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Smart Shopper European Delivery Experiences, Advice and Info
251 messages, Last post on Jul 13, 2008 at 5:01 PM
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Re: C230 car rental prices I'm sure that it's at least that much to rent. If for any reason I don't do the ED, which I doubt, I'd probably end up with a Eurail Pass  Dan |
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I called the BMW ED 800 number and bugged the lady who talked to me for the dealer invoice on an ED 323i. She finally cracked and told me that it was $22095. The MSRP is about $24.5K. This is about $2.5K of dealer profit....hmmmm. I called back the next day and asked for the invoice on a 328i but they wouldn't budge....So the price should be negotiable by the dealership! |
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| I spoke with MBUSA today (their 800 number) and the 2000 model will no longer be offering a 5% discount from MSRP for European Delivery. From what I was told, MB is doing to Saturn style, set pricing, even for domestic delivery. It's MSRP, or shop elsewhere. | |
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I live in Switzerland. I am about to buy a car. My preference would be to buy a new car (VW or Subaru preferably) FOR EXPORT to California in 2+ years. Any tips on how to go about this? Thanks in advance... |
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Wife & I just got back from Europe, where we picked up her SLK. Spent the first night at the Intercontinental Stuttgart, free under the program. They also gave us a free drink and DM50 off dinner. Stuttgart on a Sunday afternoon isn't very exciting. Museum was good, but doesn't take up much time. An alternative would be to stay by the Airport or in one of the hotels in Boblingen or Sindlefingen and use one of the free hotel nights elsewhere. Or pick up the car the day you arrive, but that's pretty tough on the system. Also the morning factory tours are limited to buyers only. Was surprised at how big the new delivery center is (opened in February I think). They have an enormous floor where vehicles are brought out and tech go over the features. 20-35 cars were out on the floor at any one time. Majority were Germans picking up cars not for export. Many, many S classes. Over half the new MBs were silver. Many more trim levels than we see in the US. The factory tour was fascinating, saw the C and E class being built. Glad to say no one on the tour was allowed to operate a welder (someone posted that earlier). But we didn't find time for the museum which is on the other side of town. Second night was Hotel Lisl, Hohenschawngau in Bavarian alps (also free). Beautiful, enormous anique-filled room looking out at the castles. Very highly recommended. Stop by the Harms office after you pick up the car to fill out paperwork. The info from MB tells you to do this, but the salesman at the delaer and the person at the deliver center said not to bother. But it would have been better as we were late when it came time to drop off. Highly recommend the program for anyone who is buying a car and need a vacation. |
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Just ordered Volvo S80 T6 for factory pickup in Sept. Was able to get ticket for myself and for my husband to Sweden on Volvo. I found 2 different dealers that would give me this deal to get the business. I went with the one most convenient for service. Just got my packet last week and have my airline tickets taken care of. Now I just have to wait until Sept. Anyone with any input on Gothenburg? We're staying 1 night at Hotel Gothia on Volvo, and the rest of the time at Radisson SAS Scandinavia (formerly Sheraton). Is anyone familiar with either property? Any tips on the city would be appreciated. We are only going for the car and to tour the factory. Total of 3 nights/4 days. Thanks, Kathy |
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| Glad to see you had a very positive experience with the MB factory delivery. As you may recall from my previous posts, my wife and I had a similar, very positive experience last Sept. with our 230 K. I have yet to hear a negative response from anyone taking advantage of the factory delivery program. | |
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| I just wanted to point out that you can have your car serviced by any Volvo dealer. Too bad you won't be able to see Scandanavia--somewhere I've always wanted to go. | |
