If so, that alone might be a good reason for the US manufacturers to offer it. I’m only worried that we might not like what we see…

Arrogance was part of it, but they were basically out of their element and outmaneuvered. The only one that was successful was Homer. He and and his wife were very popular because they lived and worked among the Sarkhanese like jus’ folks, and were protected when the revolution came.

I remember Ambassador MacWhite always winning the first set from the Chinese diplomat, but always losing the second set, and both being too tired to play a third. That was an obvious metaphor for the political situation at the time. Seems to me the locals won the third set.

My reading of the book is quite clear.

This is how a fictional character describes the Yanks screwing-up in Southeast Asia:

“For some reason, the people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They’re loud and ostentatious. Perhaps they’re frightened and defensive, or maybe they’re not properly trained and make mistakes out of ignorance.”

I’ll assume that this doesn’t reflect your view, because that wasn’t the point of the book at all. Not even close!

The wife is even down with the plan, how great is that?

It was a slow evening, so the Saab lady comes over and asks “Are you thinking of a new car?”. I replied affirmative, buit that it would probably be the Mustang since the Saab was a little (maybe more) out of my reach finacially. She said “Two words: European delivery”. Then she explained the whole process, discounts, etc. After excitedly doing more research, it boils down to this: it pays off only if you already planned to vacation in that area, or if you want the thrill of seeing where your car was born.

All in all, still a great idea. I do wish they had a program at Flat Rock for picking up your Mustang – the long trek back here to Texas would be a great bonding experience.

Areitu,
I didn’t realize where the ‘Stang was assembled. An alternative, which might reduce dealer inventories, would be to do factory delivery digitally.

Put cameras in the factory that track your order’s assembly so they can be viewed over the ‘net with a special password, and then send the prespective buyer an email at every milestone in the production process.

Would build excitement and consumer interest, but would require Big 3 to work with their dealers. Pessimism returns.

kasumi: I thought Corvette did some kind of factory pickup, but maybe they discontinued it.

Actually, it's delivery at the Corvette Museum, which is located across the road from the factory in Bowling Green, KY. Unlike many of the Euro delivery programs which give you a discount on the car, you have to pay an extra $480 for option R8C when you order the car.

For that, the museum gives you the "VIP" treatment, a special tour of the factory, commemorative paperwork, decals, and plaques, and a one-year membership to the museum. They also put the car on display in the museum, and broadcast the delivery via web cams so all your friends can see it.

Regarding the Mustang, Dearborn, MI is probably not the nicest place to take a vacation.

Given the massive discounts the Big 2.8 already doles out, any cost savings through a vacation program would be negated.

K.

Jeep especially. They should have an off-road course to train/entertain new drivers. You might even require it of people looking to buy a trail-rated version.

I was very tempted to do this once, and am tempted again. Thanks for the great article.

The programs exist for US and Canadian residents, or members of US and Canadian armed forces. Not all the companies offer military and diplomat sales and discounts (BMW and Volvo do). The military sales differ in that you can keep the car in Europe longer than 6 months without paying tax. Under EU law the ” euro delivery” cars must leave after 6 months or pay local VAT in the country they have been temporarily registered in.

There are currently no programs that I know of that allow residents of other countries to participate in these programs, nor is there a way to pick up a US made car and take it to Europe in this fashion. There are several reasons for this, one is that the same model sold in the US is not sold in Europe as is because they don’t meet European standards for headlights, tail lights, etc. Sweden and Germany have worked with their car companies to create the laws and arrangements with the USA to enable this program to work. This includes special license plates, special insurance and registration arrangements, etc. Due to the relative low volume of sales to other countries it may not be an economical move to attempt to provide the same service to other countries.

Euro delivery should not be seen as a money saving event since you will probably spend more on your vacation anyway. Deals vary by the manufacturer, but Volvo has probably the best deal going. Here’s an example: a 2007 Volvo XC90 V8 AWD Sport is $49,955 MSRP and $47,072 dealer invoice, but only $45,605 via OSD. This is a 9% savings over MSRP and 4% over invoice. According to Edmunds True Market Value and my own research you can get the XC90 V8 sport for Invoice price, this means your savings is $1,467. Now remember that with Volvo the 2 person round-trip air fare is free, and so is shipping (if you return it to the factory) and insurance for two weeks. So if you went on a 2 week vacation that you would take anyway, you’d save the $1,467 on the car, the $1000-$1500 on airfare and $650-$1000 on the rental car while you are there. Overall the big picure is not a bad deal, but you are right, don’t view this as a “we’re gonna go over there and P-A-R-T-Y while saving bank.” Bottom line, if you’re going to buy a European car anyway, and you want to go on vacation, you can save some cash on the package deal and get a much better car to drive there. Trust me, you do NOT want to try driving a rental Ford Ka on the Autobahn, doing so has all the thrill of watching high-speed rollercoasters from a wheelchair.