Difficult, Dumb or Disinterested

[Denis Kearney]

I'm seriously looking at one of the Marco Polo versions. Is it just me or are the Mercedes dealers not particularly interested in selling Marco Polo's?
From getting a hard copy of the brochure to talking to someone who is knowledgeable is like pulling teeth
I live in the depths of Cornwall so I'm going to have to travel to view and purchase and want to do plenty of research first
Glad to have found this group though, very helpful

 

[RFT]

Start by checking out the used car stock on mercedes-benz.co.uk and that will tell you which dealers are selling the MP and may have more than average knowledge / interest in the model - whether your interest is new, pre-registered, demo, used. I'm afraid that you won't find a hard copy of the brochure though, download pdf only.

Good luck!

 

[Denis Kearney]

Thank you. I have found a lot for sale, unfortunately most are hundreds of miles away so touring around making comparisons will be very time consuming.
That is why I'm doing as much research as possible before trekking off
Maybe because I only use my tablet the Mercedes website is difficult to navigate.

 

[RFT]

I know what you mean about the website on a tablet...
I decided what colour(s) I would like and my minimum specification. I then rang the dealers and got the spec of the MP they were selling. The best price will be on a pre-reg, especially as we are near the end of Q2 and they will need to register it to get their volume bonus or find the cash and actually pay MB. A good dealer will email you the actual build details which includes the standard specification and extras. You can save 20% if you're lucky and get the spec you want if you buy at the right time. It's definitely worth buying from an out of area dealer, even one a couple of hundred miles away if necessary, but it requires some effort and commitment at your end. The maximum you'll risk is a £250 holding deposit and that's nothing in the scheme of things. You really shouldn't need to see more than one vehicle if it's the colour and spec you want and the mileage is nominal - 9 miles in my case!

 

[mptripsaway]

I agree with RFT re: potential discounts over new factory order vehicles, however if you buy a pre-reg you will be the second owner so discount upfront often means lower resale value and you need to check that any gap or new for old insurance that you buy covers the vehicle as it is pre-owned.

 

[Denis Kearney]

I know what you mean about the website on a tablet...
I decided what colour(s) I would like and my minimum specification. I then rang the dealers and got the spec of the MP they were selling. The best price will be on a pre-reg, especially as we are near the end of Q2 and they will need to register it to get their volume bonus or find the cash and actually pay MB. A good dealer will email you the actual build details which includes the standard specification and extras. You can save 20% if you're lucky and get the spec you want if you buy at the right time. It's definitely worth buying from an out of area dealer, even one a couple of hundred miles away if necessary, but it requires some effort and commitment at your end. The maximum you'll risk is a £250 holding deposit and that's nothing in the scheme of things. You really shouldn't need to see more than one vehicle if it's the colour and spec you want and the mileage is nominal - 9 miles in my case!

 

[Ridgeway]

I'm seriously looking at one of the Marco Polo versions. Is it just me or are the Mercedes dealers not particularly interested in selling Marco Polo's?
From getting a hard copy of the brochure to talking to someone who is knowledgeable is like pulling teeth
I live in the depths of Cornwall so I'm going to have to travel to view and purchase and want to do plenty of research first
Glad to have found this group though, very helpful

 

[Ridgeway]

Hi Dennis

I had a very similar experience when ordering my M/Polo a few weeks ago & couldn’t believe the apathy with some dealers; I was trying to spend in excess of £50k with them!
I came to the conclusion it’s the same everywhere these days and made it my mission to find someone who was interested in selling a vehicle.
I’m based in Wiltshire and would’ve loved to have bought from the dealer 3 miles from me but they weren’t interested so purchased from Marshalls Mercedes of Bolton. Am happy for you to mention Gary from Wilts to John Twigg the salesmen who was great. The dealers don’t seem to have be trained on the M/Polos as they’re such a niche model but John made it his mission to find answers to my many questions.
I got a cracking discount too of 11.81% plus, he gave me FOC free autoglym paint treatment and 3 years bodywork and alloy wheel cosmetic insurance. He said it was a cracking deal and the comparisons I did concur with that but I feel there was also an element of luck in wanting a vehicle and they perhaps wanted to do a deal to hit a certain sales target.
I also found Mark at Mercedes Skipton very helpful but John of Bolton MB pipped his price.
Apologies for rambling on and good luck in your hunt.

 

[Denis Kearney]

Hi Dennis

I had a very similar experience when ordering my M/Polo a few weeks ago & couldn’t believe the apathy with some dealers; I was trying to spend in excess of £50k with them!
I came to the conclusion it’s the same everywhere these days and made it my mission to find someone who was interested in selling a vehicle.
I’m based in Wiltshire and would’ve loved to have bought from the dealer 3 miles from me but they weren’t interested so purchased from Marshalls Mercedes of Bolton. Am happy for you to mention Gary from Wilts to John Twigg the salesmen who was great. The dealers don’t seem to have be trained on the M/Polos as they’re such a niche model but John made it his mission to find answers to my many questions.
I got a cracking discount too of 11.81% plus, he gave me FOC free autoglym paint treatment and 3 years bodywork and alloy wheel cosmetic insurance. He said it was a cracking deal and the comparisons I did concur with that but I feel there was also an element of luck in wanting a vehicle and they perhaps wanted to do a deal to hit a certain sales target.
I also found Mark at Mercedes Skipton very helpful but John of Bolton MB pipped his price.
Apologies for rambling on and good luck in your hunt.

 

[ishi051]

I agree with the comments here. We bought our MP from Cambridge, some 100 miles away, but we found one to test drive locally and then were lucky that our MP came up with the spec we wanted in Cambridge. We only needed to go there once to pick up the vehicle. All our research, emails with queries to the dealerships etc were done before handover. At one point we saw one in Perth, Scotland - that would have been a great adventure!

One thing dealers can do is make a video and send it to you over email. This can include anything you want - to see the van inside and out, demo-ing the roof going up / seats going down. This saves a trip if you have already test driven one.

Another thing you can do is test drive a V Class if there isn’t an MP locally. They are the same can after all and the drive is identical! I chose the 250 over the 220 to get a bit of extra oomph from the engine which I thought would be useful when the MP is fully laden.

It sounds like it is a common theme that the dealers don’t know much about MPs. I agree with this but in my experience they were very helpful and called the product specialist in Milton Keynes to get answers to all my questions!


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