help buying a new Benz?

I'm trying to find a leftover 2013 GL 350 Bluetec for my sister in law, but local dealers only want to sell something off their lot or build a new 2014. Is there a place to do a nationwide search on dealer inventory?

Find a better salesperson. I was looking at Smarts earlier this fall, and the salesman was able to search for the exact spec I wanted, across the entire country.

Mazda can do a dealer search directly from their website. I imagine MB has a tool like it, somewhere.

European delivery?

Last winter, the ex-g/f was dreaming of a new SLK250 and did all sort of research into buying one. She figured out that Euro delivery was a bit cheaper, allowed you to get exactly what you want, and offered a few options (mainly colors) not available through normal distribution. If she ever finishes her house renovation - and the SLK250 is still in production, it wouldn't surprise me if she buys one.

The GL is built here, so there is no euro delivery for it.

It seems the more expensive the cars the harder it is to get help at the dealers, when I was looking for used 335i's a few years ago I always just got shunned at the "posh" dealers, GL as all I can say.

Mercedes-Benz USA doesn't have a nationwide inventory search on their website.

However, Jeep.com does. How about a Grand Cherokee with the VM turbodiesel V6? There are a few in inventory.

I feel poor.

Look for a dealer that is not part of a massive Auto Group.

My buddy went to a dealer that was a part of an Auto Group and they just wanted to sell him something off the lot and not work with what he wanted (they also held onto his keys ad blocked his car in). He went to a local dealer and they were able to get his truck he wanted on a dealer trade.

And.. how did you determine this again?

Datsun1500 wrote: There are 5 in the USA. 1 in California. 1 in Chicago. 1 in Pennsylvania. 2 in Maryland. None close to you

Doesn't need to be close, Fly & Drive or ship.

Can you point me to where they are and what options they have?

I was wondering why you didn't just teach us to fish instead of handing us a fish, but...

my business.

Now i know.

Thanks, Mr. 1500.

I used to work for a company that dialed into dealerships inventory systems and I wrote scripts to pull that data out and standardize the data and then drop it into a database. We then published that into to cars.com, fordvehicles.com and a few others.

In reply to mndsm:

yeah but its slow and wrong usually. (outdated)

Datsun1500 wrote:

Vigo wrote: I was wondering why you didn't just teach us to fish instead of handing us a fish, but...

my business.

Now i know.

It's not a matter of hiding it from you, it's a matter of not being able to give you access. I looked on the servers themselves for the info, not a web based system. We do the "tap into dealers systems, standardize the info, and export out" at the manufacturer level, so that gives me access to a whole bunch of automotive data. I've done it since 1995 so there are some cars I can trace from manufactured date to junkyard date if I get bored. Since m4ff3w used to work for a company that did similar stuff, there's a good chance we know some of the same people (or at least the same internal language for this stuff). If it was in Austin, I'd have to guess CDM Data was the company.

It was Digital Motorworks Inc, they got bought by ADP sometime after I left. It was a neat job.

Neat stuff. I haven't kept up with anyone that I worked with there.

No changes for 14, was just hoping to find a better deal on a leftover '13. But none have the option combinations they are looking for.

Thanks for your assistance!

In reply to Datsun1500:

I am guessing end of model year deals

It's not a matter of hiding it from you, it's a matter of not being able to give you access.

Well then the reason is because it is someone else's business(es). The key point is that $$ play into it somewhere. I'm not trying to assign a positive or negative value to that.

They are looking for: Leather (they don't like MBTex) Panorama Roof Lighting Package Premium 1 Package 3 zone climate control HK sound system Rear seat entertainment Keyless-GO Power Easy Entry 2nd row seats Rear side window sunshades