Where can I get the best deal on a E class estate

[Chrisk942]

Been looking around and been offered £5K off a new e320 elegance by my local ex pentagon garage in Soton as long as I register before end of March, I dont like the trim in the avantgarde much but there seems to be more of these available.
Can anyone suggest any better places to try
Thanks

 

[Tilly]

Been looking around and been offered £5K off a new e320 elegance by my local ex pentagon garage in Soton as long as I register before end of March, I dont like the trim in the avantgarde much but there seems to be more of these available.
Can anyone suggest any better places to try
Thanks

I'll get you a price if you can give me the exact spec of the car. What cost options and which model, the 7 speed?

 

[Chrisk942]

Hio Tilly
I'm waiting for a written spec to be e-mailed so as soon as I get that I'll post it on here

 

[Tilly]

so its not a standard car? if it is a standard car. £5k discount at the moment... you cannot possibly beat it, I couldn't beat it and 99% of the time I'll be able to offer you lower prices than the dealers purely because of the vast amount of cars we register to our main finance funders instead of individual retail customers like a dealership which means we can usually offer bigger discounts than a dealership as silly as it sounds

 

[Chrisk942]

Not sure if its a standard car or not
dont want command or APS, didnt really even want a stereo so I could fit my own blaupunkt satnav into it but they dont do that anymore. Didnt want phone prep as I was just going to put my nokia 6310 set up and mute cable into it.
Wanted black but told no black in Elegance available, dont want grey leather interior prefer cream and dont want extra rear seats, dont want sports suspenders or low profiles tyres as its going to feel like a bathtub on wheels apart from that Im not really fussy

 

[Peter S]

If it helps, I received a mailshot from my local dealer group over the weekend, offering a free "upgrade" from saloon to estate on selected E classes, along with free trim upgrade from Classic to Elegance or Avantgarde. Again, must be registered before end of March. I assume this is an MB funded offer, and at a guess this must be worth around £4K off, before touching the standard dealer margin.

However, I thought dealers were able to search all available stock in the country, so if your dealer has a car he's trying to offload, sorry, steer you in the direction of, perhaps you'd be better of calling a few other dealers...

Peter

 

[Tilly]

£5000 would include the £2200 + vat bonus and dealer margin, he cannot physically offer any more on a standard car, if it has extras he could offer a few quid here and there.

As for searching dealer stock, yes and no.... They can search most stock however... people can easily "hide" cars from the system by marking them as sold or tagging them to ghost buyers. You will find if you ring around dealers you will find cars that wont show on the dealer network, this isnt just merc, its all manufacturers, we have to do it all the time when finding customer cars. Certain cars, dealers want to hide as they will have no problem selling them retail and making a killing whereas if it was on free release, it'd be snapped up by a dealer elsewhere in a matter of hours as you have effectively enlarged the cars audience to customers all over the country but regardless of whether there are cars out there, unless the car is spec'd up considerably you won't beat that 5k, its very good

 

[Robbo]

Have a look here

Over £7K off a new UK spec 320 cdi estate.

 

[Chrisk942]

Here we go:-
E320 CDI ESTATE CUBANITE SILVER/SAND LEATHER,PARKTRONIC,FULL ELECTRIC DRIVERS SEAT WITH MEMORY,UPGRADED ALLOYS,CD CHANGER,FOLDING REAR BENCH SEAT AND HEATED SEATS.RETAIL £44,340.00 OFFER PRICE £39,044.00

E320 CDI ESTATE IRIDIUM SILVER/ANTHRACITE LEATHER,PARKTRONIC,FULL ELECTRIC DRIVERS SEAT WITH MEMORY,MOBILE PHONE PRE WIRING,CD CHANGER,FOLDING REAR BENCH SEAT AND HEATED FRONT SEATS.RETAIL £44,635.00 OFFER PRICE £39,327.00

Bloody Hell, I was only talking to him a couple of hours ago and it was £32K with £5K off and now we've shot up to £39K

 

[Alfie]

£5000 would include the £2200 + vat bonus and dealer margin, he cannot physically offer any more on a standard car, if it has extras he could offer a few quid here and there.

As for searching dealer stock, yes and no.... They can search most stock however... people can easily "hide" cars from the system by marking them as sold or tagging them to ghost buyers. You will find if you ring around dealers you will find cars that wont show on the dealer network, this isnt just merc, its all manufacturers, we have to do it all the time when finding customer cars. Certain cars, dealers want to hide as they will have no problem selling them retail and making a killing whereas if it was on free release, it'd be snapped up by a dealer elsewhere in a matter of hours as you have effectively enlarged the cars audience to customers all over the country but regardless of whether there are cars out there, unless the car is spec'd up considerably you won't beat that 5k, its very good

When I bought my last Mercedes I emailed EVERY dealer in mainland Britain with what I was looking for, the exact spec. I told them all I was a serious buyer and would buy within a week. Told them all to give me their best price and what I had to trade in.

