Iceman's C230

Hi guy's. My lease is up on the 2002 C230 coupe on March 25th 2005. I phoned MB Canada to maybe extended for another 12 months. My payments on it was $405 a month on a 36 month. To extend the lease MB Canada want's 689.46 a month. My buyout on it at the moment is $23,000 Canadian.

I don't think this car is worth 23K canadian. So i dont know if i should just give it back and lease another car, or just pay it off and keep it. Little worried about keeping it because of all the problems i had over the years scares me a little. There is no Warranty left on it.

I am just trying to figure out my options. Any advise would be great. If i give this back i'll be looking into leasing something else.

I just test drove the new Mustang GT over the weekend. Brought back memories of my Super Charged 96 mustang GT. Very nice car. :v

respdoc

For that price I would turn it back in..would not see the point in spending the extra $190 a month for the same car....

I also got a chance to test drive an '05 GT about 2 weeks ago...and it too brought back memories of the power of my modded '91 GT........but also brought back on how cheap the plastic interior is/was..

Deutscher_Wagen

you kinda answered your own question:

If you don't think it's worth paying 23k, then don't! I would look into buying a car.

LBC240MIDBlue

I had the same problem with a 02 240.. I went back to my dealer and got a 05 4matic with Command, Sunroof and Tel-Aid for less a month than I was paying for the 02 !!

No Brainer... ordered the 05

Lou

Outland

You could lease a brand new Coupe for less.

Buellwinkle

Turn it in. If you keep it you'll lose as not only is it not worth it now, longer term the MB will drop like stone, that's why the payment to go another year is soooo high. Also I think they have a lease loyalty promotion going where they make 3 of your payments on the new car when you turn the old one in. If you liked the free maintenenace, consider an Audi/BMW or Jag as they still do that.

Sailorlite

Have you considered offering to buy it for a much lower figure than that buyout price? The current owner of the car is the lease company, and if you give it back to them they will have to wholesale it to someone (at auction). They may be thinking they will be lucky to get $15K for it. If you come along and offer, say, $17K for it maybe they'll say OK and recondition it a little too.

taylor192

I've wondered about this, and asked.

My dealership said that leased cars are returned to a depot in a larger city - so negotiating with them on the buyout price is fairly useless, cause the dealership will just send the car away anyways - ie they ahve nothing to gain from the transaction.

My buyout price is $20K after 4 years, and I'm considering packing it in and buying something else - I want something better, and MB doesn't offer a manual in CLK. Hopefuly the 4-series will be out by then.

taylor192

$405? Damn, does your car have no options or did you trade in something worth $15K?

revstriker

I'm not an expert on leases, but to have a buyout at 20K after 4 years on a C230 seems kind of high to me (I know we're talking Canadian dollars here, but still). What was the total value of the car when you purchased it? I'm also assuming by your comments that you pay a good deal more than $405 per month?

revstriker

690 on a 36 month loan (I'm assuming by extending you mean purchasing) is about a 5.0% APR. This falls about mid way through the range of what's being offered on used car finance rates (4.7 - 6.3). Even at 4.7, you'd only save about $3 per month.

Of course, if the car is not worth the $23k, then don't do it.

Iceman's C230

Hi revstriker,

When i bought this car in 2002 i paid $42,000 Canadian for it. I put down $9000 on it to keep my payments low, which is ($405.00 cnd) My buyout on it right now is $23,000 Canadian. I think the interest on it was 8.9%.

I Had to wait 7 months for this car to come in from Germany, i was one of the first people to order one of these in 2001 when it come out. There was big demand on it at that time and that's why i think interest rate was high too.

P.S I am close to making a deal on an BMW X5 for the family. I will know on saturday for sure. BMW dealer is taking my C230 and might give me some money on it. I have to see what happens. I will let you guy's know.

Iceman's C230

Hi taylor,

My car is fully loaded with panaroma sunroof. Has the evo package with 17" wheels. Only option i dont have on this car is the Nav. System.

Remember the c230 in canada is cheaper then U.S The base price in 2001 for this car was $33,000 canadian. But we don't get free service here.

respdoc

$33k works out to be ~$26.6K U.S....the coupe (base) w/o anything was $24.9 U.S..

nasdaqsam

FWIW: If you decide to turn the vehicle in. Have it inspected independently first. It saves a lot of headaches later. It is usually not a problem if you are leasing another one from them but some dealerships are real picky and will nickle and dime for everything they can.

Iceman's C230

Back in 2001 when i ordered the C230, $1 U.S dollar was $1.55 Canadian, $24,900U.S would make the C230 here $38,595 at that time.

I remember that because people where complaining how much cheaper the C230 was up here.

scoot

Turn the car in! The buy-out is too high and you can get a better deal buying either a used one or new one OTHER than your current one, which you sound not too happy with regarding repairs...

Outland

The lower prices of cars in Canada is not related to the exchange rate. It has more to do with income and disposable income. The cars are priced lower, period. Pretty much all makes. Plenty of people would buy across the board up until recently when domestic dealers started complaining that it was siphoning sales.

nasdaqsam

My friend is a Canadian but has a US corporation. He leased his car (S500) through his US company out of Canada, I think he said the sticker was $ 88,000 canadian for it a year or so ago, does that sound right (It would have been fully loaded).

If that is correct and the dollar at that time I think was around 1.28 that is a pretty significant savings. That would have been $ 68,750 US. I think I am going to have to give him a call and find out how he got it into the states. I thought I got a pretty good deal over the net but maybe I over looked the obvious right in my back yard.

nasdaqsam

Never mind. I just priced the same car I am getting and it is significantly higher even with the exchange rate. Oh Well.

taylor192

The echange rate was 1.57 CND/USD, so $34K CND base was actually $21.6K USD when I purchased mine. :p

taylor192

I got screwed, plain and simple. 23 year olds should not be allowed to negotiate leases

My car was $41K + $1.5K freight + other fees = $44K or $46K, can't recall exactly. Buyout is $20K, and I put down $11.5K and pay $498/month.

Interest rates here are higher, mine is 8.9%. Unless you're buying a Ford/GM most interest rates are > 5% (Mazda, VW, Audi, BMW, ...).

I'll never buy new or lease again. Lesson learned.

taylor192

Interest rate was high because the market hadn't collapsed yet. 6 months after I bought (late 2002) dealers couldn't give away cars and interest rates dropped.

Let us know how it goes with BMW. I'm considering packing it in with the C230K soon, or keeping it. 80K kms comes up this summer, and that's the deadline for buying the extended warranty if I want to keep it.

taylor192

I just did some homework.

Basically I could purchase a new 2005 C230K for $43K CND and finance for 48 months and pay about $900/month, or 60 months and pay $700/month. With car sales slumping that $43K car should sell for $38-39K, making payments even less. Interest rates are 2.9% and 3.9%, damn.

MB-BOB

Well, you have that half right. Just don't lease again. Leases are a good way to buy (err, RENT) a car you can't really afford, because your payments are based on only a portion of the whole car. However, leases are a sucker's bet if you think you might keep one beyond termination.

There's nothing wrong with buying new.