Sears Imported Autos Mercedes-Benz is hosting “Benz and Roses” a pre Valentines Day evening soiree full of all the finer things in life and YOU’RE INVITED! This should prove to be a very nice evening, please see the formal event invitation below. I plan on being at the event all evening if you’d like to discuss a particular car or just come in to say hello and have some refreshments.

YOU AND A GUEST ARE CORDIALLY INVITED

FOR AN EVENING OF EPICURIAN DELIGHTS,

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT, AMORE AND MORE.

GIFTS GALORE FOR THE CONNOISSEUR, FROM

BENZ & ROSES TO FASHIONS FOR MEN AND WOMEN,

JEWELRY, ACCESSORIES, HANDMADE CHOCOLATES,

AND CONTEMPORARY ART AVAILABLE FROM

THE TWIN CITIES’ FINEST RETAILERS.

WWW.SEARSIMPORTS.COM

Some of the items, people and organizations on hand include:

SURDYK’S
wine & cheese tasting

FOUR VOICES
string quartet

ARTS & FLOWERS
fresh floral arrangements & gifts

CHOCOLAT CELESTE
fresh artisian chocolates

CIRCA GALLERY
contemporary art

NEIMAN MARCUS
fashions, accessories and gifts
for men and women

All merchandise available for sale

Hope to see you at the event!

]]> http://daveknowscars.com/2012/01/26/join-us-at-sears-imports-for-benz-and-roses-february-9-2012-from-530-730pm-string-quartet-surdyks-wine-and-cheese-tasting-chocolat-celeste-handmade-chocolates-art-flowers-and-fashio/feed/ 0 http://daveknowscars.com/2011/12/27/1993-mercedes-500e-purchased-by-customer-in-dallas-tx-arrives-safely-new-owner-happy-with-service-and-buying-experience/ http://daveknowscars.com/2011/12/27/1993-mercedes-500e-purchased-by-customer-in-dallas-tx-arrives-safely-new-owner-happy-with-service-and-buying-experience/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:02:42 +0000 Dave Tobin http://daveknowscars.com/?p=3735

This 1993 Mercedes Benz 500E sedan was traded in here at Sears Imports about a month ago. It was placed on eBay twice, it was posted to Autotrader.com, cars.com, even Craigslist here in Minneapolis. This is a very rare car as you may know, a join venture between Mercedes-Benz and Porsche and good for a little over 160mph when it was new back in 1993. It would be an understatement to say there was a lot of ‘action’ on this car while it was here in the Sears Imports inventory.

My phone rang off the hook with interested parties, my email inbox was constantly filling up with inquiries from across the country. While most people I spoke with just wanted to talk about the car and then explain how they’d love to buy it, but their wife wouldn’t let them, or they had nowhere to store it… a handful of real players were interested in the car and were ready to put their money where their mouth was.

The one thing  holding most people back from actually purchasing the car, and understandably, was the lack of any service records with the car, older cars like this are often times sold by their records.

Thankfully, the night before the auction ended I got a call from the independent shop owner who serviced and maintained this car for its previous owner after he saw it on eBay. He was able to tell me all the work he did to the car over the last 4 years or so… receipts added up to almost $13,000. While it was almost too late for anyone to use this information for their eBay bidding, some eBayers did see the updated description and several of them called me.

Within a few minutes of the eBay auction ending I got a call from a gentleman who had a few questions about the car. We talked, discussed other cars he owns and is interested in, I told him about some of the cars I’ve had over the years. We were just two car guys, albeit with very different budgets and amounts of disposable income for our car hobby, I’ll tell you that much! In a few minutes we put a deal together on the 500E. There was another 500E on the market at the same time, a green one in California, which I had seen for sale and heard all about, everyone who called about our silver car made it known they were also looking at “a green one in California.” In the end… the guy who purchased our silver car also bought the green one in California, I couldn’t be happier for him and I’m glad they’re going to a very good home, somewhere where they will both be appreciated and well cared for.

In the end, our car sold between $11,000 and $12,000… an absolute steal according to the mechanic that maintained the car over the past few years, but the market is what it is and in late December of 2011, that is the market value, the amount someone will actually pull out of their wallet and fork over for this particular 500E. My guess is, that in 10 years, even 5 years, we’ll look back on this purchase and think it was a good deal.

