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Dealer for van order?

5K views 29 replies 14 participants last post by  LDBails 
#1 ·
All I want to do is order a new Metris passenger van from a MB dealer, preferably west of the Mississippi River, who will sell at MSRP, or below.

I thought this would be easy to find a dealer with integrity, business sense and customer satisfaction In mind and not try to stiff me for an additional $5k to $10k over MSRP. I don’t have the patience and stomach to play the ”ADM” game.

got a MB dealer who plays straight?

many thanks!
 
#2 ·
While looking for my Metris, when supplies were already limited but not like these days; I ended up purchasing a few states over at Viti MB in Tiverton RI.

I was on the fence about a custom order, and it seemed such delivery was going to be in the next year. So, I shopped around, playing the dealer game. Went further and further out, looking online. They had multiple vans available, and two with essential features I wanted. And they made it a very straightforward transaction for both of us.
 
#3 ·
I ordered my Metris from MB of Grapevine, TX. $1,500 deposit. No upcharge. Delivery fee is the same for every dealership: $1,295. Located at the north end of DFW International Airport, they are the number 2 highest volume dealer for Sprinter/Metris vans in the U.S. I chose to skip the two local dealers and drive to a dealer that was used to servicing fleets of delivery vans instead of the luxury car dealer with an odd Metris sale here and there.
 
#5 ·
You bring up a good point. Not all M-B dealers appear to want to deal with the vans.

I had my Metris van in at the local (Bentonville AR) M-B dealer (where I bought the van in August 2020 for $2K off of sticker) for service. Got to talking to a guy in the waiting room. Said he had is Sprinter van in for service. Asked him where he was from? Springfield MO was his answer. I asked him why have his van serviced in Bentonville was he on a trip? No he was not. The Springfield dealer apparently was not set up to really sell/service the Sprinter (or Metris) vans.

Told him he was at the right dealer. My experience with the Bentonville AR M-B dealer and my van has been superb.
 
#7 ·
Thank you forum members for your comments and guidance.

Today, I was ready to buy a Metris from the Dallas area MB dealer and was in the process when I was informed of a “consultant fee” of $3,500. Told him I was finished. I guess buying at MSRP and using MB Financial Services just isn’t good enough.

I ordered a Ford Transit van from a straight up local dealer.

I still have my MB E550. And, a Lucid EV on order. this whole process of dealing with dealers has bugged me. The Lucid model, like Tesla, takes dealers out of the equation. I do not pity the selfish dealers and their imploding model. I feel for the honest employees at dealerships that have to bear the burden of greed. Just my experience and opinion.

best.
 
#8 ·
Best wishes, @NoLucid

I'm sorry the dealership experience was terrible. I have had a few of those with fees and gimmicks before we got into MB, like advertising fee, conditioning fee, etc that they wanted to tack on. I guess with low supply more MB (?) dealerships are sliding into shady practices. A friend was car shopping last year, and complaining about extra markups above msrp ... market based pricing or whatever it was.
 
#13 ·
Yeah, and that was with 56K+ miles on the odo. Still, I have the feeling it’ll turn around. I see many of these used vans have been sitting on the lot for 100+ days. At some point there must be a return to sanity.

I priced out a new one and it came to ~$44K before tax/reg. If and when it would get here, that is another story.
 
#12 ·
Yes, some dealerships have no trouble, working long distance, taking out of state orders and shipping it to another dealer or drop shipping to your home, when the vehicle comes in.

I think the wrinkle is the " dealer prep and inspection " or whatever it is, and final paperwork; where the receiving dealer doesn't like to work for free.

It is a bit of a pain when something is amiss though ... like some damage in transportation. Seeing how my wife's brand new car was re-transported years ago after initial delivery at the dealer, on one of those trucks, without protection, no padding on the trailer frames. The young driver/operator was quite careless, or far less careful then he should have been, upon delivery, pushing the door into the steel frame and squeezing in with keys and various things hanging off his belt ... as if the vehicles were just used 15-20yr old cars going to auction ... still gives me the jeebies a bit. Anyway.

Some dealers will be happy to do business, long distance, as long as you know what you want.
 
#14 ·
One thing to keep in mind is that often listing information is not correct. Some dealers list things that are not present on the lot and some listings have long since sold. It maybe should not be this way, but it's not uncommon in the retail space.

Metris have been used by dealers as parts and hospitality vans. Dealers sometimes list the vans they use day to day for sale and don't really intend to sell them in the near future.
 
#15 ·
I assume you’re right, but this van had definitely been sitting on the lot for months. They couldn’t even find it at first, lol. It was wedged in between other vans, and they had to jump start it because the battery was dead. Layer of dust on it, too.
 
#17 ·
Weird. If that's the case this dealer is poorly run.
We can agree to that!

The weekend before last I was in Arizona looking for one. There the sales guy found out the AC wasn't working as he pulled it out. And he upped the price from $29K to $40K, but "we will fix that AC of course". Bald tires, broken seat lock mechanism, no hood rod, you name it.

I really don't understand how they get away with stuff like this. Frankly, so far Carmax has been the best experience. Now what does THAT tell you?
 
#18 ·
At the moment its a little like real estate agents. They have fewer sales and are having to work 10x as hard as normal, but the sales they make are 30%+ higher than typical. Supply and demand. The only agents making money are the ones selling to investment companies buying up homes. So a car sales person makes little on a car. If they normally sell 10 a month and aren't selling any they try to sell one that gets them 10x the profit to even it out. It wont happen that way after a couple years go by.

I'm guessing that AZ van was total junk and they thought they could try you.
 
#20 ·
All I want to do is order a new Metris passenger van from a MB dealer, preferably west of the Mississippi River, who will sell at MSRP, or below.

I thought this would be easy to find a dealer with integrity, business sense and customer satisfaction In mind and not try to stiff me for an additional $5k to $10k over MSRP. I don’t have the patience and stomach to play the ”ADM” game.

got a MB dealer who plays straight?

many thanks!
Try Littleton CO. MB
 
#27 ·
Yesterday I took delivery of a 2022 Metris Passenger van that was ordered Feb 2022. Built to my specifications through Keeler Mercedes Benz in the Albany NY area. They were a pleasure to deal with! I gave a $500 deposit and paid MSRP. I have purchased cars through them before. No lease or financing incentives and so purchased with a car loan from my bank at about a third the rate MB Finance offered.
P.S. My salesperson delivered the van to my home and spend some time walking me through the operations.
 
#28 ·
Do you know the build date of your van? I ordered in May 2022. I got a September 20, 2022, build date. Current status is VIN assigned; Spanish part of the build is completed but we don't know if it is waiting at the port in Spain for transport to Savannah for the South Carolina build completion.
 
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