid would lower the average, hence no point to deliver 2019. Some manufactures admitted this, I it was quite a large fuzz. But in my case, Mercedes would never admit that they intentionally delays my car.)

HBerman

My car is at the port in Bremerhaven as of 12/16, but does not have a ship assigned for transport to the US. I am hoping that it ships out on 12/21, but I have no assurances that it will do so. The original production date was supposed to be in November, but got pushed back one month.

Corsair66

Same here, except that I’ve yet to receive confirmation that my car has made it to Bremerhaven.

NeoX

So now we have a race situation. Who is the first person to get the car on a boat!?

Corsair66

I just heard that my car is B-8 (assigned to ship). We don't have the ship name yet, but it should pop up in Netstar anytime now.