wyee99

C450-Lease Deal: $685/month with $1200(dmv fees + first month payment)

Did I get a good deal?

tan70ri

Anyone have insight into what the incentives will be as we get into the summer? About to order a C450 at >15% off MSRP (including fleet discount) but working with CA to time it for an August delivery to align with lease ending. Any historical insight on what MB has done in the past during model/year end? If fleet incentive goes up I can take the higher amount but if it drops so does my discount....

Mike5215

15% seems like a very good deal. I just got 10% off a build and I thought I was doing pretty well at $6000 off.

InTheBenz0

how many miles per year?

Does that 685 include tax - what state?

and lastly, what was MSRP of your C450?

Mikey53

No way to tell based on that information. I never understood basing a "deal" on a monthly payment anyway, but that's just me.


Dealership tried that tactic on me when I bought my 2016 C300. I told him we are not negotiating a monthly payment amount, we are negotiating the sale price of the vehicle.

sadpanda

Seconded. Monthly lease payments can be really deceiving. That said, wyee99 made sure to minimize his downpayment, so I think he knows what he's doing.

Mike5215

I have a spreadsheet that will calculate the lease payment to the dollar. Just need to know the residual and money factor, which can be found updated each month on Edmunds.com. I want to say residual is 60% for 36/15 and money factor is .00152, or it was in March. April residual might be a tick higher. As they wind down production of the 16s they'll sometimes pad the residual a little and offer lease cash.

I take a laptop into the dealership and I build the deal right along side them. It prevents them loading stuff in on the cap cost side, paying less for the trade than agreed, adding extra up front costs, giving less discount than agreed.

Just closed a lease on my 2016 C300 last Friday using it. There's so much emotion involved in a car deal, for me I get a little stupid and start signing stuff so the spreadsheet is a must. F&I guys and sales managers don't love it (for the exact same reason).

inhartwetrust

MF is .00129 with MB right now, or it was last Thursday at least (back when I thought I was going to lease rather than buy).

Can't comment on residuals bc I only got them for the C450.

I've also got a financial model I build that takes residuals/depreciated value, cost of ownership, etc for lease vs buy...it models the finances out with toggles for Lease terms, loan terms, MF/interest rate, etc. Very helpful when making a decision on whether to buy or lease, because you can look to see the COO at any given time over say a 5 year loan. It pays to build financial models for a living, makes it quite easy to do so for yourself when you need one!

Mike5215

Figures. It held at .00152 for months and drops right after I buy. Damn!

Dema

I use a simple rule, monthly payment should not exceed 1% of MSRP with zero down. If MSRP of C450 is $68k then it is certainly a good deal.

inhartwetrust

No way in hell, with residuals and the buy rate MF (.00129) a $56K C450 payment is over $700 before tax even on a 12k lease.

wyee99

12K miles per year.

685 includes tax already- in California

MSRP of vehicle is close to $60K

gassaver

I was "offered" a MF of .00204. What's the true MF this month? Does MB publish this somewhere? Thanks!

inhartwetrust

.00129, it's usually posted on the Edmunds forums.

Mike5215

That number is padded. Actual MF for April is .00129, plus there's $1500 of lease cash on the 16's. I have a feeling your dealership is banking on their ability to throw so many numbers at you you'll lose control of the deal.

I have a lease calculator spreadsheet that I use to build and control the deal. If you PM me your email I'll send it to you pre-filled out. I need to know the MSRP, any discounts, their dealer fee and acquisition fee, the value of your trade and its payoff, the lease term (24/36 etc) and the miles per year and your state sales tax rate. The spreadsheet can calculate payment to within $1.

Great time to lease a 16. MB just dropped the MF, increased residuals and added lease cash but the dealer is going to try to scoop all of those for himself.

SEBZX79

.00129 is on the 450
.00154 is on the 300
There is no rebates at this time.
The residual is crazy high.
Don't forget to use MSD to lower that money factor to .00074 with autopay.

bzliteyear

what's "crazy high" residual?

btw, my wife's 2015 $43.5k C300W4 was only $370/mo incl CA tax w/ $1k cap reduction(12k mi/yr). does anyone have recent #s on 3 yrs leases, just in case we're rolling over ours? Thx.

PL

Mike5215

Visit Edmunds.com and search 2016 C300 lease. They update residuals and MF monthly. My 36/15k was a 60% residual and .00152 MF in March.

MBFS has apparently stopped offering a discount on MF for autopay.

SEBZX79

12k residual is 63%
I was able to use autopay and MSD on 4/15/16 to bring down the MF to .00074 from .00154 saved me almost 60 bucks a month.

Mike5215

I'm gonna kill my FI guy. I asked specifically about auto pay.

SEBZX79

Autopay saves you about 7 bucks not worth killing the poor guy over ��

inhartwetrust

Kill him anyway out of principle. MB finance people are literally bottom of the barrel in terms of intelligence.

Mike5215

Done. I may have to go "off the grid" for a few days.

mcbc220

If there's one car on a lot that's like your build, but it's on the opposite side of the country, will the dealer make you take that car? It seems like in that case, the buyer gets stuck paying shipping plus two dealerships' profit. Or is the "we'll find it for you if we can" thing more local? According to autotrader, there's a car almost identical to my build on the other coast, but I'd prefer to order. Haven't submitted a build yet.

Mike5215

They'll bring a car in as a dealer trade, meaning they'll either give that dealer one of their cars, or give them one of their future allotments, or they'll buy the car at cost, so no double profit but shipping costs will still affect your price. It only makes sense to dealer trade if the car is in your particular region.

Nobody can make you take anything. If you'd rather do a build, do a build. My dealer gave me the exact same deal on a build as they did for an inventory car.