topgun04

And they are lousy...

2012 Mercedes CLS550
24 month | 15k miles | residual 64% | .00240 money factor
36 month | 15k miles | residual 55% | .00240 money factor
48 month | 15k miles | residual 49% | .00240 money factor
60 month | 15k miles | residual 41% | .00240 money factor

2012 Mercedes CLS63
24 month | 15k miles | residual 58% | .00240 money factor
36 month | 15k miles | residual 50% | .00240 money factor
48 month | 15k miles | residual 44% | .00240 money factor
60 month | 15k miles | residual 39% | .00240 money factor

storm10

Yes, old Mr. Stiegler (I knew personally) died a few years ago and his sons sold the place, so now it's called MB of Encino. Actually, it's one of the oldest MB dealership in America - open in 1959. Since the place was sold, it's the fastest growing MB Dealership in USA. It was the only MB dealer who doubled their sale in 2010. 100% increase in sales. I bought my last 4 Benzes there. If you want to make a good deal and deal with knowledgeable sales people, make sure to contact their internet department, where they have around 4 or 5 highly experienced internet managers. Very aggressive on price and very good finance department for people with less than perfect credit. Although I don't think you can get discount on 2012 CLS yet.

MB of Calabasas is opposite. Business is not on the upside, so they maybe more desperate to make a deal, and they are very aggressive on pricing. But the dealership is pleasure to work with and the stuff is experienced. Make sure to deal with their internet department.

MB of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica are similar and you can get a decent deal, if they have car in stock. If it's not in stock- don't try to make a deal, because you'll pay more than anywhere else.

Most sales people in Keyes European and Calstar in Glendale - in my opinion don't qualify to sell not only MB, but any other car brand. I would not even go there, unless you want a headache and lot's of wasted time...

tmushy

Thanks for the great rundown of every dealership! I actually have contacted all their internet departments. They were able to negotiate a few grand off the cars msrp, but it just wasnt where I wanted it to be. I think ill have to wait till Dec to see any better deals.

Ferrast

I have received emails and phone messages from Keyes European several times per week. Ultimately, Keyes just wants to get you to the dealership to deal.

As an aside - I've purchased MB E classes from MB Encino and Beverly Hills during the past 10 years. MB Beverly Hills gave me a gift basket filled with gift certificates to The Palm, The Peninsula Hotel and, among other things, dynamic driving classes. MB of Encino (Auto Stiegler at the time) gave me red roses and took my pic with the car.

My most recent discussion with MB Encino was that the 2012 CLS is now selling $3 - $5k over MSRP. In terms of leasing, a CLS with an MSRP of $82k would lease for $1,300 - $1,400 per month with $2k down depending on the length of the lease. That seems crazy in relation to what the E and S classes are leasing for. I imagine that the lease factor for the CLS is much higher than the E and S classes.

I think that at the end of this year or maybe next year (if interest rates remain low), there will be some good deals. Its too early now. However, I will check with the MB dealer in Escondido.

Ferrast

Topgun04:

How do you calculate the lease payments from the information that you provided us?

Are any of these variables (residual, money factor . . .) negotiable?

Where could I obtain this information for any vehicle?

Thanks

dakrisht

OK, that's complete bull****. CLS' are MSRP (max) or under cars. There's a global recession if you haven't noticed. Tell Keyes European to suck it.

You can walk into any dealership in Southern California and get $1,000 UNDER MSRP at a minimum, more than that is up to your negotiating skills and relationships.

Obviously, it's best to have friends or know people at the dealerships you do business with (the power of the relationship) - I'm getting my CLS for well under MSRP in case you're curious.

An $82k car at MSRP will lease for over $1,300 / month with $2k at signing FYI. You're at $1,500 or so with those numbers.

If anyone needs a CLS under MSRP and are serious (not a forum troll, kid, time waster, etc.) feel free to shoot me a PM.

dakrisht

Residual is set in stone (less miles will give you a few points on top), MF is a standard rate, if you're MB Preferred you'll get 0.00210.

These are dealer sheets, ask your dealer.

Ferrast

The offer from the dealer with msrp $82015.00 was:
2200 total drive 10k mls
39 months @1420 +tax
48 months @ 1333 +tax
OAC 765 +

It seems odd that an $82k vehicle leases for about twice that of a $60k E550. The money factors must be much different from one another. To me, as much as I like the CLS, its not the kind of car that should lease for more than $1k per month with min down.

