Experiencing The Mercedes-Benz USA European Delivery Program

by Paul Vandenberg

Why we chose a European delivery

I wanted a new W211 bodied E class, but held off buying for a number of reasons. Then two things came together: A work-related conference in Berlin, and the (new for 2004) seven percent discount on the total MSRP under the European Delivery Program. Not only did that mean I could get exactly the car I wanted, but I would also save money. More importantly, I could show my (doubting) spouse what a good deal it was, with the trip to Germany as a final selling point to win her over.

Now that our delivery and trip are behind us, I can safely say the experience turned out to be everything we were told it would be and more. How was it? Let’s just say that halfway through our first day she (note the emphasis here) suggested we should consider a European delivery for our next new Mercedes-Benz. In short, if you haven’t used this program to buy a new Mercedes, you’re missing a real treat.

Mercedes-Benz USA reserves the right to change program details. Please check www.mbusa.com, or call 800-367-6372 for models and current program features.

First steps toward an error-free experience

Arranging a European delivery requires planning and attention to detail, but the process is itself is simple.

1. Make sure anyone whose name will appear on the order form has a valid passport.
2. Plan ahead - it takes four months to get a car built to order (five for 4Matic cars). You can cut the wait time considerably if you're willing to to take an existing car that may not have exactly the options you want. If, that is, your dealer has (or can find) a car in the pipeline that can be diverted for a factory delivery.
3. Decide whether you want to take advantage of the Black Forest/Alps Rally package.
4. Pick a local authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer.
5. Work with a sales representative who has experience in handling European deliveries. If you can't find one at your local dealer, you'll find information on the issues that can trip you up in this article. You can also email questions to the author at pdjv@pdjv.com
6. Avoid an unpleasant surprise at the factory by carefully double (and triple) checking all information on your order form and Order Confirmation/Invoice.

In our case, the outstanding support American Service Center in Arlington Virginia has provided to the Greater Washington Section made choosing a dealer very easy.

Before going to visit ASC, I used the "Build Your Own" feature on the MBUSA web site to create my ideal E500. Options on the web site let me select exterior (Pewter Silver) and interior (Ash leather) colors, option packages (Premium and Appearance), and additional options. At the end of the process, I had a printout showing the car, and listing all the colors, options, and option codes.

At ASC sales rep Julian Chin directed us to Chuck Albert, an expert's expert, who has handled diplomat sales and European deliveries for several years <Note that Chuck is no longer with ASC>. Chuck walked us through the order process, and applied his expertise to point out a couple options for us to reconsider. Because we had our passports (and checkbook) with us, and a clear idea as to what we wanted in a car, our order was on its way to Mercedes-Benz USA very soon after our first visit with Chuck. Chuck also planted the seed of an idea that led to a series of articles published in the Greater Washington Section's newsletter, the Metro Tri-Star describing our experiences as we went through the process. This article is distilled from the orginal series.

The most important step one can take to make sure the experience is as error free as ours is to double (and triple) check all model, color and option codes on the order form (note that according to Chuck Albert, option codes must be entered in ascending alphanumerical order on the form). It's also important to make sure any travel options (e.g. the Black Forest/Alps Rally package) are listed on the order form. Another item that's critical is the application form for the temporary registration required to operate a car in Europe. This form must be submitted with the order. It's very important to make sure all personal information, to include address and passport data, is correct on all forms. After one last check to validate the information on the order form, it's time to pay the required deposit (currently $2,000) and pay for the Black Forest/Alps Rally if that's included on the order form. With all information verified and all fees paid, the order form is ready to be sent to MBUSA.

About a week after our order went in, we received a very nice portfolio containing our Order Confirmation/Invoice, a thank you letter from Mercedes-Benz USA, and information to help plan our trip. This was another chance to double (and triple) check all the information on the Order Confirmation/Invoice. We were fortunate in that everything was correct (as it turned out later, almost everything), but if corrections were required, this would have been the time to have our sales rep submit them.

Travel and delivery

The European delivery program provides one free night at one of the many five-star hotels participating in the program. We had to submit our reservation request on a special form The sales rep should provide this form (we had to ask). It's a good idea to get this form to the travel office as soon as possible. It's also possible to have the travel office make non-program reservations at any of the participating hotels (you have to provide credit card information for any non-program reservations). When it's complete, the form must be mailed or faxed to the travel office - the address and FAX number are listed on the form. It took us a few days to decide on our Black Forest/Alps Rally. Once our decisions were made, we faxed the form to the travel office. In finishing our travel plans, we decided to add a non-program reservation to our list. Doing this involved calling the travel office (the number is listed in the portfolio) to get instructions for modifying our already submitted reservation form. All in all, the process worked smoothly, and we had no problems with any of the hotels we selected.

The Customer Center is open from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM Monday – Friday. It is closed on all German holidays. Factory tours start at 8:30 and 9:45 AM, and 12:15 and 1:50 PM; the tour takes about 90 minutes and is well worth the time. E.H. Harms drop-off facilities are open Monday – Friday (hours vary by location) and closed on holidays. The welcome portfolio includes a comprehensive list of European holidays to help in planning your travel. One more tip: arrange to have the new car added to your regular automobile policy effective the day you drop it off for shipping.