I was happy to receive the survey (posted below) that everyone who purchases a Mercedes-Benz vehicle from a Mercedes-Benz dealership gets via email, filled out and offering praise for the car, purchased sight unseen, and the buying experience here at Sears Imports.

There are a number of great automotive fine artists out there that create high quality artwork documenting the great races, cars and drivers from the golden age of European auto racing. this sort of artwork is certainly a niche market, there are a limited number of artists and prints they produce. If you’re an automotive enthusiast looking for some of this limited edition artwork, where do you go to get it, who do you talk to?

Click this image to go directly to the Freck's Auto Art Webpage.

I was recently looking for artwork to hang on my office wall. I needed something Mercedes-Benz related, I was looking for something, ideally, having to do with Mercedes-Benz racing from the 1950s, either from Italy’s legendary Mille Miglia or Targo Florio or perhaps something from the 24 hours of Le Mans in France. While searching for “Mercedes-Benz Artwork” and “Mercedes Benz Racing Artwork” on Google I stumbled across Gainesville, FL based Freck’s Automotive Art Inc.

I spent the better part of an hour looking through the different categories of artwork on their website. They have a wonderful collection of artwork from automotive fine artists including Nicholas Watts, Michael Mate, Juan Carlos Ferrigno, Alan Fearnley and Simon Ward among others. There are original paintings and limited edition artist proofs and prints, many signed by the drivers depicted in the artwork. Many of these pieces are signed by such racing legends as Sterling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio, others are signed by more recently minted racing legends like Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Michael Schumacher.

Nicholas Watts' painting of Sterling Moss ripping through Brescia, Italy in a Mercedes-Benz 300SLR in during the 1955 Targa Florio, signed by the artist and Moss.

Just about every great racing marque is represented, Jaguar, Aston Martin, of course, Porsche and Ferrari… and there are a handful of Mercedes-Benz pieces as well. Many people new to the Mercedes-Benz brand don’t realize that while Mercedes had a rich pre war racing history and solid racing experience into the 1950s, a terrible accident involving a Mercedes-Benz 300SLR at the 1955 running of the 24 hours of Le Mans resulting in 83 spectator deaths and an additional 120 spectator injuries prompted Mercedes Benz, as a manufacturer, to pull out of racing all together for more than 30 years. Pretty much any road racing Mercedes-Benz cars between 1956 and the late 1980s were fielded by privateers, not factory teams.

Another Nicholas Watts' piece: Juan Manuel Fangio leads Mercedes-Benz team mate Karl Kling and a Ferrari during the 1954 French Grand Prix

In any case… the Mercedes-Benz racing history is rich and full and many of the high points of Mercedes-Benz racing history are captured in the artwork I discovered on the Freck’s Auto Art website. I opted to purchase a print of Sterling Moss (driver) and Dennis Jenkinson (navigator) running their record breaking 1955 Mille Miglia race in, what is considered, the most famous Mercedes-Benz racing car of all time, 300SLR #722. That’s the piece pictured at the top of this post… notice the crumpled front passenger’s side fender, that happened during a brief off road excursion during the race.

If you’re not familiar with the Mille Miglia, you should be. It was a thousand mile race (Mille Miglia, in Italian means 1000 miles) held more or less annually, on the public roads of Italy, between 1927 and 1957… save for the years during the occasional World War and a few other interruptions over the years. The Targa Florio was another race held on the public roads of Italy, it carried on until the early 1970s, until speeds we so high and it became so dangerous, for all involved, that the event was ultimately banned.

I look forward to receiving my signed Watts print soon. Once I get it I will take it right to the frame shop and then it will be mounted on my office wall. In my experience, Freck’s ships promptly and carries a wide variety of automotive art representing all the great races, racers, and cars from the pre war period to very recent Formula 1 and Le Mans events. Be sure to visit the Freck’s Auto Art website to get something very special for that automotive enthusiast in your household this holiday season, they will love it!

The Mercedes CLK LM at Laguna Seca, California 1998, painted by Nicholas Watts.

Are you looking for unique, original automotive artwork for your home, office, man cave or ‘garage-mahal’? What would you do if you had everyday access to millions of dollars worth of new cars? A new Minneapolis based company, ‘Dealer Decor’, specializes in high quality studio based automotive photography that offers automotive enthusiasts and dealerships an artistic, visual alternative to the usual OEM produced posters and promotional materials.

