I think Grimsby MB have created a new experience for carwow purchasing.
Who would have thought 'faceless' internet purchases would culminate with a bit of specialness around a 'grandish' hotel setting with a lot full of new Mercedes, and like minded people to share the experience with. (if discussion and socialising is part of it).
Normally they offer free delivery, or a tank of fuel if you pick up, but if they include the hotel instead, that would be icing on the cake.
Obviously not at your normal travel lodge as that just destroys the ambience
The whole experience for me has been excellent. Broadly in 3 parts
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No haggling needed, pre-purchase
Just their lowest price. They are not competing with you, but directly with other participating dealerships for your business. Also even when I had different models or specs as I was fine-tuning what I wanted, they (Zeinab) made it clear to me that was ok, they will happily price up any spec I submit to CarWow. I guess on their systems, that's a couple of button clicks. We only spoke once or twice - my choice - for the final spec check and purchase details when I have them a £500 deposit over the phone to reserve a build slot at their factory (in my car's case Sindelfingen). At that point I knew the entire payment schedule, my car's build date and likely delivery date.
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Purchase to pickup
I can not imagine this was any different than if I'd walked into a distant dealership and bought my car over the table. It's probably better, as they have a ton of experience dealing with non-local buyers. It felt a pleasure for them, even when I was asking all sorts of stuff over email with my designated contract (Luca). At the end of this process I knew my car's actual build date, its VIN, it's ship date, the route it took, the arrival at the dealership, how they were looking after it, a lot of answers about the car, especially security related and advice on a visit to the factory (self-organised, but they can help taking to Mercedes Germany if needs be). All this was absolutely perfect for me.
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Pickup
Zeinab had sent over, at purchase , details of the country hotel over the road where they have a deal, a good one in my book. For £99 you get dinner, bed & breakfast for up to two people, including a £25 pp dinner contribution, so £49 for B&B basically. I booked two nights, bookending the car pickup. It turns out I'm glad I did!
On the late afternoon we arrived a beautiful MB Grimsby branded CLS was was sitting outside the hotel front door, welcoming guests, and they were starting to cordon off the car park (with beer barrels and tape, so a bit ad-hoc!) on both sides that faced the hotel. I thought this was for the new owners staying there. The hotel FOH manager said there was a Mercedes event tomorrow. Having prepared to get down to the dealership for 10am, wondering for months what that would be like (champagne, car reveal, meeting the staff, etc), that evening, the night before the pickup, I got an email from Luca saying all of would be at the hotel. This suited me totally fine as my wife doesn't like a lot of moving about, even though at that point I was past caring for moving myself - I just wanted to get my hands on the car .
As I PX'd my car (it turned out 3 out of the 16 new owners did too), I had gear to transfer and that went smoothly.
The were lots of other small and pleasant details, which I won't bore you with. One the major highlights was meeting Zeinab and Luca after all this time as we'd kind of bonded a bit (especially with Luca over the past 5 months), kind of like with forum members here ! It was great being up very early and seeing all the new cars lined up before anyone else (except Mercedes staff of course), so I took a good look, getting pics etc and then seeing their staff precising everything outside together was fascinating and that would not have been aient At the dealership itself with all the other regular activity. Yes, it was special.
All in all the whole process was very eventful and memorable. I highly recommend it. Maybe it's not for everyone, but I'd definitely go this route again.
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but it was all seamless, you didn't have to sell privately or go down the WBA route.
