puzzled07

My MB dealer in L.A. called me last week to offer to buy my '07 C-230 in exchange for a brand new C-class - for free! I pay nothing for the deal. I have not asked for all the details yet, but was wondering what's the catch? Sounds too good to be true...so it probably is.
My car has very low mileage (<30k) and is in good condition.

jogger

you just pay the difference and your car is worth next to nothing for them to make $$$

d1no

Maybe they have a customer that wants to buy your car for top dollar or something and they will make money on them so they can give you a deal, who knows go down there and find out if you want. You will know more then any us can.

ndun

I keep on gettin emails from my dealership telling me to trade in my 2007 c230 as well and that this model is in high demand and I can get a really good price for it. lmk if you find out more info

LILBENZ230

This is a well known dealer scam.. the 07s are not in high demand, take a look at the amount of used 07s that saturate the market - and with ridiculous asking prices, as well.

anthonyy

if it's too good to be true...

ncmudbug

How does the scam work? If I could trade my '07 C230 (if I had a '07 C230) for a new C300, I think my phone would still be warm when I got to the dealer.

zim-c350

the biggest thing and hardest thing for a dealer to do is bring a customer to the dealership once they are in the work is easy from there to convince a customer.

carbonfiberwhor

Go see whats up

ncmudbug

That's what I figured, but for me, if they don't come up with an even trade of some sort (maybe more $ for more options would be a possibility), I'd leave. Pretty simple. I don't like car notes so it would all be about the $$$, not payments.

Norwichdelta06

a lot of dealers do this. They just want you into the dealership thats all. They will sit you down go over the numbers and make somewhat satisfied... and heres the kick.. They will then bring your current vehicle for inspection and tell you everything that is wrong with your car or things that need to be replaced and they will not make a deal until they fix it for you

OneOfaKindTrini

Is your car made of gold or something?

ncmudbug

At 30K miles, I'd still check it out. If they said they needed $2000 worth of work - if everything else looked good, that would still be a deal. You can always tell them to pound sand and drive away. I guess the real question is can you be disciplined and not get roped into spending a lot of money you really don't want to spend and how much is your time worth... It's probably a time waster, but I might still hear what they had to stay.

TexFinn

Do this.

And then you'll figure out this.

puzzled07

Thanks guys. To be honest, I am as skeptical about this whole thing as any of you. I am going to talk to them tomorrow and will let you know what they say. And no, I will not get sucked into spending a dime.

LILBENZ230

No matter what car I've ever owned, at least once I get the "demand" letter. They just want you in the dealership. From there, it will go exactly as it would had you gone to the dealer wanting to make that trade. In any event, W203 07 C230 > W204 C300.. that car is just blah.

puzzled07

Just wanted to close this one out. As we all thought, this was a scam. Went to the dealership and they started the usual sales spiel. It turns out they always meant I pay the difference between the price of the new car and what they value my current car to be. There were just no other charges involved. WTF? They said it must have been a "misunderstanding", but couldn't explain the 5 emails they had sent me saying I won't pay a dime extra.
Anyways, they finally apologized, and I was in and out of the place in 10 minutes.

ncmudbug

Thanks for the update. When it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Spending 10 minutes to find out your case was not the exception wasn't too bad a deal in my book.

tommy

Unfortunately, if this scam didn't work on some unexpecting rubes, they wouldn't do it. As always, buyer beware.

And Matt, I agree about the W204. It just puts me to sleep on so many levels.

ucfbeta92

Last month, I traded my 07 C230 (on the last day of factory warranty) at an MB dealer, 39k miles, in excellent exterior and interior condition, fairly new front brakes and rotors, rears still in decent condition, but rear tires shot. Carmax offered me $18k, MB dealer offered me 17, upped it to 17.5. KBB for trade in was between $19 and $20k as I recall.

That day, I was either going to get four new tires and an alignment ($1300 at MB Dealer, cheaper elsewhere) or trade the car.. I ended up trading..lol

Back to the point, based on what I got, I wouldn't exactly say it's in high demand.

They CPO'd it and originally listed it for almost $26k (made me wonder if I'd been suckered into trading it for very little), but two weeks later it was down to around $21 or $22k and it sold. I'm curious to know who bought it and wonder if I'll see it driving by one of these days.

Bought a fully loaded 09 C300 CPO with the same number of miles as my trade-in for under $28k, and although I wasn't specifically in the market for a CPO, it was the best deal I could find.

Pictures of my old baby attached...

LILBENZ230

Your old one looks about five hundred billion times better on the outside than your new one. Otherwise, congrats.

mt8667

203's are better looking than 204's, IMO, less the C63 ///AMG. The interior on the 203's seem to be better quality. I also can't afford a 204 so I may be a little biased! Anyway good luck with the trade!

ucfbeta92

The metallic silver on the old one definitely stood out much better than the white on the new one, especially after washing or at night. I loved that! To keep it different, I wanted the new one to be a slightly darker silver (palladium) or white, and the white one had everything I wanted.

That's definitely debatable. Heck, having had both, even I can't make my mind up. The wood trim and entertainment components (especially the pop-up COMAND) are the good parts of the W204. And it looks more aggressive. I thought the seats on the W203 felt better although both are comfortable. The W203 had a more traditional Benz feel and I liked that a lot.

Edit: Sorry for taking the thread off on a tangent.