E300DE hybrid estate

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kotecki

kotecki

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Did you use Carwow to negotiate the price?

Yes I did and I thoroughly recommend doing this :) I did still buy this vehicle from our main dealer and it is being built to our specifications.
 

Mr Filipov

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34% of the worlds population are in 76 countries or territories that drive on the left, including the UK ;):rolleyes::geek:

But that is only 1 side of the story. Due to financing in this country it is all gone to crap. The majority of people order a dog spec car and don’t bother with any options as long as the star is on the grille.

So why would Mercedes bother with different variants on colours, materials, options etc. when people are just not ordering them.

The new cars are only selling because of finance. The majority of people driving a “Mercedes” cough cough a sh1tty A class and thinking they are the dogs dangly bits cannot actually afford to buy it out right, let alone add options to it.
 

A.J.

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But that is only 1 side of the story. Due to financing in this country it is all gone to crap. The majority of people order a dog spec car and don’t bother with any options as long as the star is on the grille.

So why would Mercedes bother with different variants on colours, materials, options etc. when people are just not ordering them.

The new cars are only selling because of finance. The majority of people driving a “Mercedes” cough cough a sh1tty A class and thinking they are the dogs dangly bits cannot actually afford to buy it out right, let alone add options to it.

I spent most of my working life in the Vehicle Contract business and we had a real problem with that on BMW 3 Series in the 90's. Everybody wanted one but hadn't got the budget to acquire a decent specked one. We were inundated with 3 series in Navy Blue or White, no air-con and no sun roof and very little else when the contracts matured. :rolleyes:

It made them very hard to sell, particularly in Doom Blue (Navy Blue) and I am not sure whether we made any money on them. The market was at that time overloaded with them which made matters even worse. In the end we gave the customer metallic paint free just to try and make them more saleable !! :rolleyes:
 

grayb

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But that is only 1 side of the story. Due to financing in this country, it is all gone to crap. The majority of people order a dog spec car and don’t bother with any options as long as the star is on the grille.

So why would Mercedes bother with different variants on colours, materials, options etc. when people are just not ordering them.

The new cars are only selling because of finance. The majority of people driving a “Mercedes” cough cough a sh1tty A class and thinking they are the dogs dangly bits cannot actually afford to buy it out right, let alone add options to it.

I can see the logic in what you say. It then becomes a 'self-fulfilling' prophecy - people can't order the options because MB-UK doesn't allow them and MB-UK won't allow because people don't order them. Frustrating!
I am willing to wager that your 530d has a nice light interior!
 

Mr Filipov

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I can see the logic in what you say. It then becomes a 'self-fulfilling' prophecy - people can't order the options because MB-UK doesn't allow them and MB-UK won't allow because people don't order them. Frustrating!
I am willing to wager that your 530d has a nice light interior!

Nope, black on black for me. I am not a fan of the light interiors myself. They get dirty too quick for my liking. Looked at 2 different ones back to back, one with light interior and my current one with the black leather. As much the other one with the light interior was cleaned, detailed and so on you could just tell it was not as clean as one would imagine and even after a test drive I could see where my jeans were going to mark.

That aside, light interiors are available on the GT and the normal 5 as well. Hell, there are different shades of light interiors, even red leather if that takes your fancy.

Forgot to add. If I want to lighten up the interior a bit, the pano roof does a great job just by opening the blind on it.
 
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kotecki

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Interesting point about light interiors. We have the light grey leather on our 2004 vehicle and that is immaculate but when new we had it treated as part of the order, I always thought it was a rip-off. is the interior clean because we paid for this option, or is it clean because it has simply never got dirty?

Interior colours are all about personal choice and how sad we have this choice taken away from us. I have recently watched a German review of an E-class AMG Line and the car they showed had a Designio interior which looked really horrible, but germany has the choice to have a Designio E-class interior, we do not.
 
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kotecki

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Oh well, I complained to Mercedes UK about the lack of choice and they basically said, 'Tough' and then failed to replay to my follow-up query of wanting to know why this could not be offered :(

Not long however before we take delivery of the new car, it should be arriving January as long as Mercedes do not alter their 'sales agreement' No idea what that means but they say they might have to register this car late December!
 