Anyone planning to travel into Austria will need an International Driving Permit. AAA offices can provide one for a nominal fee. Switzerland and Austria each require (different) Vignette toll stickers. Note that driving in these countries without the appropriate Vignette sticker carries a hefty fine, so be sure to get yours before you cross the border.

Among the items included in the program price for a new Mercedes-Benz is a fifteen-day insurance policy and temporary registration that expires the same day as the insurance policy. Anyone planning to stay longer than fifteen days must arrange for an extension of both the insurance policy and registration. Extending the insurance policy requires an additional payment to cover the cost. Be sure to do this at least three weeks before the planned delivery date. Check the MBUSA web site for information on tax consequences for extended visits.

The delivery process

About three weeks before our delivery date, the travel office sent vouchers for us to present as payment for our lodging at each of the program hotels we selected for our trip.

During peak travel times it's important to arrive at the customer center in time to complete your delivery by 4:00 PM. If you're not sure when to arrive, you can call ahead and ask: 011-49-7031-90-81085 from the US (don’t forget the time difference). From within Germany, the number to call is 0-7031-90-81085. Because our delivery was in July, we decided to get to the delivery center at 8:00 AM. With the factory tour, our delivery took about three hours.

At the Customer Center, a Welcome Desk porter greeted us at the door and whisked our luggage off to a secure storage area. With that done, we headed for the pre-delivery check-in counter, located just past the Welcome Desk.

The Mercedes-Benz Customer Center

After a short wait, a pre-delivery agent came to escort us to her desk, where she asked for our passports and Order Confirmation/Invoice form. While she was going over these forms, we asked about the factory tour, and were given tickets. Since we were taking the factory tour, we were given a delivery number and a later delivery time, and asked to return to the pre-delivery area when we were ready to finish the process. Because we had a short wait for the factory tour and wanted to hit the road as early as possible, we went to the cafeteria to ask if we could get lunch to go. The cafeteria worker took the meal voucher (included in our portfolio), noted our delivery number, and told us two "sack" lunches would be delivered to our car (they were, and were much more than the term sack lunch implies).

After our factory tour and a visit to the customer center gift store, we returned to the pre- delivery processing area. After a short wait we were directed to a different agent who talked us through the things we needed to know - like how to report accidents to the insurance company (different than in the pre-printed forms) as well as general issues concerning our temporary registration and operating a car in Germany. During this process, she put together a folder containing items we had to have in the car at all times while driving in Europe. This was the point at which we discovered that the order form was missing one digit in our address. As it turned out, this was not a problem, but it clearly highlights the importance of being thorough when checking information on the order form.

As almost the last step in the pre-delivery process the agent handed over the Certificate of Origin for our new car. ASC's Chuck Albert had warned us to make sure we didn't lose the Certificate of Origin because it's required to title a new car in the US, and almost impossible to replace if lost. At the very last moment, I thought to ask if it would be possible to borrow a copy of the navigation DVD for Europe so we could use the COMAND system to guide us to the places on our itinerary. The agent made a copy of our credit card, and broke out a fresh copy of the DVD. Since we were dropping our car off at the E. H. Harms facility in Sindelfingen, we were asked to either turn the DVD over to the Harms agent or return it to the customer center. We were warned that failure to return the DVD would result in a charge on our credit card. At roughly $540, the DVD for Europe is a bit too expensive to be a souvenir!

With pre-delivery complete, we were directed to a waiting room just off the large indoor delivery hall where we registered with an attendant. After a short wait, a technician called our names. As we left the waiting room, an attendent handed us two box lunches containing wine, sandwiches, and other goodies - the contents of these "sack" lunches lasted us the better part of two days!

Customer Center Delivery Area

Our delivery technician showed us the warning triangle and first aid kit legally required in all cars on the road in Germany. She also said if we planned to travel outside Germany, we'd have to affix the provided "D" country sticker where it could be clearly seen from behind the car. We asked the technician to show us the Control System menu and how to set the Multifunction Display to show speed and distance in kilometers. We also asked for a demonstration of the COMAND Navigation system, and she provided a brief tutorial while entering our first destination - the Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich.

Our delivery technician shows my wife "her" new car!

When we were satisfied that we understood the controls on our new car, we were ready to head to the nearby E. H. Harms office to make our drop-off arrangements. As you make the right turn out of the delivery aream there's a short stretch of road with an entry forbidden sign that reads "Fotografieren Frei" – this is a place to get a picture of your new car with the customer center as a backdrop. Since it was drizzling as we pulled out of the delivery hall, we decided to pass on this opportunity (and regretted it later).