Company principle Joe Ringus is a fine art photographer who happens to manage the artistic side of the advertising efforts at a local Mercedes-Benz and Nissan Dealership in Minneapolis. He has applied his unique photographer’s eye to the high end automotive products that that surround him everyday. He has taken these machines into the photo studio and turned out a series of provocative images that would look wonderful on any dealership or automotive enthusiast’s walls.

The images that Ringus and Dealer Decor turn out would look perfectly at home in a Mercedes-Benz product brochure. Details of the cars, things that most people might glance over or never notice are discovered and explored by Ringus’ keen artistic eye. Every curve and nuance of Mercedes-Benz sheet metal, the way the light moves over and around it, is put on the stage of his camera’s lens. The high resolution digital images are printed in full color, on high quality canvas which is then stretched over a wood frame. Each piece is shipped ready for hanging, they come out of the box and are ready to hang on your wall.

A Dealer Decor piece in a dealership office.

Standard prints from the Dealer Decor Collections can be ordered in a variety of sizes depending upon the size of the space in which they’ll reside. Standard prints are available in three sizes, 24″ x 16″, 30″ x 20″ and 42″ x 28″. Prices range from $285 to $360.

Dealer Decor caters primarily to automotive dealerships who have a lot of wall space to cover, but the company has started to work with individual automotive enthusiasts looking to decorate their offices and garages. Prints from the Dealer Decor Collections are available to individuals, there is no minimum order. Special projects are occasionally undertaken, whether it involves a specific model or even a client’s own vehicle. Ringus’ hands on, collaborative artistic approach in the studio opens up possibilities for all types of vehicles. Prices vary on the size and scope of each individual project.

Visit the Dealer Decor Website to see more details of their artistic process and many photographs in the current collections.

Last week I attended the 11th Digital Dealer Conference held at the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. This is a conference for dealer personnel that are involved with digital and web based functions of car dealerships. More than 1200 dealership personnel from across the country participated in the three days of activities.  Days are full of keynote speakers, smaller breakout sessions, seminars, all the usual stuff for such ‘trade show / industry conferences’. Internet sales managers and eCommerce directors from all sorts of different dealerships from all over the country attended.

There were speakers from Google and Facebook in Silicon Valley, there were speakers from a variety of different companies which design and create web based products and other technology solutions for the auto industry. Cars.com, eBay Motors, Kelley Blue Book, AutoTrader.com, all of these sorts of companies, and many more, were there hawking their wares and introducing their newest products and newest features of existing products.

Black Book Online was also in attendance, this is a sort of ‘wholesale’ price guide for dealers, and a much more accurate place (more accurate than Kelley Blue Book) if you’re really trying to figure out what you’re going to get for your trade in from a dealer. The spokesperson for Black Book was Gunny Seargant R. Lee Ermey of “Full Metal Jacket” motion picture fame as well as, more recently, appearances on the History Channel. I had my picture taken with him and he insulted me several times… “Tobin, you’re such a sorry excuse, drop and give me 20″ not really, but, you know…

One of the most interesting speakers was Eric Qualman, author of the Best Seller, “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business”. It was interesting to have Eric at the conference, as everyone in the car business is clamoring to figure out how to best use things like Facebook and Twitter to sell more cars.

Some fun was had once the 8:00am – 5:00pm sessions were over, sure. Imagine 1000+ car people in Las Vegas. I visited the Imperial Palace Auto Collection while I was there. There was only one Mercedes-Benz there, and it was a fake anyway, an 1928 SSK Roadster Replica… still priced at $325,000… crazy money for a ‘fakey-doo’. There were a handful of nice vintage Ferraris, lots of big, old Rolls Royces. It’s always a fun collection to visit while in Vegas. Everything is for sale, so inventory changes often. It costs $8 to gain entry to the collection, but if you ask for free passes at the Concierge desk downstairs they will give you free passes. The collection is housed on the 5th floor (if I remember correctly) of the parking garage. Here are some photos…

1928 Mercedes SSK Replica, asking price of $325,000.

Sauber Mercedes European Group C race car from mid 1980s

Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Cabriolet.

