German Car Forum

My sales guy called today with a production date for my C300 Luxury (Elegance elsewhere) which will be Sept. 1-10. The delay was caused by a hold on the Multimedia package which has just become available, after 9/1.

I was happy to learn that since my car is one of the early ones, it will come from Germany. Subsequent cars for North America will come from South Africa. This will add about ten days to the normal six-week delivery after build date.

What MB will do about factory delivery cars for North American customers is unknown.

Congrats RLE,

I bet you can't wait for delivery. How was/is factory delivery organised for you guys in the U.S.

My dealer says my last day for option changes is July 23, I will get a build date shortly afterwards. I opted for a factory collection for my C280 (300) Sport.

RLE, I ended up going with Phil Smart as well. Bumped it up to a c350 since the price was reasonable. Have a build date of July 26th. Hopefully they will have their demo car soon.

If this is true then I will have bought my last C-Class. .

many of the 203 C-classes sold in the US were assembled in Brazil. did you know that?

<<If this is true then I will have bought my last C-Class. >>

And why would that be? MB builds cars all over the world and I would bet that cars built in Mexico, for example, are just as well screwed together as those built in Germany.

Did you know that all Porsche Boxsters for the North American market are built in Finland? And when both German and Finnish cars were coming to the US, that the paintwork on the Finnish cars was superior?

<<I ended up going with Phil Smart as well. Bumped it up to a c350 since the price was reasonable. Have a build date of July 26th. Hopefully they will have their demo car soon.>>

With that build date, you did not order the multimedia package. I originally planned on the C350 but that engine is only offered in the Sport model which means a black interior which was a deal breaker for me.

<<Congrats RLE, I bet you can't wait for delivery. How was/is factory delivery organised for you guys in the U.S. My dealer says my last day for option changes is July 23, I will get a build date shortly afterwards. I opted for a factory collection for my C280 (300) Sport.>>

Without getting into dealer allocations and so on, ordering a car for factory pickup is no more trouble than dealer pickup. There is a small discount plus a couple of hotel nights, a taxi ride to the factory and something else. It's all spelled out at www.mbusa.com.

I am a little curious about your build date vs last day for changes because it's just the opposite here. The build date is set and then there is a drop-dead date for changes which is some weeks before the build date. The dealer keeps track of this online and the particular car's date changes from green to yellow to red (too late). This system was in use when I custom ordered my '01 C320.

<<Without getting into dealer allocations and so on, ordering a car for factory pickup is no more trouble than dealer pickup. There is a small discount plus a couple of hotel nights, a taxi ride to the factory and something else. It's all spelled out at www.mbusa.com.>>

Well, I got most of that backwards. It's a 7% discount, one first class hotel night plus two taxi rides.

7% (US) of the Luxury C300 amounts to $2357 which will pay for one airline ticket plus maybe ten days in Germany. Might have to go dutch.

Congrats RLE.

The Latest word from my dealer is that when C-Class production is fully ramped up, 70% of the US market cars will come from South Africa and 30% from Germany which answers the factory delivery question.

Seeing as how my sig says I'm from Canada makes your statement, for me anyway, incorrect. Mine was built in Germany.

Well, my 92 Honda Civic was built in Japan and wouldn't die. I had 350,000km on it and it was in perfect running order. Someone rear ended me and it was written off.

I then purchased a 2002 Acura EL (only available in Canada) that was made in Alliston, Ontario, Canada. It was a POS that saw the dealership's garage more than my garage, ok, slight exaggeration, but it was not a good car.

I am now driving my 03 C-Class that was made in Germany and it's been a dream to own, just like my Civic.

I'm just giving you my own car owning experience. You may be right, but for the moment, I'll stick to my car buying ways.

Well then, I'll just have to make sure I get one that was made in Germany. Thanks for the information.

Hi RLE,

I presume your drop-dead date is what my dealer refers to as my final date for changes, with a provisional date build date agreed between dealer and factory prior to that.

All I got last time I ordered my car was a build week from the dealer. Should'nt be too long now. Will keep you posted.

Thanks for the MBUSA info.

UK W203's were built in South Africa. If a customer opted for the factory collection programme, the car was shipped into Bremen where the handover took place. The same might be true for US customers opting for the factory collection programme.

<<I presume your drop-dead date is what my dealer refers to as my final date for changes, with a provisional date build date agreed between dealer and factory prior to that.>>

To be specific, the dealer watches online for the availability of a given model that can be equipped with certain options. That build date availability is expressed, in the case of my specific car for example, as the "first decade" of September which means Sept. 1-10. That date is firm when it shows up. It's up to the dealer to grab that slot, enter the specifics of my order and wait for MB to come back with an approval. The last day for changes is a bit flexible but the order line for a specific car will change color from green to yellow and later red which means the order is locked in with no further changes possible. So when my order line changes to yellow, my salesman will call for any changes I have been thinking about, if any.

Tomorrow I will take the C300 Sport out for a drive. If this thing drives as good as it looks, it's going to be a winner, for sure. I sat in it last week and the black interior killed it. And today, when I took my C320 in for some more (extended) warranty repairs, my dealer wheeled out one their new free service loaners for me to use until my car is ready. It's a 2007 C230 Sport (300 miles showing) and big surprise, it's silver with a black interior. Bah!

The C230 is, I think, a 2.4 V6 with unknown horsepower but whatever it has is inadequate. The thing has far less power that my C320 and the 7-speed auto does not make up for it. The 17" Conti tires are NOISY, much more so than the Bridgestones my car is shod with. But, the engine is almost inaudible, unlike my C320.

My salesman sent me the window sticker for my new car and the Multimedia package price is now $2950, up $250 from what they were quoting two weeks ago. Along with the bad news that it's production date has been slid two weeks to the third week in September.

The final price before tax and license is now going to be $41635. Still cheaper than my '01 C320 was by about $1300.

It's going to be a long ninety days.