Yup, as much as it sucks, it’s as Ian describes.
Since you’re not actually a customer on MB yet, you don’t have the right to a courtesy vehicle. Keep in mind, you haven’t paid anything yet – so someone could just choose the car with the longest wait on the scheme, drive a courtesy car for 12 months and then cancel the order and hand the courtesy car back. No reason for that kind of hassle.
Once you have your first MB car, it basically becomes your courtesy car once you order a new one – you keep the current one for as long as it takes for the new one to arrive. Sucks, but again as Ian mentioned.. There’s options available that don’t take 7 months to arrive if you need a car urgently.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.