1967 Ferrari 500 Superfast Series II Coupe.

The Mercedes Benz Club Twin Cities Section is holding one of their most attended events of the year, the Mercedes Benz Club Fall Color Tour, on Sunday October 9, 2011!

This is a casual, fun club driving / tour / ‘eating’ event. The Annual Fall Color Tour Caravan to brunch at Sarah’s Restaurant in Red Wing is always a crowd pleaser. A fun time to get out with your car one last time before Winter with friends and enjoy the Fall colors as tree leaves change along the Mississippi.

This year the club is incorporating its annual meeting into the event, as the national Mercedes-Benz club has requested individual chapters complete annual meeting business before the end of October. Don’t worry, the club business will be brief and held at Sarah’s Restaurant when we first arrive. The club is hoping for a big turnout, as the annual meeting requires a quorum of club members in order to carry out the necessary club business. The club business won’t take more than a few minutes, the rest of the time you can spend telling all of those tall car tales and discussing February vacation plans to escape the Minnesota Winter for a few weeks!

If you’re interested in participating, read the general schedule of events and timeline below, have a look at the printable flyer below here (click on it and print it…CLICK THIS LINK TO VISIT THE CLUB WEBSITE.

MBCA-TC Fall Color Tour 2011 – SCHEDULE:

Sunday, October 9, 2011:
10:30 AM- Meet at Starbucks, at the inter-section of Lyndale Avenue South & 77th Street West in Richfield (Just one block North of I494 & Lyndale Avenue South. The address is 7610 Lyndale Ave. So. in Richfield). Park on the plaza on the West side of the coffee shop.

11:00 AM – Caravan to Red Wing.

 12:00 PM (Estimated arrival time) Please note that we will not stop West of Prescott to pick anyone up, as we used to, because we will take a different route.

If somehow you become detached from our caravan (this has happened before!), or come to Red Wing from a different direction, Sarah’s address is: Sarah’s – 307 Main Street – Red Wing, MN 55066 – Tel.: 651-388-2711
CLICK THIS FLYER TO GET LARGER, PRINTABLE VERSION!

Sears Imports co sponsored the Wayzata Rotary Club Car Show held in conjunction with Wayzata’s J.J. Hill Days this past Sunday, September 11, 2011. I attended the event for Sears Imports Mercedes Benz with a couple of vehicles from our inventory. Bother were pre owned vehicles. One showcased the timeless lines and design of the Mercedes-Benz coupe… a one family owned 1964 220SE. The other display car showed the modern side of Mercedes-Benz… a 2005 SL65 AMG, 12 cylinder, twin turbo charged roadster.

I arrived at the show site in downtown Wayzata at about 8:30 in the morning to set things up. Once the cars were in place I turned around only to see my friend, Dave Bortner, from the Mercedes-Benz Club pulling in the parking lot. I had spoken to him the day before to encourage him to come out with his car. The minty 1969 Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3 that you may have seen grace the pages of this blog if you read with any regularity. As he climbed out and we started to talk another classic Mercedes. It was Dave Steingas in his pristine 1951 220 cabriolet, he parked next to Dave. A minute or two later, MBCA-TC member Mark Flaten turned up with his 1970 280SL that was just completely restored by Lake Country Classics in Minneapolis. What a great line up! People came and went for most of the morning, eventually club member Ron Berg appeared in his brown 280SL as well. A number of other club members showed up as well, Chris Georgacas showed up, but not in a Mercedes, rather, he was in his Ferrari 355 Spyder… decisions, decisions I suppose.

Bortner's imposing 6.3.

Steingas' 1951 220 Cabriolet.

Flaten's expertly restored 1970 280SL.

Ron Berg's 280SL and the Georgacas F355 Spider.

Lots of people were interested in the 220SE, the classic lines of that car really seem to speak to people, and this particular 220SE coupe is in very nice condition. The son of the original owner came by the booth, he was probably in his late 70s. He explained that his mother had owned the car, it was eventually passed to one of her grand children, Sears Imports bought it from that grand child. In any case, it’s a local, one owner vehicle with a known history… wonderful black with a red interior. I drove this car to and from the show and had a ball, the looks you get driving that car are incredible… lots of thumbs up from passers by.

The Mercedes-Benz lineup.

