Have a question I'd like to run by you fine folks here at MBWorld. Researched this a good bit across google, and have seen mixed answers.




I currently own a '16 C450 and have for some time now. My warranty expires in about three months and my goal is to make the jump to a C63S.
As such, I plan on trading in my C450 as part of the deal. The trade may be with a MB dealership, or it may be to a third-party dealer, depending on availability.


As I've owned the car and it's needed new tires, I've strayed away from the Pirelli P-Zeros and into non run-flats. I always found the pirellis were a rough(er) ride, and popped very easily. As such, all four of my tires aren't matching. Do you think this will affect trade-in value? If so, I might entertain buying some that match. All tires have good tread (80%+).

Thanks for your insight!

You won't get in return what you put into tires. Just saying.
There is the incessant desire to get every center towards trade, but you'll put more into replacement than what you'll get in trade value.
What you will be doing, is making it so the dealer doesn't need to replace them for a CPO sale. In turn, making them more money in the turnaround than what they credited your trade for having them.

You will get bent over on a trade in. Just try to sell it for market value. A dealer will bend you over 7k-15k UNDER market value.

Also, if you are trading in, **** replacing the tires, lol, let the dealership deal with it, they will make money on the car after stealing it from you.

Sorry, this is just the reality of a stealership.

Thanks for the input, guys. So here's what I've gathered:

1) Don't sell as a trade-in to a MB dealership OR an independent dealership. CHECK.
2) Don't worry about the tires.. as long as they're in good shape, a private buyer won't care. On a trade-in, the dealer is going to F&&K me anyways so I might as well keep the extra money in my pocket.

What else?

How are they mismatched? Front to back or right to left? Are they all similarly rated ie: speed/load/season?
I would definitely care with this car. For something that can easily push tires to their limit of grip, I wouldn't mix tires. I might do it on the GLC, and I've done it on trucks but I wouldn't do it on a performance sedan.

Mixed tires is a haggling point for sure. Some people might care about the runflats. I wouldn't care as long as you replaced them with better tires.
A set of good tires for the C450 is about $1000, and that's what I would plan to need to budget extra if I were considering buying your car. $1000 is tiny compared to the depreciation on the car. Best trade offer on mine was $33k. It's loaded with everything except carbon fiber and designo seats and only had 24k miles at the time. If your pushing 40k miles or more, expect your C450 to be worth less in trade than the price of a new Civic. If you can find a private party buyer you might get $5k more.

front to back mismatch. Front two match, back two match. Similarly rated.
Yeah, they're quality tires on all.

"Best trade offer on mine was $33k. It's loaded with everything except carbon fiber and designo seats and only had 24k miles at the time. If your pushing 40k miles or more, expect your C450 to be worth less in trade than the price of a new Civic. If you can find a private party buyer you might get $5k more."

How did that compare to the KBB "trade-in" value? Conveniently, I've never traded a car in.
I have the '16 C450 in lunar blue. 36K miles, fully loaded with '19 wheels, burmester sound, pano roof, LED headlights, etc.
Currently, KBB shows trade in range of $28,123 - $30,640 with fair trade-in value of $29K. Is that going to be way off?

This website is a little secret an old friend told me about. http://www.blackbookportals.com/bb/p...=thinkbank.COM

Its the closest you can get for an estimated valuation on a car with all the dealership games/tricks (or so I’ve been told.....don’t shoot the messenger!). Keep in mind the retail value is what the dealership will be asking for, not what the car is valued private party. Hope this helps some way.

If you get an offer from any dealer close enough to what you can get private party I say go for it. But I think when doing a trade in and getting another car, you will need to do calculations. You may have gotten a good amount on the trade in, but the purchase of the c63 you might be paying more. Just pay attention to the math.

I believe there are incentives right now for a CPO benz, so now might be the perfect time to be car shopping. Have you put up your car for sale on any of the car sites?

I like it, thanks for sending this. Black Book shows the following for trade-in:

$32,250
$30,525
$26,315

Clean, average, rough - respectively. Seems fairly in line with KBB's numbers.


Yeah, I'm no stranger the stealership games and will definitely be double checking everything when it comes to the math involved. I haven't listed it up anywhere yet. I'm not quite ready to sell yet; it will probably be 60 days before I'm in the position to let the car go.

Man I would be car hunting for a c63 too, but settling for c43 because of the mpg.

Knowing what I do now, I'd have paid the little more to go C43 over C450 and would have stuck with the C43 for several more years. If I'm upgrading, might as well go 63, right?

Don't overlook the M cars, especially the M2. You'd be doing yourself a disservice if you don't cross shop them with the C63.

The best offer I got was on the low end of KBB trade value. The worst one was about $3000 below that.

Yeah.. meh. I had an older M3 back in the day. Always really liked them more quite frankly, until MB released the W205, C205, etc.
I'm a sucker for the W205, and especially the new panamericana grill upgrades.

If I did entertain the darkside, it would have to be an M4 or M5. The interior just really doesn't do it for me though.

Just get business cards from the Audi and BMW dealer, tell them this is your first appointment of the day, and make certain the salesman sees them when you get his...