First I have heard something like this. Any dealer should be able to order. Keep in mind an order will take several months.

 

There may be MB dealers who do not have a commercial bay for Sprinters and next to no Metris sales; so they only order up passenger cars & suvs.

Have you played around with the MB Vans inventory section? Based on ZIP code you should be able to find locations that can help you.

 

Thought I had read somewhere that they had stopped taking orders. And if you did order a custom build today you probably would not see it until October lol. I ordered mine in December and it was built January 6th. As of today nobody know when it will arrive with any certainty.

 

So your best bet is to call around and find out what dealers are expecting to get and reserve one before it arrives.

 

If you order a Metris you better plan on at least six months before delivery. Times seem to range from four months to twelve months (or longer). I ordered 11/19 and took delivery 7/20. Build date was 2/20.

 

I ordered my 2018 pas Oct 31, 2017. On Nov 1 the dealer emailed me "I was able to adjust a vehicle that will arrive in January." I picked it up on Jan 15, so about 11 week.
Looks like if the dealer has a vehicle in the pipeline, he can adjust it to your order.

 

A good dealer should be able to give a proper status report, about what is happening and possible order wise.
Which many of us would like to hear, as it may help inform others.

After production was halted due to the covid lock down last year, production resumed, and then last we heard this winter, was that a good number of finished vehicles were damaged by a disgruntled former employee ramming them with a tractor.

Similarly to the Sprinter, which order availability is constrained due to large orders from RV manufacturers; the Metris availability has to be constrained with the USPS order of > 15000 vehicles. Are they producing them in batches ... for simplicity's sake. Would make sense. Poking around the internet, they can make 470 vans per day across two shifts.
And there's > 100000 Vito/Metris & > 50000 V class sales per year? ... ( I may have to poke around to check that, or look at other factories )

Anyway.

Crossing fingers
@PosterScene 's van makes it onto one of those mega transport ships soon! I know I'd be on pins and needles waiting for it.
@rangeles122 finds a good dealer and keeps us posted

 

Talked to my dealer today. He finally got solid news regarding delivery. He was told the Metris would be in the US in JULY for re-assembly and I should have it in AUGUST. Mine was built on January 6th. The USPS added a huge backlog for Metris production.

 

Ouch. That is still a long wait for it to go on the mega ferry.

Makes me wonder what is going on in the market at large. Sure there are some electronics shortages, but are not enough cars being built by all brand's factories combined, for completed vehicles from Dec-Jan to make it here sooner?

 

Makes me wonder what is going on in the market at large. Sure there are some electronics shortages, but are not enough cars being built by all brand's factories combined, for completed vehicles from Dec-Jan to make it here sooner?

I think there are numerous factors. The supply chain shock wave still has not dissipated. There is massive delay in shipped goods around the world. Metris orders have zero priority within MB USA.

Started looking to order a Metris in fall of 2017, finally found a dealer that was interested and ordered my Metris Cargo in August of 2018 (which never arrived), and finally bought off the lot at another dealer in February 2020. All before Covid19 hit.

 

Had I known it would take 7-8 months I would have waited and ordered in March when the Distronic was available for the builds.

 

Ouch. I had not even thought of that. Ugh.

I settled for one of the fewer remaining 2020 dealer spec ones in the fall. Too many unknowns at the time and timing just was not right.

It does sound like production capacity should be increased to meet current demand. As a youngster I was frequently part of night crew instead of the late shift, for a medium size business, when they were in a high demand situation.

 

MBUSA has no interest in dealing with Metris vans because they don’t sell Metris vans. Metris and Sprinter vans are sold by an entirely different Daimler subsidiary- Daimler Trucks North America is the parent of MB Vans North America. Most MB Van dealers are also vendors of MB USA vehicles, but not all of them.

 

My 2021 135 dual slider has arrived! I'll get some photos soon

 

when did you order?

 

December. It was built first week of January

 

@PosterScene

Me too. I just got my 135" with dual sliding doors. Ordered it in December. The 135" sure looks like it's more than the 9 inches longer that it actually is.

 

@PosterScene

Me too. I just got my 135" with dual sliding doors. Ordered it in December. The 135" sure looks like it's more than the 9 inches longer that it actually is.

I am extremely happy I spent the extra $500 for my 2018 135 (1st year), though I paid for it more dearly with the 11.5 months of waiting. I really can't think of any downside, other than a couple of feet of turning radius. As I recall, the net weight difference/payload loss was just 55#, which is an extremely small weight penalty for the 16 extra cubes. That was my math, FWIW.

 

I was at a commercial van upfitter on Friday to have my swivel seat & CR-windows installed. They told me that work is painfully slow right now because new vans aren’t shipping. The microchip shortage has trickled down to businesses other than dealers.

 

I need to have my seat swivels and windows installed too. Would you mind sharing which outfitter and whether you were happy with their work? Thanks.

 

@Shuttergirl Thank you!

 

[QUOTE="focus
Wow, amazing what a bunch of free money can do for the economy!
[/QUOTE]. Is someone giving away free money?!! Please tell me who and how to find them.