Its amazing what response I got. I ended up with two dealers fighting it out for my business. Unless you can get inside info and a cheaper deal via someone like tilly, I suggest you do as I did. Nothing to lose!

Good luck.

 

[Subyland]

Be careful in the spec you go for as you might slightly regret when it comes to resell. The rear bench seat is one of them for example...

 

[jeremytaylor]

Be careful in the spec you go for as you might slightly regret when it comes to resell. The rear bench seat is one of them for example...

And Comand and leather and phone prep. The sand interior is a sod to keep clean, judging by the state of my brother's car (either that or he's lazy).

Chrisk942, if you can live with a few delivery miles and being the second owner there are still some pre-reg December 05s knocking around (but mostly Avantgardes I think), albeit with the straight 6 diesel, you can make a bigger saving. I picked up my E320 CDI last month with 300 miles on the clock, and saved £10,000 over list. Sure the V6 diesel with 7-speed drives better, but not £5,000 better, IMHO.

 

[glojo]

The sand interior is a sod to keep clean, judging by the state of my brother's car (either that or he's lazy).

He's lazy.

Forgive my cheek but we have the very light grey interior and the much referred to long haired uselees dog. The interior is immaculate although itis two years old.

My two penarth is definitely go for the hands free kit. For the cost it is brilliant and something that should be fitted as standard.

I was no fan of the Avantgarde interior, but when we had the demonstrator for a week, it simply grew on us, but each to their own. The bi-xeons are standard on this model, but again an extra (I believe) on the Elegance. If you have driven with this new generation of bi-xeon, then you will never want a car with lesser lights. Think long and hard before you buy. Modifying a car after you have bought it is a very, very costly alternative.

Usually I would never dream of recommending any specific model or option, but I have strong views on the hands free kit, although the COMAND might be giving me a false impression???? (any comments)

Advice I always give though is ask here about options, rather than the dealer, you should get a more informed answer on this forum.

Good luck with the selection,
John

 

[ddentrec]

When I bought my last Mercedes I emailed EVERY dealer in mainland Britain with what I was looking for, the exact spec. I told them all I was a serious buyer and would buy within a week. Told them all to give me their best price and what I had to trade in.

Its amazing what response I got. I ended up with two dealers fighting it out for my business. Unless you can get inside info and a cheaper deal via someone like tilly, I suggest you do as I did. Nothing to lose!

Good luck.

I agree. I never talk money when visiting the dealer: always deal remotely when negotiating the price. That way they can make no judgements about you and your wallet: this negate their sales training and they effectively have to work blind. The sales teams hate it, but it allows you, the customer to remain in full control of any negotiation: I employ a 'take it or leave it' approach when making an offer to buy a new car.

Forget the sob stories about dealer margins and all that: find a decent price on the internet, knock off another £750 and you will still find someone who got a better deal than you did.

Remember that the UMC (unit manufacturing cost as car leaves factory gate) of a W211 E200K is around 6,450 euros, or around £4000 (I work in manufacturing and read all the statistical blurb about Lean Manufacturing. Yawn.): the markup is transport costs and other margins.

 

[Chrisk942]

Sounds like the pre-registered option is the way forward and also cheaper there's a few around but like someone said they're mostly avantgarde...........dont see whats so avantgarde about a bit of chrome plated placky................still, prefer the wood looking like wood even though it's probably placky too.
Again, not fussed about the V6 v's the straight 6 (the tax implications make no odds to me), I always thought the straight 6 config was always the best option for power and smoothness. New V6 is probably to do with some emissions thing anyway.
I hear that there are still quite a few E's remaining unsold so I spose there may be more choice once this last bunch is sold. Do you think thats the case ?

 

[jeremytaylor]

The main benefit of the Avantgarde, as Glojo pointed out is the Xenons. They also have lowered suspension, and most seem to have sports suspension too, which may not be to your liking, Chrisk942.

The blue tinted glass looks a bit better too IMHO, as for the colour of the wood trim and the colour of the instruments, well, that's neither here nor there ...

 

[DieselE]

Second benefit of Avantgarde is if you opt for full leather, it's a cheaper option via Avantgarde than via Elegance trims.

Unless you plan to keep it for a very long time, you should ensure that any E320CDi you buy has:-

COMAND
Phone Prep
Full Leather
CD Changer.

Otherwise the lack of them will hit you at resale time.

Avantgarde rides 15mm lower than Elegance and the suspension is firmer.

If you have Airmatic then you can select between Comfort (similar to Elegance), Sport 1 (15mm lower right height and roughly equivalent to Avantgarde) or Sport 2 (same ride height as Sport 1 but firmer damping again). There's more but MB's website will tell you that.

Picking a car with the straight 6 engine more or less guarantees EU3 emissions rather than EU4. For this you get better fuel consumption and if the car is on the standard 16in wheels (in either Elegance or Avantgarde trim) the emissions are in a lower tax band.