Driving in Germany and Europe

Myth: There's no speed limit on the Autobahn. Reality: there are posted speed limits in many areas. Radar cameras are widely used as enforcement tools. While there is no enforced maximum speed limit on many stretches of the autobahn, exceeding a 130 kilometer per hour recommended national speed limit can have legal consequences in the event of an accident. It's also important to note that German police are tough on aggressive driving, and many driving habits acceptable on roads in the US will get you in trouble on German roads. To stay out of trouble, follow a few simple rules: obey posted speed limits, keep a three second following distance, stay in the right lane unless passing, don’t pass on the right, and don’t make hand gestures or comment on the actions of other drivers (even if they can’t hear you). One more thing to note: DUI laws are strictly enforced, and blood alcohol levels are lower than in some US states.

Here are some web resources to help with the rules of the road in Europe:

• www.german-way.com/autobahn.html (General information)
• home.att.net/~texhwyman3/us_euro/us-ger.html autobahn vs. interstate highways)
• gettingaroundgermany.home.att.net/autobahn.htm (Autobahn familiarization)
• rmv.hqusareur.army.mil/drivrman/190-34.htm (Driver study guide for military personnel assigned to Germany)

Quick and dirty distance and speed conversions:

• Miles per hour x 1.6 = kilometers per hour (e.g. 50mph x 1.6 = 80kph).
• Kilometers per hour x .6 = miles per hour (e.g. 80kph x .6 = 48mph).

Shipping, transport, and stateside delivery

The program price includes marine insurance, pre/post shipment processing, and transportation from the drop-off facility to the selling dealer. Estimated shipping time to an East Coast port is four to six weeks and six to eight weeks for a West Coast port.

Unless you drop your car off at a port, it will be trucked to the nearest port where it will be processed and loaded onto a transport ship. E.H. Harms will notify your dealer when the ship carrying your car is scheduled to arrive at the US port of entry. Once in port, your car must be offloaded, clear U.S. Customs, and pass an Agriculture Department inspection before it is ready to be transported to your dealer for delivery. When your car has cleared customs, E.H. Harms will send a notification package. The whole process from ship to port to dealer takes a week or more, which gives you time to take care of last minute details like getting the car titled, registered, and paying any sales tax due. You’ll need both your Certificate of Origin and Order Confirmation/Invoice forms to complete these tasks.

Some lessons learned

Hotels - we spent the first two nights of our Black Forest/Alps Rally in the (excellent) Bayerischer Hof, located in the heart of Munich's historical district. Unfortunately, city traffic made driving so unappealing that we elected to leave our car in the parking garage. Since this was our first time in Munich, the chance to tour some of the city's famous attractions, to include the Alte Pinakothek, Rathaus (in time for the show put on by the world famous clock) and, most famous of all, the Hofbräuhaus almost (but not quite) compensated for giving up the time we could have spent getting to know our new car. So, while we enjoyed our stay in Munich, for our next European Delivery we'll stick with hotels better suited to serve as home base for daytime driving trips. One more note: the European Delivery program hotels we used were, without exception, elegant and luxurious, and the room rates posted for these hotels reflected that fact. While we enjoyed the hotels, and recommend them without hesitation, there are plenty of less expensive options for someone planning a longer visit.

At the Parkhotel Adler

At the Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe

Travelers' Checks - stores wouldn’t accept our (Euro denomination) travelers’ checks, and banks charged a fee to cash them. We had much better luck with a prepaid stored value card. These cards can be used to get local currency in just about any country that has ATMs. We used a Travelex (www.travelex.com) Cash Passport® and were able to get Euros from every VISA ATM we tried in Germany. We were also able to get the remaining cash on our card in dollars when we returned to the US. An American Express TravelFunds® card (no maximum cash value) is another alternative, but it’s not clear how easy it would be to find an ATM that accepts the Amex card.

Communications – like most "handys" one gets when signing up for service from US providers, our cell phone wasn’t compatible with European networks. While it's possible to rent a cell phone for use in Europe, the daily charges for the phone and high per-minute rates for calls led us to look for alternatives. We ended up using a prepaid calling card from Net2Phone® (www.net2phone.com), which turned out to be both inexpensive and convenient. Calling the US involved dialing a toll-free number (a handy guide lists the numbers for each country), entering our (self-selected) PIN, and dialing the call exactly as if we were in the US. We were able to use the Net2Phone® card from every hotel we visited without incurring additional hotel phone charges. One drawback to the Net2Phone® card is the only way someone can contact you is by leaving messages at hotels. If you need to be reachable at all times, consider renting a euro-compatible phone, or buying a phone that supports the GSM frequencies used in Europe - make sure you can change the SIM card so the phone can be used with any convenient service provider with coverage in Europe.

Wrapping it all up

A call to Chuck Albert about a month after we dropped our car off for shipment brought the news that the ship carrying our car was due in at the port in Baltimore that week. That bit of information sent me scurrying to the local Virginia DMV office. Armed with our Certificate of Origin and a copy of our Delivery Confirmation/Invoice form, the process of getting a title and registration was relatively short. And, except for the part where I had to pay the sales tax, relatively painless. Armed with our new license plates we were ready to take delivery again.

Six days after the ship with our car reached port, we took our license plates to American Service Center and drove our new car home. Elapsed time from the day we dropped the car off in Sindelfingen was five weeks to the day!