ballyhoo

Hi everyone,

I spent some time looking over some older posts and have a question that I hope can be answered here. I am looking to lease a c-coupe, and have come across a couple of ads with payments in the $350 range (10k/year, 39mo). However, they are always for some promotion that has already expired. I am wondering if any dealers frequent this board who can help me out, or if anyone can recommend a dealer currently offering this amazing price. I would really appreciate any tips. I know that it is not very polite to ask for replies by email in a newsgroup, but I am unsure about etiquette in a forum, so if it is acceptable, please feel free to send replies to craig@dropbox.ath.cx, though I will certainly check the forum as well. Thanks very much.

c

Bud

Have you read the fine print of those ads? I would guess they probably want lots down ($4,000 or more) plus tax, fees,etc.

You can get any lease pmt down to $200 if you put enough down.

Flashman

Check out Chrystler Credit Company, I mean Mercedes-Benz Credit Company, at http://www.mbcc.com/

They have a pretty good lease calculator. Another good one is http://www.leasecompare.com/

You will see both web sites are very close to each other.

Amusingly so, if you email MBCC, they always write back from a "@chrystler.com" address.

Rick

sk-mia

Well, in addition to the lot-of-money-down leases, MB has also lowered the residual on November 1, 2001. I remember that before that I calculated on the mbusa.com, Build Your Own, that a Silver + C7 would lease for $414, and now the same car leases for $497, which is quite a jump in price. It seems that MB is miliking us buyers, and it seems that it is working for them, because the cars are selling like crazy.

I will have to order mine for Christmass, because my current lease expires on 4/3/02, and I was told that the lease will be calculated when the car arrives. So any pricing obtained now is useless anyway because it may change at the time of delivery. And I believe that you actually cannot expect to walk into the dealership and drive the car out because there are no cars available - all cars have to be ordered! Sometimes, though, it may happen that you get your car earlier if someone backs out of their order, and again, the lease price would be determined then when you pick it up.

Note that I do not know what kind of situation is elsewhere, but the above described certainly applies to Miami, Florida.

ballyhoo

Just for reference, here is the ad that I was referring to. Note the $2700 "cap cost reduction" which just brings the car back down to base MSRP. Also note no additional mention of anything else due at signing except tax, title, etc--no mention of a large money down type payment...Interesting (and yes, I know the promotion expired, but that was the point of my original post.)

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache...+c-coupe&hl=en

Flashman

The same numbers (12,000 miles/year instead of 10,000 though) at www.leasecompare.com gives a lease of $410. I'm guessing it's $10 or so less for the lower annual mileage. So say $400/month.

The increase is mostly likely due to the change in residual value. The original offer expired before the November residual drop, an abnormally high drop (this is not something controlled by Mercedes-Benz).

So I'm guessing from that, that while the original deal sounded great, the dealer was making no special allowances. Just what a lease added up to before November 1st.

As far as I know, MB has not offerred a subsidised lease on the C230 (or is likely to any time soon). There is a lesson here though, the residuals on a car sold/bough a "year ahead" are abnormally high, giving early leasers a very good deal.

Rick

ballyhoo

Thanks for the replies, everyone, I think that the drop in residual is the best, and most likely, explanation. I actually (believe it or not) wasn't aware that there was a 5-9 month wait to get one of these (the dealer told me today when I went in). I don't have that long, so I short term leased a bmw 330i. Thanks again!

madryan

try to get the price in writing now, so you can negotiate your monthly payments when the car does come.
my old lease was supposed to be due in feb. so i ordered my coupe in august for a late nov./early dec. delivery.
when it arrived, the sales manager tried to give me a number that was signifigantly higher.
i talked until the number went down a bit. now i have the car and i'm very pleased with it.

ryan