Pswoff, I am so sorry; I completely missed your reply! Thank you so much.
That is indeed a tactic I have begun using. Some dealers even have their own ‘new in stock’ pages on official websites. But autotrader has assuaged my anxiety quite a bit: Nationally there seems to be a reasonable selection of cars we could live with, if not ideal. Just have to find one that the dealer is desperate enough to MB. I just have to find out whether MB will make it possible for me to collect remotely for on my wife’s behalf (different problem; different thread!)
I live in a city with all the major dealers and most of the lesser ones, but it’s at least an hour to the nearest cities/towns for alternatives, and if MB can make things as tricky for remote order/collecting as I have heard, I may be stuck with much less selection than autotrader provides. Again – different problem and thread.