twinz

Hello everyone,
So I am looking to lease a 2014 CLS550. I have 2 dealerships I am working with at the moment. I am far from an expert when it comes to getting a good deal on a lease. No idea about money factors, residuals, interest etc. Please HELP!!! Here are the lease deals they are offering.
Dealer #1: MSRP of vehicle $84,870. Two options: $2000 down, 12K miles/year for $959/month x 39 months or $3000 down for $937/month x 39 months
Dealer #2: MSRP of vehicle $86,240. $3143 down, 12k miles/year x 39 months for $939/month or $989/month for 15k miles/year x 39 months
I know the 2015's are coming in a couple of months but I figured they would want to unload their 2014's and get a good deal on them. What would be a good lease payment with minmal out of pocket. Thanks for the HELP!!!!

sdg1871

You need to know the selling price of the lease and the money factor. Never ever negotiate a monthly payment. Demand to know those things from the dealer before proceeding any further.

And never put money down for a lease. If your car is totaled or stolen during the lease you lose the money.

Also what acquisition fee is the dealer charging you for the lease. The base fee is $795 but some dealers mark it up.

You should always roll the sales tax and the acquisition fee into the lease rather than paying them up front.

sdg1871

I would not pay more than invoice for that car as the selling price as it is a leftover at this point. You can find out the invoice with your options at Edmunds.com.

Also see if you are eligible for a fleet discount which comes right from MB and not out of the dealers' pocket. For example, if you are a United Airlines Premiere member or a member of the American Medical Association or American Bar Association you are eligible for a discount worth something like $2500-$3500 depending on the organization you belong to. If you qualify I would not pay more than invoice minus that discount as the selling price.

Again besides that you must find out the money factor the dealer proposes to charge as well as the residuals. Dealers are allowed to mark up the money factor and they will unless you insist on the base money factor from Mercedes Financial without a markup.

sdg1871

To find out the current money factor and residual for the CLS ask what it is in this forum:

http://forums.edmunds.com/discussion...ease-questions

sdg1871

Also there are things you can do to reduce your money factor to lower than the base money factor which will reduce your monthly payment.

One great way to do this is to pay multiple security deposits (MSDs). MB lets you pay up to ten of them and each one reduces the money factor. These are refundable security deposits which you get back at the end of the lease. Another tool that reduces the money factor by .00010 is autopay. This is an automatic payment of the lease every month. You can combine the MF reductions from MSDs and autopay.

Alternatively, you can make all monthly payments up front (known as Single Pay) which reduces the MF by .00080--a huge savings on your total outlay. If you do Single Pay you cannot do MSDs or autopay.

Salesmen are not always familiar with those tools but a finance manager at the dealership will be.

sdg1871

Finally, Edmunds.com is reporting that the average selling profs for the 2014 CLS550 is between $1500-$2000 under invoice. This means there must be some hidden incentives from MB to the dealer to move these. Given that I would shoot for invoice minus $2000 as the selling price for the car (minus any fleet discounts you are eligible for).

JasonMayes

Also, what a lot of "non-MB" employees dont know, is that fleet discounts and cash incentives from MB are not combineable in 99% of the cases. I'd say at invoice is pretty reasonable, maybe $1500 under is a good deal and fair. Also depends on the dealership.

I'd give you blowout prices, but then again I'd want you to buy it from me

Good luck.

sdg1871

Always great advice from you.

alexkhane

Where do you live?

There's a $3,500 customer certificate incentive right now and according to a local dealer, dealerships can double it at their discretion (not sure if true, but most local dealers are quoting ~$5k below invoice so it seems true, at least in effect). So depending on your market, you can get up to $5-6k below invoice on '14 CLSs. MB currently has a special money factor of 0.00131, which means it may be possible to get car#1 for ~$850 a month w/o tax, $0 down.

JasonMayes

Yea, have never heard of people doubling up certificates and programs like that. But if they can do that in your area, hell yea, go for it.

alexkhane

I live in Los Angeles, so competition is ridiculously fierce here, but I was still shocked at the quotes I was getting. I was just going to get a cheap SUV to replace our Rav4, but $34k for a GLK was too good to pass up.

At first I thought they were digging into their holdback, but I ended up getting a MSRP $41425 GLK250 for $4215 below invoice when the certificate was $2000, so either the holdback is a lot higher than 3% or they really are able to double-dip. The dealer I bought from initially only offered the $2000, but when I told him a competing dealer offered $4000, it took the manager less than a minute to come back with the $4215.

OP, if you're still in the market and are anywhere within reasonable delivery distance from the Los Angeles area, and you can't find a local dealer willing to go beyond the $3500, I'd suggest you at least inquire to some of the LA dealers and the add'l savings might overcome the extra cost of having your car delivered. If you'd like, shoot me a PM and I can get you in touch with the CA that got me my deal.