After lots of back and forth with Mercedes-Benz of Stevens Creek, I determined it would unfortunately not be feasible to do another European Delivery trip this year. Much to my disappointment, the timing just didn’t work out right. I was really looking forward to either taking my daughters with me this time, or Kyle for our second ED trip together, but summer camps and race schedules really narrowed our windows. The most ideal date would have only given me 5 total days (including travel days) which meant we really would not have had much time to enjoy the car in Germany at all, not to mention the fact that it wouldn’t be back in the states until Fall. Plus, it was already too late to secure those ideal dates anyway, so it just wasn’t going to happen.

There happened to be an Edition 1 coupe (limited production launch vehicle) that showed up in the inventory at Mercedes-Benz San Jose so I had to go check it out. While the car was incredible and very tempting with it’s beautiful matte gray finish, it was just a little too flashy with the yellow accents to be my daily driver. I thought about it seriously, but ultimately decided it wasn’t the right vehicle for me, even though Kyle seemed pretty excited about possibly getting this one.

Fortunately, I had a fantastic Sales Associate in Tony Spencer, AMG Expert since 1974 and also the European Delivery Specialist at Mercedes-Benz Stevens Creek. When he was unable to make my Euro Delivery dates work, he searched all the dealers on the West Coast for a car that could get close to my spec. He found one that almost had everything I wanted in Newport Beach, but was unable to trade for it since there was another customer already very interested in the car. It was the only car on the west coast that included most of what I wanted. When that didn’t work out, he dug into his bag of tricks and found not 1, but 2 that were already on a boat scheduled to port in February. Both of these actually matched my spec better, so although there was some disappointment in not getting the first one from Newport Beach, I was thrilled that these were both closer to exactly what I was a looking for. 

One of the two ended up being a car that was ordered by another customer in Reno, but Tony and the Sales Manager at Mercedes-Benz Stevens Creek were able to secure the second vehicle as a trade with the dealership the vehicle was bound for in Oregon, so I could buy it. Can’t say how thankful and happy I am with the excellent service they provided. 

Here is a preview of the new whip coming in a few weeks:

Some of you might call me predictable, since this looks an awful lot like my E92 M3, but I know what I like so I might as well celebrate my specialness. The main difference between what’s enroute on the boat vs what I spec’d is that this one doesn’t have the exterior carbon fiber packages (front splitter, rear diffuser, rear spoiler, side sill inserts, side mirrors). It has the Night Package instead (gloss black replaces the CF) and also adds the HUD which I didn’t spec in my Euro Delivery build. These are tradeoffs I can live with to get the car in my hands earlier!

One of the things that has me most excited is that this vehicle includes the red/black performance seats, whereas the Edition 1 and original trade from Newport Beach would have been mostly black interiors. I was willing to make this concession earlier, but know I will be much happier with this setup since it will brighten up the interior a bit. As you can see, I still got the Carbon Fiber trim on the interior so that makes me happy.

If you’re in the market for a Mercedes, I highly recommend giving Tony a call. He is a consummate professional and was an absolute pleasure to work with. No hard sales pitch, listened closely to what I wanted and did everything he could to make sure I didn’t have to compromise in any of the areas where he knew I would be less excited about. 

February is just around the corner, but can’t come soon enough. Almost time for me to put my new AMG iPhone wallpaper to use!