Let us go back to the end of 2020. My wife and I were chatting in the kitchen about buying a new car. One of the criteria of my wife the vehicle should have was to have seven seats as it would be easier to bring kids to tennis. I wanted to go for a fully electric car.
As a couple of my friends drive a Tesla, and they were optimistic about it, we went to order a Tesla Model X beginning of February 2021. The delivery date was set to September 2021, which was just perfect.
A couple of weeks go by, and all of a sudden, there is a virus that overtakes the world. That is when we got our first call from Tesla. We are sorry to inform you that we cannot ensure the delivery date for September yet. We were not expecting anything else, as there were already enough signs, but still, you hope to get it on time.
Later in August 2021, just a month before the delivery should happen, they called us again to tell us that they were now sure that shipping gets postponed until the end of 2021. All fine, we say, and just let it be.
Weeks go by, and we are December 2021 when Tesla calls again. Sir, sorry to inform you, but we have to postpone the delivery again, and we cannot tell you any new delivery date just yet, but it might be somewhere in 2023 earliest. At that moment, I had it and told my wife to look for other options.
The other option
One morning, I was reading a Belgian newspaper, and there was an article about a new Mercedes-Benz. Reviews for the car were very positive, so I thought to try it and went to the closest Mercedes-Benz garage.
They had one in the showroom, which was pretty nice, although there were no seven seats. I told the dealer I had an order for a Tesla, but I was looking for another option. The first thing he mentioned was to do a test ride with it to see how it felt, and we made an appointment for the week after.
The whole family went to pick up the car, which would immediately be a good test to see if everyone liked it. When we returned the car, we were convinced and said we wanted to order it. However, there was a problem, the hyperscreen. All orders were delayed until the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023. The other option was to wait a couple of weeks for an interior update where the hyperscreen gets replaced with only two screens, which in our opinion, was even better, as the third screen is unnecessary and always full of fingerprint marks.
The order
Somewhere in February 2022, we got a call from the Mercedes-Benz dealer that we could come and order the car. In the garage, the dealer said the car could be put on the production schedule for May 2022, which would be fantastic.
That day, we went home hopeful and happy. Just a couple of weeks before May, the dealer calls again to say it has a May production date. It could not be more perfect than this. Finally, a car that can be delivered on time.
The delivery
At the end of May, we receive a call from the dealer. Good news, the car is put on transport and should be here somewhere next week.
A week passed, and we got a phone call, but this time, it was not positive news: Sir, sorry to inform you, but we hoped to get the car delivered this week, but as it is not here yet, we called the factory. Two missing modules and the vehicle is not yet ready for transportation.
In that week when the car was, so we thought, on transport to the garage, we sold our car. If the vehicle was not delivered by the end of June, it would become a significant issue as we were planning to go to Italy on vacation by car.
The dealer said it would not be an issue as it was still a month, so it would be delivered on time.
From one delay to another
You can already guess it. The vehicle could not get delivered by the end of June, but they would look for a temporary solution to help us out.
In the first week of July, we got a call from Mercedes-Benz to tell us we could come and pick up a car that we could use till we got our vehicle.
The vacation
The car’s trunk from the Mercedes-Benz e300 hybrid was too small, so we were able to use a ski box to go on vacation. Besides the small compartment, it is a fantastic car to drive.
While having a great time in Italy, one evening, it suddenly begins to storm. Hail started falling out of the sky, and in no time, all the cars on the camping were damaged.
It was around midnight, so we had to wait until morning to see the damage, and as we expected, it didn’t look good.
The next day we informed Mercedes-Benz Belgium, and they told us not to worry and enjoy the rest of our vacation.
The disappointments
When we were back and returning the ski box, I asked them again what to do with the damage. Which they were going to sort out. A couple of days later, we got an email that we would have to pay 1800 Eur as that is the franchise for the car insurance, which would have been zero Euro if it was our own car, as our insurance covers natural disasters.
At the beginning of September, we receive some good news: all the car modules are available, and they will assemble them. I texted someone I got to know on a Facebook group who ordered the same car to tell her the good news. A week later, she got a call from her dealer that the car got delivered and she could come and pick it up.
Although, there is no news on my car anymore. Two weeks passed, and I contacted my dealer, where I got the answer: our garage had been acquired by another holding, and we are currently merging all systems. All car deliveries were postponed due to this. They were going to do their best to get the car to the garage by the end of September, which they did not make.
At the beginning of October, the dealer asked for priority transport to the garage. A bit more than a week later, we got a call that the car was ready, and we could start with all paperwork (registration and insurance) in a matter of days; this was completed, and we scheduled an appointment on October 14th.
The evening before the appointment, we get a call from the dealer. Sorry to inform you, but it might be you cannot get the car tomorrow. There is a problem with the charger. We cannot disconnect the vehicle anymore, and an engineer has to look into it.
The next day, the problem was still not fixed. An update from Mercedes-Benz Germany needs to happen to disconnect the car.
I’m not sure where the problems with this car will stop, but I hope soon. I hope this was just a one-time problem with the car, but this does not feel good.