I have a 2009 C63 sedan that has served me faithfully for the past decade and now it's time for a new C63s coupe. For those who ordered a new car and had a trade in, how did the dealership handle this? I was at a big Dallas dealership today and was told that they would value the trade at time of order and then again when the new car came in and you take whatever the value is at the time of delivery. I prefer a more orderly transaction and want to know what my ultimate costs will be. Please share how this worked out for you. Thanks much!

 

They can't give you a number until they're ready to purchase your car. If they give you a number now, but you come back 3 months from now and there's damage that wasn't there before, do you expect them to give you the higher number? You might be able to ask them for a courtesy appraisal, but they probably won't want to make it official (put it on paper).

 

Start negotiating as if you don't have a trade in. Get as much discount as possible on your new car then have them give you a number on trade in.

 

As others have said. Your car continues to depreciate until you are actually ready to trade it, so they can't give you a final appraisal until you are ready. I had a 2013 Audi RS5 to trade and I did European delivery. I had to pay for my new car 30 days before I picked it up in Germany, but I wasn't ready to sell my RS5 at the time, so I paid full price for the new car and postponed the trade. Here in California we don't have partial sales tax credit on trade ins, so it doesn't matter when you trade/sell the old car. About 30 days before I was expecting to be reunited with my new car, I first went to the Audi dealership where I bought and serviced my RS5 and they made me an offer to sell it to them. The used car sales manager is a cool guy and he recommended to put it on Autotrader and told me what I could expect to sell it for there. His offer was actually very strong for a dealer offer. I put it on Autotrader and about a month later I sold it to a local guy. Before it sold, I also had it appraised by my MB dealership and told them what the Audi dealership offered. They were willing to match it, so I had two excellent dealer offers, but it sold for more on Autotrader.

As mentioned above, best is to handle the trade separately or even sell it privately for more money. Takes a bit of leg work, but can be worth it. I assume you are trying to lower your loan amount, but consider just making a large down payment based on what you expect the car will sell for, and then just sell the car to recover your down payment. Personally, I paid cash for my C63S and I owned my RS5 outright. If you are planning on leasing, don't trade in your current car. Just do a lease with zero down, then sell your car and put the money in the bank. Trading a car on a lease is essentially like making a large down payment on the lease which is not recommended. You never wanna put money down on a lease, whether in the form of hard cash or another car.

 

Thanks for your response and as another posted, NO I'm not looking for the same trade price on a damaged car at the point of purchase.....sounds pretty stupid doesn't it?!. I pay cash for all my cars and simply what to know what my final price would be without any games. Perhaps this is not possible. Was thinking that I could negotiate a price based upon same condition and xxx miles, but just a thought. Thanks!

 

You can actually trade in your current car even if you are leasing a new car, dealer will write you a check for your trade in. I have a couple of friends who had this done before

 

If you were at the big dealership on Lemon, look elsewhere to sell your car. They will seriously lowball you on the trade. The several times I tried to purchase with a trade there, they were 10-20% lower than other dealers on trades that were in the mid-high five figures.

 

Figures, and yes I was there. I live closer to the Grapevine location so would prefer to order there but keeping my options open. Thanks for the heads up!

 

You can get it appraised at the time you order and the final price probably won't be far off. All depending on how many additional miles you gonna put on it and what the market will look like when you are actually ready to sell. The bigger risk is really the market and the dealer has no control over it, but if condition and everything stays the same and you don't put at ton of additional miles on it, then you won't be far off from the appraisal. At the time I ordered, I pretty much just priced it on KBB and assumed I would get the median price for good condition and that's pretty much where it landed. Dealers offered media KBB trade in value and I ultimately sold it for median KBB private sale value. If you are lucky you can get a higher value.

 

i got my car appraised in may when i ordered my c63S coupe. when i picked up the car in december, the value on my trade in according to the dealer had dropped by 2k. i probably could have fought it and argued but got a nice discount on the car i ordered so i basically just ate the trade in value and moved on with my life.

 

Both are the same company and same culture (or were). Owner recently sold out, but kept the Grapevine Porsche and MB dealerships. Remains to be seen whether the culture of the company stays the same under new ownership.

Unfortunately, options for MB dealers in DFW are limited. I had a lot better dealership experience in the Woodlands when I purchased. Get my service at PP in Arlington which is okay.

 

I've had my C63 serviced at PP Grapevine since 2009 and has mostly been very positive. My prospective buying experience has been average at PP so far. Much prefer Sewell but would have to work via dealership in Houston. I work not too far from the Arlington dealership and might have to check them out. Thanks!!

 

Since you’re ordering, see what kind of deal you cam make with MB in McKinney. They are pretty aggressive. You can always go to PP for service.

 

Yep, thanks much!!

 

Good luck!

 

When I got a good trade in price for my late 2015 C63 estate against a new C63S estate with 16.4% discount, the dealer kept his promise even though the delivery was delayed and was more than 8 months in total before the swap plus I got a first year free service in compensation for the delay, I did have to push for the latter though.

 

I did this back in July. I was already considering selling my 2012 C63 with P31 and 28K miles. I got quotes from CarMax for $26 and a non-Mercedes dealer for $25k. I saw some sales on BaT (2014 C63 sold for $28k in worse condition than mine, and a 507 stalled at$31k), but the brakes were due and I would certainly have to do that before doing a BaT or private sale (for $3,800). I went in to my dealership to see what is the best they could do based on a loyalty offer on a 2019 C63S. They could not find me a brilliant blue, so offered me a similar deal on ordering a 2020. The offered me $28k for the trade-in as-is and I took it in July. I drove my W204 for another month while we finalized the sale, they wrote in my file that I had a $28k trade-in, and when the W205 arrived at Thanksgiving, it worked like any other trade in. The W204 sold in a week.
I was comfortable with this because I trusted this dealership more than any other I have dealt with before. One of my coworkers had bought 5 or 6 cars from the same salesman, and he also made a sale based on my referral of another colleague. I could have been screwed if the dealership delayed my build spot for a higher paying customer or for whatever reason.

 

Thanks for sharing and is exactly what I will be trying to negotiate!