E convertible

[JohnDeere8530]

I am about to order a new engined E350cdi convertible for del early August.

My last few cars have all been silver exterior and black leather interior. I am getting a bit bored of this, any ideas of what colours may suit this car? I am leaning towards black exterior, but if so what interior.
If I go black, would it look ok with a black fabric roof and maybe black interior, or is this getting too much? Only trouble with black interior is that I was always hoovering it out

I hate white inside and out by the way !!!

I never keep my cars long, prob about 2yrs, so need to be very careful about what colours sell easily and what dont.

Also what spec should I go for, want to keep it fairly low, but definitely not poverty spec, again I need to sell it.

Ideas are

Full leather
electric seats
Command.

Anything else ?

 

[The Boss]

dark blue with grey.. smooth and classy!

 

[The Boss]

bigger wheels, harmon kardon sound, reversing camera, and memory seats id say!

 

[Deleted member 11979]

That paleish blue that is popular looks nice to me, with a light interior, would look classy and expensive.

I think the options you've chosen are enough, they never payback in the end, but just make the car easier to sell.

Buy what you like.

 

[JohnDeere8530]

the last few Mercs(3) and Audis (2) I sold over the past 5 yrs all around the £40k mark, when put up for sale, most enquirers were interested in :-

colour (normally silver and black interior most prefable)
leather (seems to be a must)
Command (seems pretty important on an expensive s/h car, probably a must, but just)
electric memory seats ( a must for some, but not others)

everything else like premium sound system, electric this and that was just perks, noboby insisted on the like

I think, when buying a car you must be thinking about how you will sell the model you choose in a few yrs. You need some extras to interest punters and to put it on a par with other like models advertised at the same time, but never over spec, as the previous poster says you never really get the cost of these extras back

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Go for a really dark blue (tanzanite if it's still called that) with a baseball mitt coloured leather interior.
Comand
Heated Memory Seats
Parking Sensors
Anything above them three are, as you described, perks.

 

[JohnDeere8530]

my farm used to have a small chain of VW dealerships in the 70s to mid 90s. We got out when everything started getting silly, when we could no longer afford to offer service and value to the time and time again returning customer.

Now it is, just flog the car and forget about the 'buying experience' as it is a very cut throat market.

Back in the 90s the dealer often made next to nothing on the sale of the car as his margin was maybe 5-15% or so of the value of the car. A hard bargainer could and did often erode most of his profit margin. However that said, the manufacturer set targets (in number of sales) for that dealership to achieve throughout the year. If he met the predefined goals then the manufacturer would then give the dealer a large handout, in form of a large 'cashback' or more often very cut price certain car models. This had the incentive to make the dealer work hard to sell as many units as possible as most of their profit margins were derived from this 'cashback'

I guess the same is true now, however things have become more complex, as the dealer has a limit on how litle he can sell a certain car for. For example a very good regular customer may expect to pay less than a man walking off the street, however that said the manufacturer sets a bottom line for the dealer to work above. The dealer cannot go below this That is one of the reasons why bulk buyers go straight to the manufacturer always by passing the dealers.

Also from both a dealer and salesperson point of view, selling the extras such as alloy wheels, leather, electric this and that is very lucrative to them. As these extras normally do not increase the build cost of the car substantially, but cost the customer 1000s, there is a large margin in these extras for these for the manufacture. A part of this margin is then returned to the dealership and then to the salesperson for convincing the customers to part with more of their hard earned than just the cost of the basic car.

For best value for money, just buy the basic car and forget extras. However that said it is nice to have certain toys, but expect to pay through the nose for them !

As said this was for Vw in the 90s, I guess things may of changed now

 

[bpsorrel]

If I was buying one, I'd choose iridium (sp) grey with black roof and tan leather. 18" wheels a must (or it just looks seriously under-wheeled) and command. That would make a cracking car I reckon!

 

[NoodlerUK]

I am about to order a new engined coupe.

Metallic black.
Black leather
Piano black trim
Command
HK sound system

I can't justify the 1200 odd quid for electric memory seats but would have liked them.

 

[Dr-Nab]

If I was ordering one now I'd probably choose a Sport with Designo Mauritius Blue with the Designo Porcelain leather, comand, 19s, black wood trim, comfort ventilated seats, reversing camera.

Don't see the point in memory package for me because I'm the only one who would be driving it, but obviously a must if there's more than one person using it.

 

[JohnDeere8530]

I am about to order a new engined coupe.

Metallic black.
Black leather
Piano black trim
Command
HK sound system

I can't justify the 1200 odd quid for electric memory seats but would have liked them.

agree on the memory seats, this seems a lot considering they are half electric as standard anyway

I did think going totally black but with brushed Al trim. You dont think it will be too much being all one colour ? I just need to get my head around it

 

[st4]

Go for a really dark blue (tanzanite if it's still called that) with a baseball mitt coloured leather interior.
Comand
Heated Memory Seats
Parking Sensors
Anything above them three are, as you described, perks.

x2

Or a black car with red/cream/tan leather.

Silver and black is default choice/

 

[RAG]

If you go for the Sport trim these cars are very well specced as standard, you will get Faux leather as default but the real leather is far nicer.

Command I see as a must on a car in this bracket (especially for resale) along with Memory pack (you get memory steering column with easy entrance exit plus electronic easy access to the rear seats.

AirScarf is nice on those cooler days!

I may be biased though as these are the options I specced for my own car

 

[Sp!ke]

The current colour fasion seems to be white with red leather.

 

[Wing Co]

agree on the memory seats, this seems a lot considering they are half electric as standard anyway

I did think going totally black but with brushed Al trim. You dont think it will be too much being all one colour ? I just need to get my head around it

I have black exterior/black leather/piano black - looks great. Previous CLK was the same.

If I change next year I'll have to change to maybe Tenorite Grey/light cream interior/allu' trim/sand roof!

 

[NoodlerUK]

I don't think it will be too much my last BM was all black and i loved it.

I looked at White but the metallic is almost a cream and the proper White is a lot more money . I also considered red leather but the one you can have is a horrible red.

I not too worried about resell as I will keep it for 3 years and more important to enjoy that time with it than worry about resale.

 

[Dr-Nab]

Mine's Calcite white and I don't think it looks cream, it depends on how its washed I guess, you'd be surprised at the amount of road tar/grease there is out there and how it really does affect the colour of your car. Diamond white has that nice pearl effect to it, but I imagine if it comes to needing a touch up anywhere it will be a nightmare to colour match which is why I didn't go for it

 

[JohnDeere8530]

thanks for this. On a slightly different note, there is talk on other threads of certain dealers giving bigger discounts than others.

In the past I have always found the cheapest online broker quote and then given that to a nearby dealer. I thought this guaranteed the best price Am I not right, ie can a dealer sometimes beat online brokers ?

 

[dinoy]

sometimes brokers can locate cancelled orders advantage betters specs specs, having taken deposit from the previous buyer hence why discount is then applied, disadvantage is the specs on order if u r expecting to choose colour interior.

it is a good compromise if u r flexible

 

[MarriedBlonde]

sometimes brokers can locate cancelled orders advantage betters specs specs, having taken deposit from the previous buyer hence why discount is then applied, disadvantage is the specs on order if u r expecting to choose colour interior.

it is a good compromise if u r flexible

Or use the online broker sites, get a quote and go to mercedes and get them to beat it...