Ferrast

During the month of July, there are incentives to purchase an MB through various car buying services. USAA.com can get you $4k off of MSRP for a 2012 CLS 550. You could also check with carwoo.com. Zag.com is another service; however, USAA uses zag.com. I believe that zag.com has relationships with USAA, American Express and Bank of America among others. If you have a relationship with one of them, you should be able utilize zag.com for free. Carwoo.com charges $49 for one no haggle price quote and $99 for three no haggle price quotes.

USAA is offering 1.99% financing for applicants with good credit. However, leasing would probably be done through the dealer.

I hope that this is helpful.

K-A

I agree, the CLS is an $8-900 Lease with minimal down. It'll get there, but not instantly. When the 2010 E350 came out, people were paying $700-$800 a month with minimal down.

dakrisht

What are you guys smoking? Seriously.

And $82,000 car for sub-$1k / month lease with $2k down??? Not going to happen.

newyorktoLA

Anything's possible; got my 08 S550 priced at $114 K at $90 out the door. Just goes to show how much you can negotiate, even with dealers in L.A...My GL, that's another story...

I talked to MB Encino, they said they will try to get MSRP for the new lineup of Mercedes coming in. Anyone who pays over MSRP for a car is really, really, really crazy and the dealers are BSing...All the dealers in LA don't know anything, especially Keyes and MB Encino (not too sure about their sales department, but service at MB Encino performed the wrong service and broke my COMAND). I wouldn't deal anywhere else except MB Thousand Oaks, although its not wise to order a car from them. Good luck to those ordering a CLS and don't pay over MSRP unless you want to make yourself look desperate.

K-A

I wouldn't even pay MSRP. IMO, in this day and age with M-B cars being slashed like crazy when the negotiation process starts, even with a more "limited" model like the CLS, I would never pay at MSRP. If I had to wait several months to make it easier to get a good deal under MSRP I would, but I'm sure for some, getting the car early on is more important than saving a few grand here or there.

dakrisht

I'm getting mine for well below MSRP and a sub-$1k lease - just letting the forum know.

It's all in your negotiating skills.

K-A

How much down/driveoff?

Ferrast

In your previous post you said that a sub $1k per month lease for minimum down is not going to happen for an $82k car. Either you put down much more than $2k or you obtained a vehicle (with an unusual combination of attributes) that the dealer wanted to get rid of? Please provide more info.

Thanks.

bigben320e

+1, of course this always holds. Those that can wait and have patience get the better cars and deals. Personally, I would wait and buy one about 1-2 years old.

dakrisht

To clarify, I'll share some details.

MSRP: $82,445

Every single feature except for distronic and night vision. Iridium Silver.

MBFS Premiere Rate (0.00210) car below MSRP, $3,000 due at signing.

$1,100 / month (39 months) California sales tax included

(I was below $1k with $6,000 at signing, but I'm not doing that).

Keep in mind Mercedes will pull you ahead 3-5 months early if you get another car.

SOLID deal - I'd say from experience and knowing the market, the MF will drop to maybe 00.180 in December, the car will still go for whatever you are capable of negotiating with your dealer.

Ferrast

Congrats!! Sounds like a great deal. Did you find the car at MB Encino?

topgun04

Anything's possible; got my 08 S550 priced at $114 K at $90 out the door. Just goes to show how much you can negotiate, even with dealers in L.A...My GL, that's another story..


I beg to differ. Negotiation skill is essential but it is more important that you have a lot of Mercedes dealerships around you to generate a lot of competition. Most importantly Mercedes need to provide lease support in the form of trunk money (to reduce cap cost), reduce money factor (reduce the rent cost) and/or artificially high residual value. That is the ingredients for super lease deal and we rarely have it in a popular new car.

Zag and all the "progarms" (costco etc.) are all local. The deal someone quote here does not apply to all locations in US. So it is better to talk about deal within a specify city. LA is the best place to shop for any cars and someone in mid-west where the nearest Mercedes dealer is 50 miles away will have a very hard time to match any deal in LA..

How to calculate lease:

a) find a lease calculator by searching the web..

or

Build a spreadsheet with this formular

Decide you term (yr and mile/yr e.g. 3 yrs 12kmi/yr).

Depreciation = (cap cost - MSRP*residual factor)/number of months in the lease

Cap cost is the negotiate sales price of the car + all the fee that you want to roll into the lease (DMV, upfront sales tax, acquisition fee, document fee etc.


