BklynMarc

Has anyone leased a car from MB in the past month (since 2/1/05)?

If so, what kind of money factors have you gotten?

Also, what types of residuals did you get for an E-class for 3 or 4 years.

Mr. Vanos

Be sure to checkout www.leasecompare.com. Just enter the vehicle year, make, model and terms you want and it will give you a breakdown of lease term options with various residuals and money factors (based on your credit rating, of course). They offer very competitive rates and this is great information to arm yourself with before walking into the dealer!

BklynMarc

Leasecompare is great, but realize that recent experience is even better. My cousin just leased a new car (Acura TL) and we checked leasecompare for the best rate she could get before going. We then went to the dealer and lopped off sixty dollars ($60) per month from the best leasecompare monthly rate. Plus, the lease she got INCLUDED TAX, whereas the leasecompare figures were without tax. Of course both the rate that we got and the leasecompare rates were well below the most favorable lease terms POSTED by the manufacturer.

The lesson? There are obviously ranges of acceptable figures that dealers will lease cars to you. Posted leases, even leases posted by leasecompare, are not the end of the discussion or even close to the best rate that you can get. Rather, think of it as the opening salvo of a negotiation. Think about it-- most of the time, the opening number is a "best case" scenario for the dealer (or money lender). That figure is merely the dealer saying they would love to deal with you at that level. The key is to get the terms to the point where the dealer is truly ready to walk away from the deal, because the benefit is so marginal. All things being equal, when this happens, you know that you've made a good deal.

LeaseCompare

The quotes shown on LeaseCompare.com may or may not be competitive with the dealer depending on whether there is a subsidized program offered by the manufacturer. We will soon be doing a test market where we include captive lease programs on LeaseCompare.com.