The mix of cars at this show was huge, and because there is no real theme to the show, it’s just drive in what you want and have a good time… there were 1950s American classics parked next to vintage European Sports cars parked next to full classics, cars of all shapes, sizes, makes and models were there including several very special cars… how about a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Short Wheel Base Berlinetta… probably worth $3 – $5 Million dollars… a guy just drove it in… and it’s the real deal… no kit car… as the owner bought it new in Italy, and he drove it into the show Sunday morning, the same guy. Or an ex Carrera Panamericana Oldsmobile racing car, a couple of Jaguar XK120s… there was even a Duesenberg. There aren’t many shows that are so small, with such a wide variety of cars.

The 1960 Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinetta.

Porsche 356 and an MGA MKII 1600.

There was a parade along Lake Street in downtown Wayzata a U.S. Army Band unit played behind a color guard of Boy Scouts and a uniformed color guard. It was a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting really, with Lake Minnetonka across the street, not a cloud in the sky, little kids with balloons. The parade ended in front of “The Muni” where the mayor of Wayzata said a few words about the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I couldn’t help but think that we live in a pretty nice place and we’re far luckier than many people in the world.

An eclectic mix of machinery.

Based on the great turn out at this show I would imagine Sears Imports will participate in this show next year. Thanks to all those who organized the event and to the Wayzata Rotary Club.

More photos below…

Wonderful Jaguar XK120.

Morrie's big Duesenberg.

Another one of Morrie's cars... a Cord 812.

1960 Alfa Romeo Guilietta... just right in red.

The parade down Lake Street in downtown Wayzata.

My wife and I flew out to the East Coast recently, for a week long vacation. We have some friends in Truro, MA who invited us out for a few days before they were scheduled to go to Europe for their vacation. The plan was that we’d fly to Boston, take the fast ferry to Provincetown on Cape Cod and spend some time with them until they left for Europe. We would stay in their house while they were gone, take care of their two dogs, go to the beach, eat good seafood, and generally enjoy ourselves and relax for a week. Who knew a hurricane would crash the party during our stay? In the end, Irene was pretty much a non event on lower Cape Cod. We didn’t lose power, it didn’t even really rain in Truro… but was there wind… sustained 55 mph winds with gusts a lots bigger than that for about a day. Anyway… upon our arrival on the ferry from Boston into Provincetown  I immediately started to see Taxis, in fact, Mercedes Benz Taxis… surely a blog article was brewing.

One of the "Mercedes Cab" W123 wagons trolls Commercial Street in Provincetown.

These weren’t shiny new E classes or high end car service S classes like you might see in Manhattan. No, I’m talking late 1970s and early to mid 1980s vintage 280D and 300 turbo diesels. The old school Mercedes diesels that clatter along forever slowly belching black smoke from their tail pipes. They were mostly sedans, but I saw a couple of wagons as well. It felt more like I was on the Italian or French Riviera back in college than in Cape Cod. They looked so right cruising deliberately through the narrow 250+ year old streets of Provincetown and Wellfleet, MA. “What a great idea” I thought, whoever came up with this idea was a genius, of course, like so many other things, it happened a bit by accident, that this company ended up driving a fleet of diesel Mercedes Benz cars around.

After a week enjoying ourselves, walking around, exploring the beaches of Cape Cod, when our time was up and it was time to make our way to the ferry terminal in Provincetown from  the house in Truro there was only one cab company to call… a call I was looking forward to making all week… to “Mercedes Cab.” The ferry left at 10:30am so, the night before I called Mercedes Cab and requested the car for 9:30. I was secretly hoping for one of the W123 wagons to pick us up, I had only seen two around town and I wasn’t about to request a specific car, I mean, who does that? But I hoped it was one of those cool old wagons. At about 9:25 the next morning I actually heard the cab pull up from inside the house. When I went outside I was happy to see…

Our driver and bassist for local band "Squidda" Jesse Cartwright.

This wasn’t going to be just another cab ride, this was going to be an experience, we figured, with some local flavor, and maybe some diesel fumes. Cape Cod native Jesse Cartwright was our driver for the short 15 or so minute drive from our place in Truro into Provincetown. As soon as we got in the cab I started asking him about the company. I told him I worked for a Mercedes-Benz dealer and that I would just have to write a blog article about the Mercedes Cab company. “We’ve got about 10 cabs right now, two wagons and the rest are sedans” Jesse said, “the company’s been around since 1983, the owner started with one car, a Mercedes diesel, and it just grew from there.”