Residual factor is the one from the table. For July 3 yrs, 12K mi is 57% (55% for 15K mi/year, add 2% for 12K mi/yr, 3% for 10k mi per year)

Rent = (Cap cost + MSRP*residual factor)* money factor

money factor is from the table. For 3 yr, 2012 CLS550 Mercedes charge 0.0024 (which is equal to 0.0024*2400=5.76% interest.. not bad but certainly not the best).

total monthly lease payment = depreciation + Rent

for state that charge sales tax upfront..
for state that charge sales tax as part of the monthly payment, add monthly sales tax on top of the depreciation + rent...

let do a simple calculation for 3 yr 12k mi

MSRP 82K
Negotiated price 78K
=MSRP*Residual = 82K*.57=46.74K

Acquisition fee=700 (any where between 550 to 750.. don't know how much Mercedes charge now)
DMV = 900 (make up number)
Document fee = 300 (dealer charge this .. also make up number)

Deprication = ((78k+700+900+300)-46.74K)/36 = 921.11
Rent = (78k+700+900+300)+46.74K)*0.0024=303.93

total lease payment per year = 1225.04

In California, we pay 9.25% tax on top of the payment per month, so our payment will be $1338.35

The drive off (which is a factor that no one talk much about) in this example lease should be just the first month payment since we roll all the fee in the monthly payment. Your salesman can move the number around by moving part of cap cost to drive off to make the per month lease number look smaller. But ultimately it is coming out from our pocket.




In order to make 700-800 a months for 80K car, the residual has to be in the 80% range or cap cost is about 15000 below MSRP and money factor has to be very close to zero.. You can play with the spreadsheet to see what combination of term will make it happen.. But Mercedes has to make the first move and decide to subside the lease

Ferrast

Thanks for the great post. It has been awhile since I leased a vehicle - I purchased my last car and i've had it for over 5 years.

topgun04

We have 3 cars in our household and we noramlly lease all the cars (since we choose the 3 year term, we shop and do a lease deal for a new car every year). Mercedes and most new car has a gap insurance that come with lease (If I have an accident that total the car, I would just turn the insurance check to the manufacturer and I am done.. Try this with a purchased car with a loan 8-)). There is a lot of lease deal around if someone is flexible with their car choice.. When a car manufacturer need to clear up their new car inventory, most of the time they use subsidized lease (I guess that is how we have all those great deal in S and E class in the last few years). But the manufacturer has to overproduce the cars first before we see all the great deal.. It is not at all clear how much demand the 2012 CLS command right now vs the production schedule.. It is a waiting game for me now..I would love to get a CLS550 P1+some option car for a 36 month 12kmi/year lease at around 1000 per month +california tax and it will take a while.

Dakrisht, what is your cap cost and residual (it should be in your lease contract)? It sound like you are getting the car at least7- 8k below MSRP. Are you are repeated MB customer (to get the 0.0021 money factor)? From Zag.com, look like the 82K MSRP CLS550 has a dealer invoice of 77K or so. Are they selling at invoice already? would you mind sharing the dealer's name?

storm10

FYI: Sales tax for LA County was 9.75%, but it went down to 8.75% as of July 1st. Because the State of CA is always in trouble, they raised sales tax by 1% for the period of 1 year, which expired on July 1st. So your lease monthly payment should drop this month by 1%.

The only place I noticed has 9.25% for some reason is Santa Monica... I don't know why. I thought it's part of LA County.

YYZ-E55

Of course, you also understand that the residual value will drop as well...

topgun04

Are any of these variables (residual, money factor . . .) negotiable

forget to answer these two questions:

Residual is non-negotiable. This is the price of the car that manufacturer think the car is worth at the end of the lease. If they are wrong, they will eat the difference. However manufacturer sometime may try to juice a particular lease time frame and boost the residual for a particular length of lese. I leased an 05 CLK55 and my residual (msrp*residual factor) was set at 48K. When my lease was up in 08 mercedes offered to sell me the car at 40K instead.. What a deal. Except that there was a couple of CPO 05 CLK55 around us that asked for 35K with less mileage and additional CPO warrenty.. We returned the car and Mercedes ate the loss.. It is not common for manufacturer to offer lower price for leasee to buy the car below the residual but 08 is an unusal year. And I heard they did it for some E350 also over the year since they were so oversupply.

Money factor is also not negotiatable since this is the interest that manufacturer charge for the lease. But dealer may pad the money factor to add some profit to the deal (e.g. July look to have a money factor of 0.0024 for 36 months lease, dealer may tell us that it is 0.0027 and pocket the extra profit). So what we want to do is try to get it as close to what manufacturer offer as possible.