German Car Zone

Classic shouldn't be offered in the US. That trim here is only bought by taxi, police and business fleets and some private customers. They look "cheap".

Even Taxis, Police and Business Fleets go for the more expensive Elegance version!! Not many, but some of them… … and I can understand them! They look cheap, exterior and interior - the classic version is "terrible"!

In the Ooh Ess Ahh, they have...general trim level for the E-Class. You can actually check out the Car Builder at mbusa.com and just click on the "Build Your Own.."

But for the E-Class Wagon: You only have the medium brown wood trim, and a choice of MB Tex or Leather for the seats. So there is "Elegance" or "Avantgarde" Levels. The options usually come in package form only for the most part, while some individual options like iPod Interface and Parktronic are only offered in individual options. What can be frustrating is that some options ONLY come as part of the Premium I or Premium II package, so to get it, you have to get some stuff that you may not necessarily want.

There were no AMG rim options, Sport Package Options, or Wood options for the wagon, at least on the website. That is what bothers me about the US Market. I didn't know that you could actually buy individual AMG pieces as well, like the quad-tail chrome pipes, trim pieces etc.

For the E-Class Sedan however, I think Avantgarde = Sport, and Elegance = Luxury. Basically: Elegance/Lux is brown wood, black dash background, standard rims. Avantgarde/Sport(Which is free btw) has Dark Gray Wood, more aggressive body pieces, 10-spoke 18in rims, Twin Chrome Pipes and Suspension Ugrade.

To me, the Sport Option for the Sedan is a great deal, and I wish it was offered for the Wagon, because we would have chosen it without a second thought.

What I'd like to see is MBUSA really push customization for just one model and see where it goes. I mean really open up the full European catalogue and see where it goes. Designo, different leathers/colors/woods, the full AMG catalogue also. Throw a few million in advertising/promotion and ship some of these cars to every dealer, especially the bigger ones. They'd get more of them. Just to see where it goes. I bet they'd gain some sales and get a good number of orders which would mean big $$$. If it doesn't work out then remove what customers weren't interested in and scale back and/or drop most of it.

M

True. I've seen a few Elegance W211 taxis around. Heck, I've seen two Avantgarde W211 taxis in Munich!

Police fleets, at least down here, tend to use BMW's but the few Mercedes E-Classes I see are hands down Classic trim. I think for representative missions they'll use Elegance spec W211's. I've only seen one of those.