New Car home from Stuttgart

[st13phil]

Many thanks for the great write up and photo's. You seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.

Thanks Peter, we certainly did enjoy it

 

[Gollom]

How dreadful - just because that full stop is small and different from others, you discriminate against it! There must be some law against that! What has that tiny little dot ever said or done against you?!

I prefer the ellipisis myself ...

 

[MBManInKen]

The profitablility of individual model lines is very hard to understand unless you have all the data, but a few things to consider include

Good analysis and I quite agree with the points you made.

In reality, unless you work for DaimlerAG and are privy to the information you'll be hard pushed to make a guess that's even close

Agreed, that became quite apparent when I tried to get my head around this a few years ago, and the companies themselves just don't want to part with that information.

The other thing to consider is that some factors evolve over time in importance and qualitative impact, so what is true today might not be the case in a decade.

 

[jeremytaylor]

Mercedes-Benz also has a great deal riding on the new C-Class from a reputation point of view. They absolutely need to demonstrate to a large number of people as quickly as possible that they are back on track regarding quality and reliability - which is one of the reasons that they spent so much effort on getting the quality right and have made such a great feature of it in their marketing of the W204. Of course S-Class buyers demand and deserve the same quality and reliability improvements, but there just aren't so many of them to spread the good news that MB is back on top as there are C-Class buyers.

Well you're in the perfect position now to tell us whether the W204 C-class will fulfill its quality and reliability requirements - look forward to the updates.

For what it's worth, I'm on my second W203. The first (C270CDI) needed a replacement Comand unit, an EGR and front wishbone rubbers prematurely, all under warranty, but was otherwise fine. The second (C320CDI) has been 100% reliable and faultless so far. (Touch wood).

 

[st13phil]

Well you're in the perfect position now to tell us whether the W204 C-class will fulfill its quality and reliability requirements - look forward to the updates.

I definitely intend to do that. Hopefully it'll be as good as your second W203 in which case it should be a very short thread

 

[Carrotchomper]

Ive had 2 factory collections,one for the SLK in Sindlefingen, and the other for an SL in Bremen. Both experiences ( & I mean experiences!!) were absolutely fantastic and all for the same price as the standard delivery charge ( ie as you have to pay it anyway=nothing extra).
The arrangements,business class flights,collection and trip home are treasured memories.
Sindlefingen via the Mosell region and Bremen via the Cinderella route

If you have the chance, do it!

Is the whole shebang, including the flights and hotel, the same as the delivery charge? That's brilliant.

Would love to do it But sadly Daddy won't buy me a Mercedes-Benz (And I'm struggling for funds to do so myself )

 

[momomo]

Wow, as jaymanek mentioned i think i will have to buy a brand new car and collect it as well! Thats brilliant hope you enjoy your new car for a very long time to come...

 

[Mudster]

Thanks for the write up, I was considering this to collect my new car later this year and that's the same colour I'm considering also so it's nice to see a picture in the flesh so to speak and not a website rendition.

The registration write up was also very interesting, I was actually going to ask how that worked so you've answered that already.

However what do you about insurance for the drive back?

Oh and if you buy an AMG model do you get to collect it from the AMG factory or is it all from the central place?

 

[st13phil]

Thanks to all of you for the positive responses to this thread, and I’m pleased that you’ve found it informative. As there have been a couple of questions about costs and insurance, I’ll try to answer them while the details are all still fresh in my mind.

The standards collection package is for the purchaser of the vehicle only and includes the following if you’re picking up from Stuttgart (Sindelfingen):

1. Club-class flight with Lufthansa or BA from Heathrow or Manchester to Stuttgart
2. One night’s accommodation in the 4-star Marriott Hotel at Sindelfingen with breakfast and a €40 evening meal allowance
3. A voucher giving free entrance to the Mercedes-Benz Museum at Unterturkheim
4. Taxi transfers from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the Collection Centre
5. A Factory Tour of the Sindelfingen plant
6. 5 days fully-comprehensive motor insurance, valid for anyone with a full UK licence, and with zero excess
7. A standard (i.e. fixed departure time) Shuttle crossing to get you back to the UK

All the above are included in the standard delivery charge when you buy the car, but most of us want to take someone with us to share the experience and for this you have to pay a supplement of £316 (if you share a hotel room) to cover the cost of the additional flight and meals. If you want separate rooms the supplement is higher, but I don’t remember by how much.

My wife has accumulated a large number of Air Miles as a result of business travel, so I asked the Personal Collection people if we could somehow take benefit from that. The answer was that we couldn’t mix-and-match our flights, but if we were to provide our own flights for the two of us then in return they would waive the supplement and provide us with a second night’s hotel accommodation on a bed and breakfast basis, i.e. we would only get a €40 meal allowance each for the first night’s stay. Quite a bargain I thought, especially as the two BA flights cost us less than £100 in total (even with Air Miles you still have to pay the taxes and fuel surcharge ). OK, so they were Coach and not Club-class but the flight is only 95 minutes.

As we were making a mini-break out of the trip we wanted to stay in Stuttgart itself rather than Sindelfingen as there would be more to do in the evenings. Also it was easier to use taxis or public transport from there to get to the Museum which we wanted to visit before picking up the car. MB Personal Collection have a number of recommended hotels in Stuttgart and we chose Le Meridien which I can happily recommend to anyone else as a comfortable hotel in a good location. We had to pay a small supplement of £100 for this hotel.

The Personal Collection team were very helpful throughout in terms of giving advice about timings and suchlike and will even book accommodation for you on the return journey should you require them to do so. In summary, all we had to provide was:

• Our own transport from home to Heathrow (our local taxi firm by chance picked us up in a LWB 320CDI S-Class, which was a nice start to the trip :bannana: )
• Transport from Stuttgart to the Museum and back (I recommend the S1 S-Bahn train from the main station)
• An evening meal on the second night in Stuttgart
• One night’s garage parking at Le Meridien
• Fuel, accommodation and meals for the return trip

As far as picking up an AMG model, I’m not sure whether you go to the AMG facility or one of the “normal” collection centres. Why not phone up the Personal Collection people at Milton-Keynes and ask? I’m sure they’ll give you the low-down.

 

[Mr_Mojo]

Great write up, wish now I waited a few more weeks so I could have done the factory collection.

I think a factory and museum tour is on the cards this year now!

 

[C43AMG]

For a supplement of £25.00 you can get a Flexi ticket for the tunnel, which allows you to turn up at any time and board the next train. It has a dedicated lane at the tunnel. Very convenient.

 

[st13phil]

For a supplement of £25.00 you can get a Flexi ticket for the tunnel

Thanks Peter, I missed that bit out of my post above

Excellent value compared to the normal Shuttle prices for a Flexi ticket and very useful if you're not sure of your timings or need to keep your options open. FWIW, we just had the "standard" ticket and arrived at the tunnel approximately an hour before our departure time. At check-in we were offered either our booked departure slot or one half an hour earlier with no cost penalty. I've had this happen before, and I suspect it's just down to how busy they are when you arrive. We were travelling at a quiet time, after all.