MicEvHill

I placed an order for a 2024 CLE 450 Cabriolet with the pinnacle trim a couple of months ago before the MSRPs for the vehiicle were known to the dealers, putting down a $2,000 refundable deposit.

Now that the MSRP has been released, I contacted my sales representative to see what the MSRP is, what the Out of the Door price will be, given the options that I chose, and to ask what the production date is.

The production date is June 26, 2024.

I have three questions to you Merc veterans (this will be my first Mercedes-Benz). First, will I have room to bargain on the price once the car arrives, given that I configured it to order? Second, what is the realistic delivery date, given the June 26 production date and the mess that is now the Port of Baltimore? And third, since I still have time to make changes the order, was the choice to go with leather rather than MBTex a wise one?

Many thanks to all who respond!

RichCLE

I have the exact same question. My build date is May 2 and I have VIN.

MJP_43

In my case I started hinting about a discount on the price of my car right after I put down the deposit, before any pricing was announced. The sales rep said that the best he could do was to NOT apply a "market adjustment fee". I'll take whatever I can get. The way I see it pre-ordering a car is a "car sold" as far as the dealer is concerned. They won't have pay for it and have it sitting in the lot taking up space. That should be worth something.

That being said, the time to negotiate the car's price is before you get the car. When you sit down to sign the final contract you might ask for pre-paid services to be included or whatever else the dealer can provide. Once they have your money there's no incentive for them to negotiate. Some dealers do give a customer loyalty discount. This will be my third car I've purchased from this dealer so I hope that that's a consideration. I'll let you know once I've gone through the process.

The Baltimore channel is beginning to allow the big cargo ships and car carriers to pass. Other east coast ports have been taking up some of the slack. From what I've read Baltimore should be fully operation by the end of May. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ke...re/ar-AA1nDSij

superswiss

There is always room to negotiate the price of an ordered vehicle. The dealership won't have floor costs if the car is a sold order, unless you walk. You can use that as leverage. If you walk away from the order, then the dealership incurs floor costs for the car, so ultimately they make less profit on it. Having said that, discounts on first model years of new models are rare, because there is no inventory. You don't really have much leverage if the car is popular. They'll just offer it to the next guy in line. Ultimately comes down to how popular and desired the car is. Getting a first model year of anything isn't a particularly good idea. It's common wisdom to skip the first 1-2 model years and wait until the bugs got worked out, and the true market value of the car has been established. Discounts will follow. For example when the new SL came out, people were paying ADMs, and now you can get 5 figure discounts on them.

MicEvHill

Thanks for that insight.

I spoke with the sales representative yesterday, who said much the same thing as you. He said that I would likely have only the first or second CLE 450 Cabriolet to be delivered in the area, and that with the car expected to be in demand and with such a small (nonexistent) inventory on hand in area dealerships, there would be little incentive for them to bargain on the price.

On the otherhand, he said, if I wanted an SL Cabriolet, there would be a strong likelihood of a discount.

Sadly, an SL would be significantly beyond my budgetory resources. Plus, in reality, I need something a LITTLE more practical than that.....