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kotecki

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ANGER, ANGER, ANGER.......

As per my previous post, we were expecting to now be driving around in our new hybrid but......

on Friday I received a call saying there had been 'issues' with my order and the build had been delayed but..... I could accept a January build car which they were expecting any day and it had a similar spec to the one we ordered.

On inspecting the specifications of this vehicle it bore no relation to the car we had ordered. Thanks, but no thanks.

When I pointed out this AMG-Line vehicle only had artico-leather seats, I was told that is all we can now have. real leather is no longer an option for the 300De, yes there are E-class vehicles that do have real leather but for the 300De AMG-Line, man-made leather is the only choice and to me, man-made leather is simply plastic or vinyl with a posh name. There were a number of other 'must have' options that are now not available and here is the kicker.

I ordered our vehicle in September and was told it would be available late December, January 2020. In December Mercedes-Benz allegedly brought out a revised E-class and here in the UK, we get a December 2019 dated brochure that confirms the options we want are not available when ordering a new vehicle, but we ordered this car in September!!

We ordered our vehicle in September 2019 and clearly something has gone wrong and whilst I can guess where this error occurred, I cannot be 100% certain, but the bottom line is we cannot have the vehicle we ordered.

One of my reactions was to blame Mercedes-Benz for withdrawing the options we had stipulated but after a cool-down period, I did some checking.

In Europe the E300De AMG-Line is still available with ALL the options the UK had pre-December 2019. having read some of the previous replies to my post, there are those that suggest we are suffering because our vehicles are RHD!!! We are all entitled to our opinions and because of those comments I checked the availability in Southern Ireland a country with the steering wheel located on the correct side and sure enough......... Wait for it..... A roll of the drums and............

All options we had access to pre-2019 ARE STILL AVAILABLE, The only conclusion I can come to is that Mercedes-Benz UK have made this arbitrary decision.

No doubt if they import thousands of vehicles with plastic seat covers, then that is what folks will buy and our statisticians will then argue that real leather seats are not popular as no one is buying them!! But I am old school, I want to order my new vehicle and who cares if I order leather seats. My vehicle would not be stuck in a showroom, it would not effect their sales figures but no.... Mercedes-Benz UK knows best.

Meanwhile, I might look into buying the car in Southern Ireland but will the dreaded BREXIT effect this purchase?? :)
 

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ANGER, ANGER, ANGER.......

As per my previous post, we were expecting to now be driving around in our new hybrid but......

on Friday I received a call saying there had been 'issues' with my order and the build had been delayed but..... I could accept a January build car which they were expecting any day and it had a similar spec to the one we ordered.

On inspecting the specifications of this vehicle it bore no relation to the car we had ordered. Thanks, but no thanks.

When I pointed out this AMG-Line vehicle only had artico-leather seats, I was told that is all we can now have. real leather is no longer an option for the 300De, yes there are E-class vehicles that do have real leather but for the 300De AMG-Line, man-made leather is the only choice and to me, man-made leather is simply plastic or vinyl with a posh name. There were a number of other 'must have' options that are now not available and here is the kicker.

I ordered our vehicle in September and was told it would be available late December, January 2020. In December Mercedes-Benz allegedly brought out a revised E-class and here in the UK, we get a December 2019 dated brochure that confirms the options we want are not available when ordering a new vehicle, but we ordered this car in September!!

We ordered our vehicle in September 2019 and clearly something has gone wrong and whilst I can guess where this error occurred, I cannot be 100% certain, but the bottom line is we cannot have the vehicle we ordered.

One of my reactions was to blame Mercedes-Benz for withdrawing the options we had stipulated but after a cool-down period, I did some checking.

In Europe the E300De AMG-Line is still available with ALL the options the UK had pre-December 2019. having read some of the previous replies to my post, there are those that suggest we are suffering because our vehicles are RHD!!! We are all entitled to our opinions and because of those comments I checked the availability in Southern Ireland a country with the steering wheel located on the correct side and sure enough......... Wait for it..... A roll of the drums and............

All options we had access to pre-2019 ARE STILL AVAILABLE, The only conclusion I can come to is that Mercedes-Benz UK have made this arbitrary decision.

