Below is an account of our personal experience in Importing a 1996 S600 Saloon from Germany. We employed a converter by the name of Armond Puig located in Ft Meyers, Florida. The name of his company is Euro Sport Motors, specializing in Ferrari's, Mercedes and Porsches. Our original quote was for a maximum or $6000 to 7000 USD for the testing, components, inspections necessary to have our car comply with all the necessary DOT specifications and that would include a 2500 dollar profit for Mr. Puig. . Time estimate was 2-3 months maximum.

Our final bill was for close to $20,000.00, and it took just over 2 years for us to Finally take possession of our car. During this time we were told innumerable lies by Mr. Puig. Starting with charges regarding him installing a 3rd brake light in the car when the pictures we initially received from Germany show a 3rd brake light already in place. When confronted on this, he stated that he sent a 3rd brake light to Germany and had it installed there. Possible, except for the fact that the pictures we received were taken prior to any contact with Mr. Puig. Our final calculations show a discrepancy of 13,000 USD.

He also insisted that he was required to install new catalytic converters, that ours were not efficient enough to pass US inspections. Upon later research, the part number for the Euro and US cat are exactly the same. When informed that we need new cats for the car, Mr. Puig stated they had to & quot;have the Mercedes start stamped in them& quot; and that the parts were unavailable here in the US (which is completely untrue, any part MB makes is available through their dealers, be it a Euro spec, Japanese spec etc..). Mr.Puig said we were in luck, that his associated just happened to be in Germany and could purchase the necessary parts and ship them back. We never were able to acquire any copy of a receipt showing the purchase of cats. Having received the car we inspected the cats and they were equally as dirty as the rest of the car (grime on the cats was concurrent with the 30,000 miles on the car).

We were charged for DOT emissions tests in Ann Arbour, Michigan. We placed a call to Ann Arbour they are investigating their records for us. No paper work regarding passing and/or failing of any tests was ever presented to us, including what a special & quot;3 Bag test& quot; which Mr. Puig stated our car required. Charges accrued for this test includes what he referred to as tuning the car to perfection, a thorough cleaning of the engine/engine bay etc, etc.. It is our firm belief that to pass our car, Mr. Puig used his personal exemption (from having had other cars of his pass) to certify ours.

When the car was imported Armond stated that the tires/rims were in Excellent condition and almost brand new( Fulda German spec tires). Upon taking delivery of the car, it had 4 very worn out, curbed and discolored rims, each having a very worn out (in some cases the cords were showing) Dunlop DOT (thus only sold in the US) approved tires.

We were also charged outside of the bill for a new AC compressor and R12 recharge. Upon inspection the compressor is the same one the car came with. The compressor is just as dirty as the rest of the engine, the hardware has never had a wrench on it etc... and this is approx. 1000 miles after the compressor was allegedly installed.

Another fraudulent charge was for complete/new headlight assemblies and new corner lights. Having removed the lights and checked the part #'s, the body/housing of the lights is the German part #, while only the lens is the American part. The corners were never changed, only cobbled together with shoddy wiring and American bulb sockets.

For general maintenance, we were assured the car would be delivered with fresh oil and air filters along with a compliment of fresh Mobil 1. What we received were two very brown air filters, oil that was black as night, wreaked of gasoline and loaded with metallic. The oil filter was equally caked with material.

Below is a collection of links of pictures/copies of the contracts we have taken with more to follow.

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Initial Contract

Pre Purchase Pictures from Germany (apologies for poor quality, originals we lost..) Note picture 3, you can see the 3rd brake light installed.

Final Bill (Adobe .pdf file)

Current Pictures having taken delivery of the car

There is even More to this story if you would like to hear it and or talk about a Similar experience, Please do not hesitate to contact me!!

Please Write jhodgman@gmail.com with any Comment or Questions!

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