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Trying to look at a MP in Essex or nearby
- Thread starter Ali
- Start date
Andrew Gamble
Active Member
I had a meeting today with Mercedes Benz commercial vehicles regarding the ongoing embargo for vehicles which includes the MP.. currently none can be sold or registered and that’s subsequently why no one has one available for viewing/test drive. Furthermore all the demos/used vehicles in MB dealerships have been pulled from sale as MB finance can’t fund them whilst this embargo remains in place. This is set to continue for some time yet seemingly.
Your only chance of seeing one is if a member nearby is good enough to show you theirs or you find one for sale privately and not through a MB dealership.
Your only chance of seeing one is if a member nearby is good enough to show you theirs or you find one for sale privately and not through a MB dealership.
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We went to Mercedes Chelmsford and viewed an MP about 4 weeks ago, unfortunately, it was quickly sold. We ended up purchasing a nearly-new MP with 250 miles on the clock from Chesterfield, Derbyshire.... and it was delivered today. So you can still by nearly new Marco Polo's, but there are few available. Search on the Mercedes website for 'V Class' then in the search box (where you can specify certain text) put in 'Marco Polo' - then they'll come up.... but probably only a handful now.
Unfortunately every single MB dealer we dealt with in finding ours was useless. Truly useless.
Hi All
Yes, we agree entirely with bretth, but, we think there is more too it as well.....
We are asking ourselves why you want to spend £60k on a vehicle that cant be ordered / delivered, you cant get to test drive and has emissions compliance probs.
It doesn't bode well we think, that if you ever did manage to buy a MP, if the dealers acted the same for maintenance / servicing / warranty issues, they'd do just as bad ??
I went to MB CM and in the end there were 3 sales people with me in the vehicle, trying to work out how to put the roof up. I was embarrassed for them.
The whole time they were doing this there were 2 alarms going all the time which they didnt know how to turn off.
Undeterred.... and still keen... I booked a test drive with my husband, and one alarm was on the whole time throughout our test drive.
My husband is still keen on the MP but since we cant find anyone to properly demonstrate the vehicle to us, we are thinking again.
So, why a MP over a Cali ?
Leather standard, DSG standard, bit longer, tinted windows standard.
But, have to pay a lot for a heater.
Cali has heater, well proven and available to buy !
So, Cali must be the better choice....?
Ali
Yes, we agree entirely with bretth, but, we think there is more too it as well.....
We are asking ourselves why you want to spend £60k on a vehicle that cant be ordered / delivered, you cant get to test drive and has emissions compliance probs.
It doesn't bode well we think, that if you ever did manage to buy a MP, if the dealers acted the same for maintenance / servicing / warranty issues, they'd do just as bad ??
I went to MB CM and in the end there were 3 sales people with me in the vehicle, trying to work out how to put the roof up. I was embarrassed for them.
The whole time they were doing this there were 2 alarms going all the time which they didnt know how to turn off.
Undeterred.... and still keen... I booked a test drive with my husband, and one alarm was on the whole time throughout our test drive.
My husband is still keen on the MP but since we cant find anyone to properly demonstrate the vehicle to us, we are thinking again.
So, why a MP over a Cali ?
Leather standard, DSG standard, bit longer, tinted windows standard.
But, have to pay a lot for a heater.
Cali has heater, well proven and available to buy !
So, Cali must be the better choice....?
Ali
We looked at a Cali too - but once you step inside a Marco Polo it’s a different league. The California is a van and looks and feels (and drives) like it. The MP is a luxury penthouse on wheels, in comparison. Yes no heater as standard, but that wasn’t important for our needs. Mercedes v VW, also a different class. The VW van centres sell the California and from my experience know as little about their product as Mercedes dealers know about theirs.
Roy C
Top Poster
There is an emissions embargo on the MP at the moment but a few months ago there was an embargo on the Cali and not one on the MP. This is an issue of timing and I know you're looking to buy now but VW had the same compliance problems and they needed to sort them, Mercedes will too. Check out the 74 pages of comments on the sister forum regarding the new registrations on hold for the VW California from earlier this year (https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/important-news-new-vehicle-registrations-on-hold.22236/page-74). There is some interesting speculation on if the software changes made to the VW have an impact on real world driving experience and I guess the same will apply to the MP once the embargo is lifted.
The are a lot of MB dealers who know nothing about the van and cannot demonstrate it. There are a few that do better and this is the same with the VW. There are some clueless ones and a few good un's. For me the advantage is the MP is sold by the main car dealer network whereas the VW is sold by commercial dealers. Why does that matter? Well when I looked at the Cali I tried a few dealers in Yorkshire and a few did not sell the Cali. The closest to me that did is in Leeds, 2o miles away. However eventually I had a great conversation with Guy at VW Preston who knows his stuff but when I asked for a test drive I was told I could not do it on a weekend because they weren't open since they are a commercial van centre and only operate during the week. It was impractical for me to take a day off work to travel 70 miles for a test drive. By contrast my MB dealer is a couple of miles away and I can take it in during the weekend. When I had a couple of teething problems I could just drop it in and they gave me a nice A-class courtesy car whilst mine was being worked on.
The Cali has a heater as standard and the aux warm air heater in the MP is an eye-watering £2.5k but when you spec the Cali to the same standard as the MP and even when including a heater the MP works out cheaper. Now it may be you don't want some of the extras that come as standard on the MP and in that case you will likely get the Cali cheaper but if you do want most of the bells and whistles that come as standard on the MP (I did) then I personally got more for my money.
Well proven? - both are. The Marco Polo has been sold for 20+ years in continental Europe but it was only made available in the UK last April so it is not new it's just new on these shores in right hand drive.
Don't get me wrong the Cali and MP are both great camper vans and there are differences that mean one van suits some people and the other suits a different set of people. Choose which you prefer and you won't make the wrong choice with either!
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