No doubt if they import thousands of vehicles with plastic seat covers, then that is what folks will buy and our statisticians will then argue that real leather seats are not popular as no one is buying them!! But I am old school, I want to order my new vehicle and who cares if I order leather seats. My vehicle would not be stuck in a showroom, it would not effect their sales figures but no.... Mercedes-Benz UK knows best.

Meanwhile, I might look into buying the car in Southern Ireland but will the dreaded BREXIT effect this purchase?? :)
I note on the configuration tool that there are almost no options you can add at the moment. I’d always go for the SE to get leather seats (and more comfortable tyres) over the AMG-Line versions.
 

JBell

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When I pointed out this AMG-Line vehicle only had artico-leather seats, I was told that is all we can now have. real leather is no longer an option for the 300De, yes there are E-class vehicles that do have real leather but for the 300De AMG-Line, man-made leather is the only choice and to me, man-made leather is simply plastic or vinyl with a posh name.

Even Leather seats are only part leather (centres IIRC), the rest is Artico
 

grayb

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There is definitely a cutting of options going on. Could it be as a result of the dreaded 'B' word? Or about the problems that manufacturers will shortly have due to not hitting their overall range emissions targets - fines will be levied on them soon.
 

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There is definitely a cutting of options going on. Could it be as a result of the dreaded 'B' word? Or about the problems that manufacturers will shortly have due to not hitting their overall range emissions targets - fines will be levied on them soon.

On no, not more massively overpriced Toyota Aygos, AKA AM Cygnets and the like, arriving in the showrooms :eek:
 

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It seems to be a UK specific thing, presumably a decision by MBUK. Perhaps because so many UK cars are bought on finance/lease packages, they are trying to keep the specification options simple? Or perhaps just some youth in the MBUK marketing department thinks it's a good idea.o_O
 

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What a frustrating experience you have had. That is no way to be treated when ordering a brand new car to order. From my experience, the order should have been 'locked in' with the factory at the point you ordered it to your spec. There is no way you should be finding out 4 months later that those options are not available. Sounds like a dealer mistake somewhere along the line possible? Either way, no way to be treated, effectively wasting you 4 months.

Good luck with what you decide to do and keep us posted!
 

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kotecki

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Hi folks,
I fear that thinkpad has hit the proverbial nail on the head and I am a victim of someone's incompetence.

Sadly I cannot access the link put up by grayb but from what I gather each country makes its own decisions on what models to import and what options each model can have.

When I ordered the car I was disappointed that the only colour leather I could have was black. Mercedes UK stated that was the only colour available for that specific model (AMG-Line Hybrid) I then said what about Designio colours. They then said how the E-class only had two choices of coloured paintwork, this class did not have interior designio options.

TOTAL and utter rubbish..... Mercedes Ireland offers optional coloured leather interiors PLUS you can have designio leather interior with all the shades they offer. I HATE being told lies, why not simply say it is a UK decision?

The problem is that when I write a letter of complaint, I just get back a letter thanking me for my correspondence :(
 

ThinkPad

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Sad state of affairs. Just had a look at the E Class options in the UK as a result of this thread. Seems you can now only get the E Class SE spec in base spec, you cannot get it in premium or premium plus? Or at least I could not see that option. Sounds bizarre to me. Means you cannot have a car with proper leather and memory seats for example. I really don't like the way they are trying to standardise all the specs. The premium package itself means you are paying for a whole load of things you may not want just to get the one thing you may want!

And if your experience is anything to go by kotecki, then further limiting choice of colour (interior and exterior) would just be the icing on the cake. Maybe it is a short term thing? Current factory issues? I cannot believe they feel this is a sustainable business model!? Is it worth you talking to a completely different dealer and attempting to order from them / get their advice?
 

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I feel your pain. Ive had a E400d estate on order since begining of September, delivery date has been and gone, no one knows if / when the car will be delivered. I ordered in the AMG Line Edition, and similar to you, that option is no longer available, and I cannot get an answer from the dealer or customer services as to whether they can supply as specified. Customer services were about as much use as a chocolate teapot when I raised a complaint, and could provide no information whatsoever other than "speak to the dealer". I'm tempted to cancel, but sods law says if I do, a car allocation will come up the next day.
Really not impressed with Mercedes as a company at the moment (love the cars though)
 


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