Anyone ever driven across to AMG Affalterbach?
Discussion
Going out this weekend via the ring with 5 other AMG's, 2 BS with us and a BM (ex C63 owner)joining us at hotel, Mercedes and Porsche museums Sunday and AMG tour is on Monday morning, happy to report back Tuesday regards trip. Hopefully all will be good, and looking forward to it. As previously posted, Palmball, whom I know and seeing at an fast event shortly, he knows AMG intimately! so many performance cars he has had, and got, lucky boy!.
Ha very good...yes, I've been a few times. My SLS is currently out there - it needed a screw replacing lol 
(slight untruth, but any excuse for a drive out there eh!)
Main recommendations are:
- You have to contact them and book your visit in advance and you'll need your AMG VIN (you'll get a personal factory tour and you'll be there around 2.5 hours) - PM me and I'll send you the contact details if you need them
- Prepared to be amazed what the Performance Studio can do to your car (and how reasonably priced they are) so either take your chequebook or a wallet full of restraint
- One of the pleasures of visiting AMG is the use of autobahns but beware - if your using sat nav it'll want to take you down the A61 and this is almost all restricted to 120/130kph. Use the almost parallel A3, which is largely derestricted
- Visit the Mercedes (and Porsche if you have time) museums in Stuttgart. In fact, visit Stuttgart itself as it's a nice little city. If staying, I tend to stay in the mid-priced Hilton Garden Inn, right opposite the Mercedes museum.
Hope that helps
(slight untruth, but any excuse for a drive out there eh!) Main recommendations are:
- You have to contact them and book your visit in advance and you'll need your AMG VIN (you'll get a personal factory tour and you'll be there around 2.5 hours) - PM me and I'll send you the contact details if you need them
- Prepared to be amazed what the Performance Studio can do to your car (and how reasonably priced they are) so either take your chequebook or a wallet full of restraint
- One of the pleasures of visiting AMG is the use of autobahns but beware - if your using sat nav it'll want to take you down the A61 and this is almost all restricted to 120/130kph. Use the almost parallel A3, which is largely derestricted
- Visit the Mercedes (and Porsche if you have time) museums in Stuttgart. In fact, visit Stuttgart itself as it's a nice little city. If staying, I tend to stay in the mid-priced Hilton Garden Inn, right opposite the Mercedes museum.
Hope that helps
MagicMike said:
As per title, has anyone done the drive across?
Tips and advice appreciated!
Just to say having done the AMG trip over the weekend, a very worthwhile trip . The weather part there and back for our group was awful for our trip, but we all had a great weekend, full on 3 day's, never driven the car to such extent over such a duration, visiting the 'ring' en route, a worth while stop over, and some great scenery. Tips and advice appreciated!
We had booked our hotel with secure parking, and ended up parked up in a Ferrari dealership basement store room containing at least 30-40 Ferrari's and Maserati's, it was an Aladdin's cave, and a joy to view.
I would recommend a visit to the Mercedes Museum if you get time, we spent 3.5 hours there, and all enjoyed it, then went onto the Porsche museum, again worth while visiting, but if time was a restraint, at least visit the Mercedes Museum, a must do.
on Monday, we arrived at AMG at 9AM, allowing 2hrs for our visit, as we were informed at booking, left at 12.30! Ended up missing our train, due to this, weather and traffic, just meant getting home later than expected, but no problem.
The initial start of the AMG tour, was a little boring for me, at the reception discussing the cars within that area, then moved onto the 'performance studio', and there much to our enjoyment, was our own Palmballs (whom our group is acquainted with) SLS sitting in the corner, a little dusty, but with a couple of bits missing that was not expected, what you up to you sneaky bugger! This 'studio was a highlight for me, great viewing. We then moved over to the engine build area, again very informative and interesting.
Best of luck with your trip, am sure you will enjoy it as much as we all did.
I went last year in my Black Series - I'd emailed them before hand with chassis number and an eta. When we arrived they had the Union Jack flying and a 'Welcome home' in reception!
