kowyzg0moo

So I just got a 2015 C400 (and i LOVE The car).

The finance guy tried to upsell me on PPM to the point where I almost didn't get the car. This is what he originally offered:

$2495 for 3 years/36 months.

After I said "hell no. are you insane?" He walked out to "Speak to the General Manager" who supposedly dropped it to:

$1295 for 3 years/36 months.

I scoffed again. He finally budged and made it $975 for 3 years/36 months. But I'm still not sold on it.

Any thoughts?

mihaelb

If you plan to do the maintenance at the dealer, then go to one of the service advisors, and ask how much the cheapest Service A/B/C for your car are (and how many/how often you need to do for your car), then add them up.
Anything beyond the basic A/B/C (ie ones that include extra things you need to do) aren't covered anyways.
It also depends on the milage your drive, as the maintenance is by time as well as milage.

greasykid

Have owned over 30 MB's. Would be a buyer @ $975.

ddeliber

the msrp for the 4 YR maintenance pkg is $1,295 and I suspect 3 YR is $975. It says so right there on mbusa.com. I personally call that type of behavior sleeeeeeezy. I believe they can't discount it much if at all, but apparently they can mark it up above list 120%!

juice91si

Ask them for a PPM brochure. We have them and give them to customers, all the pricing is in there.

This is for CANADA, so pricing is different.

jbbeauso

I got the 3 year maintenance. I figured that was the best value vs pay as you go if you are planning on getting service at a dealer....

c4004matic

1k is excellent, since they rip you off every time you do get any maintenance. Maintenance usually runs around 500 dollars.

alexkhane

$975 for 3yr/30k is the MSRP. And like all MSRP, there is room to negotiate down further. Unfortunately, the invoice price for PPM isn't publicly known - it's certainly more than the 7% discount of the car cost. I've seen PPM offered as low as 25% below MSRP.

gfmohn

I just got the two-year Prepaid Maintenance (PPM) for nothing. The MSRP of the PPM in the U.S. is $750. I don't think that the dealer got even for this benefit by simply failing to come down on the overall price as much as he would have without the PPM. The dealer was already matching the offer of another dealer, plus an additional "something/anything" as a tie breaker. The PPM was the tie breaker. In turn, the other dealer was meeting my offer, which equal to the "Average Paid" amount from the Consumer Reports Build & Buy Car Buying Service. So I figure that I paid the going rate for the car, minus the value of the PPM. Still, the amount was thousands less than the MSRP of the car.

millsjq

I cant imagine buying prepaid maintenance without knowing what the dealer charges for a service A & B and comparing the options. Without knowing the cost you can not make an informed decision. The dealer/MB is at least getting your money interest free and is hoping the customer doesn't come in for their maintenance. If they were losing money, they would not offer it.

merC400

what does service A/B/C mean?

alsyli

+1 (about the being a buyer at $975, not about the owning 30 MB's part.... )

mihaelb

Is it different on the C class than the previous B (W245)?

The computer in my car tells me that next service is A or B or C or D (I think there was a D there too), and how many Km to go. When at the beginning I would call dealers to find out cost, they would tell me it's "from $xxx", and more often than not, it was much more, as the basic service A, for example, is $250 here, but they found other things that "needed" to be done.

The prepaid maintenance only covers the "basic" service (the extra stuff is out of pocket), so just find out which service (A/B/C/D) needs to be done during the coverage period you're buying, and do the calculation. You probably will save some $$, but then again, if you weren't that set on servicing at the dealer....

One other thing to add, there was a dealer that said that the cost for one of my service visits was fixed (not "from", like the other dealers), I drove 50km to him, serviced my car, got a huge bill. I asked service rep why, when he quoted me a different price on the phone, he just shrugged his shoulders and said that this is what it costs. Just one of the many reasons why I don't service my car at MB anymore.

greasykid

Whatever that means.

alsyli

Uh, it means that I actually agree w/ you but that I haven't owned 30 MBs.

greasykid

Don't give up. Only took me 40+ yrs.