blessedmomof8
New member
At the moment the Mercedes Benz of Columbus, GA does not carry Sprinters. But we had a run in with them this weekend and I wanted to share my experience with the forum.
We bought our '05 Sprinter (badged Freightliner) in Tampa, FL at the Mercedes Benz of Tampa on June 3rd of '10. We were given a 30 day temporary tag and the dealership in Tampa paid for the GA tags for us during the transaction. They waited til the next week to start working on the tag situation because they were waiting for an emissions inspection report from us. I called our local tag office and they told me that our county did not need one, only in the area around Atlanta, and I relayed that information back to the dealer. The week before our temporary tags were due to expire I contacted the dealership again and they explained that I needed a GA driver's license and the insurance card with the VIN from the van on it. I told them I didn't need a GA driver's license as we were military so I sent him a scan of our insurance card and my military ID. By the day after our tag expired it still had not shown up in our mailbox. Normally that would only be a problem if you got stopped by a super observant policeman or state trooper, however, we live on a military installation and upon returning home we were told we could not be given a pass until we had a tag that was unexpired. So, there we were, hot, tired, and sweaty with all the kids and the dog and we couldn't get home! The woman at the visitor's center told us we could go to the local Dodge dealership and get them to issue us a new temporary so we could get on post. So, as we're driving away I use my smart phone to look up the local Mercedes dealership. I figured since we bought it from a Mercedes dealership it might work a little better to go to them. Thankfully, on July 3rd at 5:45pm there was someone there. They closed at 6pm! I told them my plight and they agreed to help us out if we hurried. Thankfully we kept driving toward them as we left the post and by the time it was 5:54 we had walked through the doors of the dealership.
I spoke with Richard Joyner on the phone and then with him once at the dealership. He was very nice and just used our current paperwork on the vehicle to give us another temporary tag and we were able to finally go home. As we talked he told us how they were planning on getting some Sprinters in the coming months. At least he was willing to help us out in such a time crunch. I figured it would be good for them to know there are Sprinter owners out there who could use a dealership/MB mechanic close by and couldn't hurt to possibly grease the skids if we needed anything down the road.
Since they've never had Sprinters nor worked on them, I can't recommend them for any of those services...but Mr. Joyner did know that Sprinters were now no longer Dodge or Freightliner and were strictly Mercedes Benz and was more than willing to work with us based on that knowledge. He didn't shoo us away because our branding wasn't strictly MB.
Just thought I'd share.
We bought our '05 Sprinter (badged Freightliner) in Tampa, FL at the Mercedes Benz of Tampa on June 3rd of '10. We were given a 30 day temporary tag and the dealership in Tampa paid for the GA tags for us during the transaction. They waited til the next week to start working on the tag situation because they were waiting for an emissions inspection report from us. I called our local tag office and they told me that our county did not need one, only in the area around Atlanta, and I relayed that information back to the dealer. The week before our temporary tags were due to expire I contacted the dealership again and they explained that I needed a GA driver's license and the insurance card with the VIN from the van on it. I told them I didn't need a GA driver's license as we were military so I sent him a scan of our insurance card and my military ID. By the day after our tag expired it still had not shown up in our mailbox. Normally that would only be a problem if you got stopped by a super observant policeman or state trooper, however, we live on a military installation and upon returning home we were told we could not be given a pass until we had a tag that was unexpired. So, there we were, hot, tired, and sweaty with all the kids and the dog and we couldn't get home! The woman at the visitor's center told us we could go to the local Dodge dealership and get them to issue us a new temporary so we could get on post. So, as we're driving away I use my smart phone to look up the local Mercedes dealership. I figured since we bought it from a Mercedes dealership it might work a little better to go to them. Thankfully, on July 3rd at 5:45pm there was someone there. They closed at 6pm! I told them my plight and they agreed to help us out if we hurried. Thankfully we kept driving toward them as we left the post and by the time it was 5:54 we had walked through the doors of the dealership.
I spoke with Richard Joyner on the phone and then with him once at the dealership. He was very nice and just used our current paperwork on the vehicle to give us another temporary tag and we were able to finally go home. As we talked he told us how they were planning on getting some Sprinters in the coming months. At least he was willing to help us out in such a time crunch. I figured it would be good for them to know there are Sprinter owners out there who could use a dealership/MB mechanic close by and couldn't hurt to possibly grease the skids if we needed anything down the road.
Since they've never had Sprinters nor worked on them, I can't recommend them for any of those services...but Mr. Joyner did know that Sprinters were now no longer Dodge or Freightliner and were strictly Mercedes Benz and was more than willing to work with us based on that knowledge. He didn't shoo us away because our branding wasn't strictly MB.
Just thought I'd share.