Personal collection, a few questions

[Diesel Benz]

I found a few threads from members who had picked up their car from the factory but since my dealer does not have this organised and does not know too much about it, a few questions to you:

- I have an estimate of the car build date (at the end of this month) but I'm planning to buy cheap flight tickets (no cancellation allowed) only once the car is actually built (recommended by my dealer, they say some missing parts may delay the build if I'm unlucky). But my dealer has no glue how long the factory is willing to keep the car, waiting for me to pick it up. Since UK owners have a package, I wonder if you would be able to help. Perhaps these days their parking lot can hold my car for a week or two if necessary?

- how much time would you suggest I should plan for the museum and the factory (including the tour and car pick up)? I assume I cannot do both the same day when arriving by plane at about 9:30 AM.

- anyone attended the Untertürkheim tour? I doubt I would have time for it but never know.

- I'd be glad to have proposal for a decent hotel. Someone had stayed at Le Meridien as part of the UK package, this is about the maximum I would be willing to pay (unfortunately no hotels at Stuttgart that I could pay with my Star Alliance air miles). I'm planning to pick up the car on the first day, second day for the museum and driving the first leg home. Some did it the opposite way, I thought it would be handy to have the car for local transport. Should I reconsider?

- of course any other advice for a first time factory/museum visitor would be welcome.

By the way, instead of offering the package for free (against the delivery costs at home), I'm supposed to pay 200 to 300 Euros for the car insurance and temporary licence plates.

I was not considering this option initially but now that the build date appears pretty early, I can easily spend a three days on the trip and having a W204 less than a week old in the family, the W221 and now something to fill up the gap, I may not have any opportunity for the experience later on. At short notice my dealer was able to stop the normal delivery process and now I'm just waiting for a final confirmation for a possible pick up date. Guess if an old man feels like a kid waiting for the Christmas Eve.

 

[Dieselman]

I can't answer your questions but would talk to MB Gambh or Customer care about whether you can have Free pickup in lei of delivery.

 

[MrT]

ISTR that they would keep it for 20 days (may have been 28 days) once the car was built and ready for collection. Since the personal collection dept in the UK will only make arrangements once the car is confirmed built, and they ask for a minimum of 7 days notice to make the arrangements then you should have no problem.

I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Stuttgart - just down from the MB museum and dealership. Was OK, nothing special.

The museum was amazing, only spent a couple of hours there but had the wife in tow. Would have preferred to spend a whole half-day to see all the cars properly and take more pictures.

We collected car from Rastatt so not sure how the factory tour at Stuttgart is. The factory tour is very worth doing IMO if you can - but no photos allowed of course!

 

[Diesel Benz]

I can't answer your questions but would talk to MB Gambh or Customer care about whether you can have Free pickup in lei of delivery.

I understand the factory charging the company importing MBs to each specific country and the importing company charging the local dealer. I could always ask from Germany if they feel I should pay for their costs or if the savings from standard delivery should at least compensate that. But I consider this a matter of principle as long as they are not asking for more than a few hundred Euros.

 

[saorbust]

Stuttgart is a brilliant tour. I've done that and Bremen many times.

I had a similar view with my import here.

The way it works is this - your dealer will be asked to collect the car by the factory (the factory do not hold cars at all) within a 14-21 day period if you haven't already collected it - or the dealer hasn't.

The build window you have will be for a decade of the month - and usually the car takes approximately 5-7 days to be prepped for personal collection.

I would strongly suggest you do what I did - call the factory direct and ask for the customer collection center. If you give them the chassis number, or the order number they will give you a correct build date (not 'decade') and advise you on a reasonable collection date.

I waited till the build date - called the customer collection center only to be advised it had already been finished two days earlier. We booked a collection for the following week (they need 5 days notice) and I booked my flights from there.

Regarding your insurance costs and so on they seem reasonable, but the factory will provide you with transit plates and comprehensive insurance for 5 days (although they may charge for it now). I paid nothing for this.

I was told I could tour Europe, but I had to be back in the country of destination by the 5th day, and I should have it insured by my local company. I used privilege at the time - and did it by the chassis number. Simple registration process, volia. I assume your dealer will take care of this for you.

But - as others have said, call the factory direct. It's the easiest way. And more accurate than your local dealer. And enjoy it btw - the Stuttgart tour is a bit organised (watch out the windows during the bus ride - you may see some test cars driving about) than the Bremen one. On the Bremen tour we had a personal tour given to us by the Export Sales Manager, which lasted about 2.5 hours. Utterly brilliant.

The Stuttgart tour was about 1 hour or so - and a large audience (Bremen was three of us). It really depends on your luck. I'd try to collect mid week - for a number of reasons. 1 - it's very quiet, 2 - in the unlikely event anything happens you can call the factory or mobilo life (we did this on our second trip for reasons I won't go into here), and 3 - cheaper flights / tunnel tickets, etc.

Enjoy.

 

[crockers]

When we picked our car up in 1998 - (I accept it was 10 years ago and things have changed) I had a free lift to the airport - business class flight to stuttgart - taxi from airport to hotel - overnight with an allowance for dinner and breakfast - taxi to factory - free tour - tank of petrol - free insurance - channel tunnel crossing paid. All this was in lieu of the delivery charge. I had to pay around £200 to take my wife..

Has this "free collection" now gone and you have to pay to collect??


Have a look at this Collection


Says it's still free

 

[Diesel Benz]

When we picked our car up in 1998 - (I accept it was 10 years ago and things have changed) I had a free lift to the airport - business class flight to stuttgart - taxi from airport to hotel - overnight with an allowance for dinner and breakfast - taxi to factory - free tour - tank of petrol - free insurance - channel tunnel crossing paid. All this was in lieu of the delivery charge. I had to pay around £200 to take my wife..

Has this "free collection" now gone and you have to pay to collect??


Have a look at this Collection


Says it's still free

Thanks for all the feedback. I've looked at the UK site and figured out it should still be free for you, plus a bit extra if you take someone with you but unfortunately I'm not from the UK and our local MB web pages do not even cover this option.

I could understand if margins are lower today but if it still is free for at UK, I don't think it would be right if I would have to pay in addition to paying the flight and hotel night myself. Not a lot of money but still sounds like the local importer/dealer just try if they could make me pay a bit instead of them paying my trip. Note that so far I have not agreed either way. It anyway helps a lot to have the UK case as a reference.

 

[MrT]

When we picked our car up in 1998 - (I accept it was 10 years ago and things have changed) I had a free lift to the airport - business class flight to stuttgart - taxi from airport to hotel - overnight with an allowance for dinner and breakfast - taxi to factory - free tour - tank of petrol - free insurance - channel tunnel crossing paid. All this was in lieu of the delivery charge. I had to pay around £200 to take my wife..

Has this "free collection" now gone and you have to pay to collect??


Have a look at this Collection


Says it's still free

When I collected last year, the package that I had was exactly the same as yours - although I had to get myself to LHR and the companion ticket was £350 (ouch!). But we were looked after exceptionally well, the whole process worked perfectly and was very organised.

It's not 'free' as such - the travel package is available in lieu of delivery of the car to the dealer - you still pay the circa £500 for delivery to dealer, but this pays for your travel package IYSWIM. It's stated on the delivery invoice as 'travel package' rather than 'delivery to dealer' and the car has a couple of extra option codes to reflect the factory collection. The transit plates and international registration documents make nice souvenirs.