Managed to meet my engine builder and the guys (& girls) all very pleased to meet an enthusiast owner!
Went from there to the Merc museum which is definately worth a visit.
Great trip!
Graham.
Managed to meet my engine builder and the guys (& girls) all very pleased to meet an enthusiast owner!
Went from there to the Merc museum which is definately worth a visit.
Great trip!
Graham.
Sorry to ask the obvious to those familiar with the place, but am I correct in reading that you can get your AMG serviced / modified whilst there if pre-booked?
What's the journey time from the tunnel?
I'm seriously considering a weekend trip with ours from what you've said.
Any advice gratefully received.
What's the journey time from the tunnel?
I'm seriously considering a weekend trip with ours from what you've said.
Any advice gratefully received.
Don't know about the Servicing etc, but it's a fair old hike from Calais!
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Mercedes-AMG+Gmb...
I was working at a factory an hour way, so managed to mix business with pleasure!
Graham
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Mercedes-AMG+Gmb...
I was working at a factory an hour way, so managed to mix business with pleasure!
Graham
The AMG factory will not do servicing as such, that's for Mercedes dealerships, however the 'Performance studio' will carry out upgrades of mapping to suitable AMG's, also bespoke interior and exterior upgrades, in fact in this area, just ask them, am assured by our guide, that everything is possible, but have deep pockets. Palmballs SLS as previously said, was sitting in the corner, being worked on, not sure everything he is having done, but he has used the 'studio's services many times, there was a BS C63 there having loads done to the interior and a bright yellow BS SLS, that was previously silver, being finished, that car looked awesome, so everything is possible, with money and time frame to do it. One of our groups CLK63 was in there having the gearbox mapping looked into whilst we were there. And as Graham has already mentioned, welcome flags and the engine builders were located for one of us, C63 BS, so a few photos of the builder and owner together taken.
Our little group left folkstone on the 5.35AM train out of the tunnel, with 3 petrol stops, a near 2.5 hour stop at the ring, and arrived in south Stuttgart at around 7PM their time. This also included myself getting lost for a while and a minor stop with the gendarmerie! On the return leg, we then left AMG at 12.30 their time, 3 petrol stops, and arrived at Calais at 9.30PM, having then missed out allocated 8.35PM train.
Regards the tour of the AMG factory, I believe if you have an AMG car, you just give them the Vin no. and arrange a time for the tour. It would be a concern to the reliability of an old car though, its a long drive down there.
Hope this helps out.
Our little group left folkstone on the 5.35AM train out of the tunnel, with 3 petrol stops, a near 2.5 hour stop at the ring, and arrived in south Stuttgart at around 7PM their time. This also included myself getting lost for a while and a minor stop with the gendarmerie! On the return leg, we then left AMG at 12.30 their time, 3 petrol stops, and arrived at Calais at 9.30PM, having then missed out allocated 8.35PM train.
Regards the tour of the AMG factory, I believe if you have an AMG car, you just give them the Vin no. and arrange a time for the tour. It would be a concern to the reliability of an old car though, its a long drive down there.
Hope this helps out.
To clarify what you can do at the AMG factory as it's definitely not for servicing or modifying any mechanical or engine parts. Although they are doing some warranty work on my SLS, this isn't typical as they made it clear this was being done as an exception and isn't normally part of the Design Studio services. I don't think they want me asking to do any warranty work if I visit them again in the future.
The Design Studio (which you're shown round during the factory tour) is a place where you can book your car in for, predominantly, trim upgrades or paint changes. It's for things like installing a different type/colour/design of leather - for instance, I'm having my SLS drivers seat recovered (it has some wear and I don't want it repaired), the steering wheel recovered (with different stitching) and the new style gear lever in the colour of the interior (as opposed to the standard black). Back in 2010, I had one of my previous C63's dashboard covered in leather there too. These are the typical services they offer and they categorically will not do any engine modifications to raise the power of specific cars.