The company serves what’s known as the ‘lower cape’ from Eastham in the south, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown on the upper most tip of Cape Cod, not a huge distance, but where the bulk of the tourist traffic is concentrated I would guess, it’s just such a great niche. The wagon we were in was no show winner, this car was, like many of the fishing boats in the Provincetown marina, a working machine. Chipped paint, some surface rust here and there, but it’s not about a perfect vehicle, it’s about the best tool for the job, and I’d be hard pressed to think of a better tool for this job.

“We’re coming up on one of our old cabs here, off the the left, you’ll see it here, coming up, there it is.” Jesse pointed off towards a maroon colored W114 chassis Mercedes diesel from the early to mid 1970s parked in a gravel lot next to a warehouse building just as we were leaving Truro, “That one finally died” he said sadly as he took another sip from his coffee cup. “Yeah, I grew up here, when I was a kid we’d be on our bikes all day, riding around, my parents would just tell us to be back by dark, this was a really safe place to grow up, it still is.”

Jesse has a Mercedes-Benz diesel himself, as his personal car we learned. As we entered Provincetown he announced, “You know, I’m gonna take a little detour to avoid a busy intersection up here.” We hung a left off the main drag into town, “Well, it wasnt’tthat backed up today, sometimes this is all backed up” he waved his hand back and forth, “This way I can show you my car, it’s on the way.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“A 1979 300SD, a friend of mine had it, I traded him a Subaru and a surfboard for it” he announced as we rounded a bend… there it was, I got out and took some pictures while Jesse and Michele waited in the cab.

“I found the original hood emblem for it in the trunk, the star was broken out of it, but I put it on there anyway, I thought it looked cool” Jesse added, “and I put on that turbo badge, ’cause it’s one of the first turbo diesels they made.”

Cool emblem, turbo badge.

As I got back into the wagon I realized our ride was almost over. Jesse told us about the band he plays Bass in, Squidda. Judging from their Facebook Fan Page they’re pretty prolific on the Cape, it doesn’t look like too many weekends go by where you can’t catch them playing one of the bars along Commercial Street in Provincetown or somewhere else on the cape. (Check out the band and ‘LIKE’ Squidda on Facebook by clicking this link)

How cool is that? Jesse drove this 300SD all the way out to Lake Tahoe for the Winter season last year, put chains on the tires and drove it everyday he was there. How’s that for adventure? “Yeah, it made it up the mountain, everyday, no problem. My buddy was mad when I came back and he saw I was still driving it, he never thought it would make it, but it did, it was a good trade” he concluded.

A Mercedes-Benz film crew actually traveled to Cape Cod to shoot a short movie about “Mercedes Cab” for the Mercedes-Benz.tv website. This video, like all things Mercedes-Benz, it’s extremely high quality. It tells the story of “Mercedes Cab” in about 4 minutes with great photography and commentary. Click the image below to watch this great video on YouTube.

Click the photo to watch this great short film about "Mercedes Cab"!

It’s no secret, these diesels, even these 25 and 30 year old models get very good gas mileage and their longevity is, of course, legendary. You might have seen my article about the Mercedes Benz High Mileage Award Program, the current highest mileage record, according to MBUSA is a Greek Taxi Driver with a 240D from the 1970s with over 2 million miles. See a photo and more info about this Greek Taxi driver and the MB High Mileage Program here.

Thanks to Jesse and Mercedes Cab for getting us where we needed to go in style, see you next time.  And thanks to our friends Oren and Rick for the best place to stay we could imagine and the fun dogs to walk and feed and play with while we bummed around Cape Cod for a week!

See more photos below of our trip to Cape Cod and some of the other Mercedes vehicles we encountered while on the cape.

The early 18th century farmhouse and barn (converted to guest cottage).

Not too worried about a hurricane in a 250+ year old farm house on the hill above the ocean.

An R class Mercedes makes its way down Commercial Street in P Town.

A 300SD from Virginia parked on Commercial Street, the same as Jesse's car.