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I just returned to the US from collecting my new Volvo V70AWD in Gothenburg and I thought I'd post a report. Overall it was a first-class experience. Volvo covered my plane ticket. I flew BA by choice, SEA-LHR-LGW-GOT. We arrived at Landvetter Airport, about 20km out of town, at 600pm. Volvo will pay for ONE ground transfer. If you land early in the day, they'll meet you at Landvetter and run you right up to the factory, but in my case I had to choose between the airport-hotel run or the hotel-factory run the following morning. I opted to hop the airport bus into town, to the Hotel Gothia, and let Volvo come get me the following morning. The airport bus is great. Departs every fifteen minutes. When you get out of Customs at Landvetter, walk outside, turn left, and there it is. Cost is SKR45 ($5.50). For the Hotel Gothia, ask for the SECOND scheduled stop. The ride takes about 20 minutes. The Hotel Gothia is a big, modern convention hotel. Lots of birch and glass. Rooms big by Euro standards. Great sauna, great free breakfast spread. Rooftop bar charges berserk drink prices. Volvo pays your room and tax, you pay for incidentals (including the local phone call you make to Volvo to request pickup). The hotel is a pleasant fifteen-minute walk from "downtown" -- lots of bars, cafes, bistros, and most everyone has some English. We had a nice evening incl. dinner in a sidewalk cafe. Volvo sent a taxi (not a Volvo limo  ) to get us the next morning. The Delivery Center is on the edge of the factory complex, clear the other side of Gothenburg -- about 30 minutes from the hotel. They knew we were coming and had all papers ready. A delivery officer (ours was named Leif) goes over all the paperwork with you and makes sure you understand your Swedish registration and temp insurance (from Zurich Direct, very comprehensive). Then your car is rolled out for you in a little ceremony. There is a glassed-in room at the end of the Delivery Center with a garage door at one end. The door rolls up and your car comes out, then you enter and inspect it under the lights. It's pretty nice. When you want to drive it, the glass door ahead of you slides up and out you go onto a very modest "test track" which is basically two 300-meter straightaways with a top speed of 50kph. After we'd driven the car around for about ten minutes we noticed a flaw in the front passenger seat: a shallow half-inch incision in the leatherwork. We called it to Leif's attention and his face darkened, he grabbed the keys back and whisked the car back to the workshop. When we returned from lunch a whole new seat had been installed. I doubt that would've happened at a Stateside dealer. The Delivery Center has luggage lockers for folks in transit, a children's playroom, and a (pretty modest) accessories shop with good prices. We bought locking lug nuts there and Leif had them installed at no charge. We spent about four hours there all told -- they offered us a facility tour which was interesting even though the assembly line was down (August industrial holiday). We saw the Special Vehicles shop where various craftsmen were doing police, hearse, & limo conversions. Lunch was on Volvo at the paint shop dining area -- very nice. Anything we wanted. Then in true Swedish-egalitarian fashion the cooks came around the counter and ate with us. A sweet, personable guide took us around. We had a chance to speak to many employees and ask them what they thought of the Ford takeover (mostly they think it's a job insurance policy). We were gone around 3pm and easily made Copenhagen by 6pm. Leif told us a morning delivery is best because things get busy at the Delivery Center in the afternoons, when the ferry arrives from Kiel and bunches of Germans arrive to pick up their cars. The staff there will make ferry arrangements, by the way, or help with maps and directions or whatever. Two weeks later we dropped the V70 at Harms, the shipping agent, across the road from Heathrow Airport in London. 2200 miles on the odo; flawless performance from the car, which averaged 24 mpg combining autobahn and London-gridlock driving. The dropoff procedure takes about an hour, and unless you're doing it in Gothenburg, Bremerhaven or Antwerp, there is a transport surcharge which they want in cash U.S. dollars --no credit cards. I checked on the fee before leaving home and packed $235 in a sealed envelope! We photographed the car all around before leaving it; it should be back in Seattle in six to eight weeks. That's the summary. It was a great experience. E-mail me if you have any further questions. |
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My wife picked up her MB SLK at the stateside dealer yesterday. It was 7-1/2 weeks from drop-off at EA Harms in Sindlefingen (Stuttgart). Interestingly, we were given a new set of floor mats (German floormats not flame-resistant enough). They let us keep the old ones. Also got a new owners manual. The prep center in Port Hueneme fixed a problem we had in Germany (instead of unscrewing the antenna, I managed to unscrew the mount (two pieces one inside, other outside the fender that screw together)). The inside piece fell into the fenderwell. You need a smog inspection for CA. Smythe European wants $70! But they are very acommodating, they paid sales tax & license fees and gave us the car, asking that we get $4,009 to them by Tuesday. One thing to mention, Germany traffic is as bad as anywhere in the US--make sure you allow plenty of time for traffic especially if travelling on Friday PM.
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