Finally, whilst they do offer the SLS transmission upgrade, that really is an exception and probably only because AMG got so much heat for how poor the early cars were.
Don't forget, this place is southern Germany, only about an hour north of the Swiss border so it's a long way - I got the Harwich-Hook of Holland night ferry which arrived at around 8am - it still took me until mid afternoon to get there and I drove as fast as conditions would allow. You also can't go at the weekend as they're shut!
The Design Studio (which you're shown round during the factory tour) is a place where you can book your car in for, predominantly, trim upgrades or paint changes. It's for things like installing a different type/colour/design of leather - for instance, I'm having my SLS drivers seat recovered (it has some wear and I don't want it repaired), the steering wheel recovered (with different stitching) and the new style gear lever in the colour of the interior (as opposed to the standard black). Back in 2010, I had one of my previous C63's dashboard covered in leather there too. These are the typical services they offer and they categorically will not do any engine modifications to raise the power of specific cars.
Finally, whilst they do offer the SLS transmission upgrade, that really is an exception and probably only because AMG got so much heat for how poor the early cars were.
Don't forget, this place is southern Germany, only about an hour north of the Swiss border so it's a long way - I got the Harwich-Hook of Holland night ferry which arrived at around 8am - it still took me until mid afternoon to get there and I drove as fast as conditions would allow. You also can't go at the weekend as they're shut!
Edited by Palmball on Wednesday 27th August 15:21
Palmball said:
....they categorically will not do any engine modifications to raise the power of specific cars.
I imagine what you could do here is nip round the corner to the AMG engineering/racing arm, HWA AG. These are the guys responsible for the CLK DTM, CLK GTR, one off A32K AMG and 300SL Gullwings with the E60 AMG 6 litre V8 
Palmball, I look forward to seeing the inevitable photos and superb write up of the experience once the work is completed
You may regret your past wonderful and extensive write ups -
Darren
ricky s said:
Regards the tour of the AMG factory, I believe if you have an AMG car, you just give them the Vin no. and arrange a time for the tour. It would be a concern to the reliability of an old car though, its a long drive down there.
Hope this helps out.
That's ace, thank you! I see a plan forming... I live near Norwich, work in Düsseldorf and have been commuting between the two most weekends for the last 8 months. Old and battered it may be, but its not let me down yet. It often bounces off the speed limiter and still makes me grin. Not in the same league as most AMG owners chatting on this thread of course, but for a sHope this helps out.
tty old (cat b) estate, it still surprises a few... 
Don't know the exact location of the AMG factory but I drove back to UK once or twice from Stuttgart airport and it took around 12 hours going via euro tunnel and only stopping for fuel. Average speed was around 100 and following local traffic. Didn't get stopped so maybe just lucky!
On a separate note, was trying to work out the various buttons for transmission etc and they don't seem to do much(maybe I should read the manual!). The AMG button only appears to switch the shift to S+ and then there's the traction control button which switches off and on. Haven't worked out how to get into the RS(race start?) mode yet but don't think I will try yet on London roads!
On a separate note, was trying to work out the various buttons for transmission etc and they don't seem to do much(maybe I should read the manual!). The AMG button only appears to switch the shift to S+ and then there's the traction control button which switches off and on. Haven't worked out how to get into the RS(race start?) mode yet but don't think I will try yet on London roads!
I've driven to Affalterbach a couple of times:
Unfortunately at the weekend both times as I was on my way back from work at the Bodensee. It was summer, but wet and dismal - so I just had time to take a quick couple of photos of my little toy at AMG, before setting off north to an hotel convenient for a mid-day crossing from Dunkirk the next day.
Unfortunately at the weekend both times as I was on my way back from work at the Bodensee. It was summer, but wet and dismal - so I just had time to take a quick couple of photos of my little toy at AMG, before setting off north to an hotel convenient for a mid-day crossing from Dunkirk the next day.
Edited by nickwilcock on Friday 29th August 23:48
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