Our car for the week, our friend's BMW X3... they drove their 2011 C300 to the airport!

Our charges for the week, Adelaide (Corgi) and Louise (Bassett Hound), great fun these two ladies.

Louise, not at all worried about a potential hurricane.

Sears Imports is participating in the Mercedes-Benz Summer Event in a BIG WAY this year, and this Saturday will be a huge day at the dealership. We have come up with several exclusive offers, only available at Sears Imports. The $1,500 Mercedes Loyalty Cash Offer… is being matched by Sears Imports.. that means $3,000 total savings!

We have solid inventory of 2011 C and E class vehicles, we also happen to have some of the first 2012 GLK350s, SLKs and SLs! Read below to see all of the things we’ll have going on this coming weekend at Sears Import… including a bar-b-que cook out with burgers, dogs, drinks and all the trimmings.

PRESS RELEASE:

August 16, 2011 – Minnetonka, MN: One of the automotive industry’s most anticipated events is finally here, and we are very pleased to invite you to attend a one of a kind summer event. I am talking about the annual Mercedes-Benz Summer Event at Sears Imported Autos on Saturday, August 20th, 2011. Although the Mercedes-Benz Summer Event will be advertised to the public, this one-day only event has been created to offer exclusive offerings to our most loyal customers.

If you are currently in an active MBFS contract (finance or lease) you are eligible for a $1,500 loyalty credit towards the purchase or lease of any new 2011 or 2012 C-Class or E-Class models.  And for limited time only Sears Imported Autos will match that offer, so now you will get $3,000 toward the lease or finance on these select models.

An outstanding selection of over 300 new and pre-owned luxury coupes, sedans, convertibles, and sport utility vehicles has arrived for this event.  Take advantage of special lease programs being offered on the entire line-up of Mercedes-Benz models, featuring the 2011 C300 4MATIC Sport Sedan for $359 per month**  and the 2011 E350 4MATIC Sport Sedan for $549 per month.** 

You may also take advantage of special low 1.99%*  interest rates for up to 36 months on select Certified Pre-Owned vehicles.

Due to overwhelming demand for quality pre-owned Mercedes-Benz vehicles, Sears Imported Autos trade-in specialists will be on site to perform a complimentary evaluation of your vehicle and offer you 100%* market trade-in allowance.  With maximum trade-in allowance for your vehicle and compelling manufacturer programs, you may be able to drive away in a new Mercedes-Benz vehicle for the same as or even less per month than your current vehicle. Your car will never be worth more than it is right now.

Your Loyalty Is Worth A Lot To Us.  And Now, To You. 
Up to 4 months payment waiver on your current Mercedes-Benz financial lease with the purchase of a new 2010, 2011, or 2012 Mercedes-Benz.**

* See dealer for complete details on offers listed above. Trade-In figure based on current Manheim Auction numbers.
**Eligible customers will receive up to four months’ payment waiver on their current lease with a lease or finance of any new 2010, 2011or 2012 Mercedes-Benz vehicle through Mercedes-Benz Financial Services. Certain exclusions apply. See Sears Imported Autos for details.

The Twin Cities 3M Championship PGA Champions Tour is at the TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, MN this week and Sears Imported Autos is one of the event sponsors. Two new Mercedes-Benz vehicles are on display at the event. One is a new 2012 SLK350 roadster in Mars Red, the other is a 2011 Mercedes-Benz E350 4matic with the vinyl wrapped graphics showcasing many of the safety, technological and performance contributions Mercedes-Benz has pioneered over the lat 50 or so years.

PGA Tournament greats such as Fred Couples, Tom Watson, Nick Price and Tom Lehman are expected to be in attendance at the 3M Championship at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine this week. PGA Tour greats Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Lee Trevino are also in attendance this week. Where else are you going to see such a selection of golf greats in one place? While the weather is rainy and grey today, the weather for the rest of the week is expected to be better.

Please visit this link for more event information, and remember, ADMISSION IS FREE ALL WEEK!

If you do go out to the TPC Twin Cities be sure to stop by and have a look at the great new Mercedes-Benz vehicles on display compliments of Sears Imported Autos in Minnetonka. We have several new 2012 SLK350 Roadsters in stock at the moment, please give me a call if you’re interested in stopping in for a viewing and test drive.