MB Direct London

[television]

There have been many threads, re the dealers, but this was first hand and new to me.
MB Direct London, Bromley had an SL advertised, so I called in and "oh ,the car is not here as we are selling it for a customer. If you leave a deposit, they would get the car for me to see". So that was the end of that one.

MB direct london, Collindale, Went with a friend who want a new S class and I wanted to see some SL's, Sales man says, if we care to book ourselves in with the reception , we will try and get someone to see us. My friend did not want to do that so we left.

MB direct london, Swiss Cottage, closed almost one hour early, so that was a waste of time.

I do not like the dealers, so far.

Malcolm

 

[stumpy]

It's funny you mention MB Colindale. Last year I travelled from Surrey to Colindale (a pain of a journey) to look at an E55 estate they had. The salesman was most rude to me because I didn't book an appointment and it meant he had to leave his comfy chair and get his shiny arse moving. I even suggested that if it were too much trouble, I would ask another salesperson to help. Did the test drive which due to their location consisted of traffic and more traffic and on our return asked him to value my M5 in part exchange. I'm still waiting for the call. Tw@ts!

 

[Rory]

I bought my car from MB Direct Birmingham. I'm pleased with the car, and with the deal I got, but the overall experience was not nice.
It's a very 'car supermarket' type of environment, and once the sale is made you cease to exist. They were keen to deliver the car to me - I refused that, and I realise now that this is so they can just dump it and run.

 

[124coupe]

Mine was from Direct at Balsall Common. Good price, immaculate prep, spent 1/2 hour showing my wife all the gadgets before we drove away.

Since then they have called to offer discounted 12k service and to check all is OK.

So far excellent.

Re the Midlands franchised dealers - Stratford, Solihull, Worcester - rip off prices, snide re p/ex, generally snooty and don't give a toss if you buy or not. Walsall far, far better on all counts but nowhere near the Direct deal.

Patchy!!

 

[DC_insider]

Please don't think this is pedantic but:

Bromley, Colindale & Swiss Cottage are franchised dealers and are part of Mercedes-Benz Retail not Mercedes-Benz Direct.

Mercedes-Benz Direct outlets are not franchised dealers but used car outlets.

Both Mercedes-Benz Retail and Mercedes-Benz Direct are owned by DaimlerChrysler but are run as separate businesses.

Perhaps you could give one of the MB Direct outlets in London a try? Hopefully the service will be better. You can find your nearest MB Direct outlet here:
www.directmercedes.co.uk

 

[stumpy]

Pedantic or not, the level of service is unacceptable at any level. The MB Direct I drive past on the A3 at kingston looks like Arfur Daileys lock-up. Very off-putting

 

[Rory]

Please don't think this is pedantic but:

Bromley, Colindale & Swiss Cottage are franchised dealers and are part of Mercedes-Benz Retail not Mercedes-Benz Direct.

Mercedes-Benz Direct outlets are not franchised dealers but used car outlets.

Both Mercedes-Benz Retail and Mercedes-Benz Direct are owned by DaimlerChrysler but are run as separate businesses.

Perhaps you could give one of the MB Direct outlets in London a try? Hopefully the service will be better. You can find your nearest MB Direct outlet here:
www.directmercedes.co.uk

I'm grateful that you pointed out the difference, however if someone like Malcolm can't tell the difference, then an 'ordinary' punter would never know. They are all branded Mercedes Benz so everything about the different channels should be consistent.
If MB wants them to be different (for different target markets) then they should be differently named and given substantially different identities.

 

[television]

I'm grateful that you pointed out the difference, however if someone like Malcolm can't tell the difference, then an 'ordinary' punter would never know. They are all branded Mercedes Benz so everything about the different channels should be consistent.
If MB wants them to be different (for different target markets) then they should be differently named and given substantially different identities.

My good friend told me that the Hemel hempstead branch was an outlet for secondhand cars, standing outside or inside there was no difference, other than the sales people were a little more tolerable.
The Web sites are a mess, I go to this one
http://www.mercedes-benzlondon.co.uk/used-cars/UsedCarSearch/Parameters-Ajax.aspx
and it shows One SL500 for sale, yet the one that DC insider put up shows 10
As Rory says the web sites and the facia's and logo are all the same, All I am trying to do is to buy an SL, and be treated with a little respect in the process.

Malcolm

 

[Rory]

M
The Web sites are a mess, I go to this one
http://www.mercedes-benzlondon.co.uk/used-cars/UsedCarSearch/Parameters-Ajax.aspx
and it shows One SL500 for sale, yet the one that DC insider put up shows 10

Perhaps a more familiar term to you would be 'sales channel'?

MB London (with all its branches) is your typical MB Dealer, but in this case they just happen to be owned by MB (DC UK to be precise).

MB Direct is a completely separate sales channel, but is also owned by DC UK. They sell used MB's 'direct' to the public.

I suppose it's a bit like Curry's, Dixons and PC World all actually being owned by DSG Retail. Gives them 3 opportunities to win each sale.