Hey-i am in the process of purchasing E500 2003 with packages E1, E2,E5, power rear shade,DVD/GPS, steering Wheel leather and wood...color of Desert Metallic with Stone interior...what should i shoot for in price.. the MSRP, or KBB.Com and Edmunds arrive at an Invoice price of approx $ 61,096 which includes and offer of 500.00 over invoice. I was going to offer 61K then with taxes etc total is approx $ 64,367 What do you guys think--am i in the ball park ?????
Thanks, David

 

That would be a good price...if it is invoice + $500.

Don't know if you will get it in Virginia.....Maybe rayscar can give you some help. He is from your area and bought a while back.
I know he paid MSRP...but I think the market there has softened a little. He will respond when he sees this thread.

Ed

 

I would aim for $500 over invoice, but the more realistic is probably $750 over invoice as realistic and it may be more unless you are willing to travel some.

 

Has anyone posted on this forum 500 over invoice so far?
If so please indicate the high volume dealership that offers such good discounts. The only problem is waiting for the vehicle of your desired specifications (almost 10 weeks from order time)

 

I spoke to a dealer in the Northeast today that said they couldn't wait to get rid of any 2003 E-Class that was not a 4Matic Car. Let me know if you want the details.

 

There is no such thing as a 2003 E class with 4-matic. The dealer must be talking about 2002 not 2003 models.

 

Thanks. Must have been one of those bull**** lines they lay on you...

like...

It's too bad your trade isn't a 4MATIC because then maybe we could give you some money for it. We've got practically no use for your car... Can't give it away...

Are there any relationship sales types in the automotive industry, or is it all about this sale only; screw the rest?

BTW, just looked on mbusa.com Looks like they offer the E320 Wagon in 4MATIC.

 

The 2003 4-matic wagon is the 2002 E class body. The wagon in the new body style will come out next year sometime as a 2004 model.

 

DON'T you dare buy a car before you check www.carbuyingtips.com and www.fightingchance.com.

You MAY do better than invoice plus $500 if you play the game correctly.

Consider going out-of-market, too. With FAXing it is easy to do. For instance, DC metro is pretty resilient in hard economic times; the heartland is not. Dallas dealers are dying now: all auto sales down THIRTYTHREE and a HALF percent in November!!! Down sixteen percent in Tarrant County on the year; ten percent in Dallas proper--in other words, the suburban dealers are the hardest pressed as the telecom/dotcom/young professional/white collar suburbs/exurbs are laid off--the same folks that buy Benzes, Beemers and Jags (and Porsches).

Good Luck!!!:p

 

Ray Catena in Edison, NJ is the second largest volume dealer in the U.S. (first is a dealer in L.A. as I understand it). I ordered my car from them and they gave me a deal better than any mentioned in this message thread. 732 549 6600

 

Pat A.,

What was the deal you got? Also ask your salesperson if you can share his/her name, which will help them as well. The best way to be able to negotiate with these dealers is if we all have the best information. Sharing specifics is really helpful to those that are still looking to buy.

 

I ordered my E500 in August and took delivery in November and my dealer refuse anything but MSRP. This delaer is very close by. I may have gotten a better deal at another one but that would mean a 45minute trip each way when i had to go there and it wasn't worth it to me to try especially in August not too many deals were to be found. I got some promo discounts and have used my E all this time so to me it was worth the extra money to have my car early. Maybe now dealer in Northern VA will go below MSRP.

 

By all means get the best deal you can, but keep in mind that most dealers will not give you perks like free loaner cars during service and such, if you buy your car out of your local area.

If you save more than $1000 by going out of state, these minor drawbacks are insignificant, though.

 

Max I got with in-state dealers = $500 off MSRP
out-of-state = $2100 off MSRP + delivery
Plus my local service dept said they don't give loaner cars to anyone anymore, so no big deal for me.

 

I just got a MB '02 C240k loaner from a dealer that I Did Not buy the car from. They indicated that it made no difference to the service department. They did give buyers some extra goodies that none of us would normally expect anyway.

I would make a call to the service department of the local dealer and flat ask him if he gives loaner cars...if he says yes ask if it matters if you bought the car from him or not. You don't have to tell him you haven't ordered yet. Ask what, if any, differences there are with someone who buys from them and cars from other dealers.

Remember, as has been pointed out before, many people move to another area after buying a new car. It would be absurb for a service department or a dealer to try to penalize them or treat them differently.

 

Can anyone who has recently found better deals mention them on the board? Best heard so far are $800 over invoice. People have mentioned big dealership names but not mentioned real discounts offered.

 

The policy to deny free loaners to non-local buyers was recommended by MBUSA in mid-2002 (as a cost saving measure).
Exceptions to the rule: you bought the car elsewhere then moved, or car was purchased used.

Any dealer can choose to ignore this MBUSA recommendation.

Mine adheres to it, even though I regularly service my AMG there and have had a 211E55 on order with him for a year now. $30/day they charge to loan me a Buick. $45 if I want a C-class or ML. Pretty tacky IMO.

 

Been working the MD dealers fairly hard yesterday. Called shops on both the East and West Coasts. Best I have found is about $2500 under MSRP on my config, which is a build. That quote requires shipping at $1200 so a net of $1300 savings. I have a quote in Dallas at $1000 below MSRP; no shipping involved just a one-way ticket and drive her home.

Called almost every dealer in Texas, several in California, Catera in NJ. A few in SE USA. Seems a standard line that they have little motivation to use up an order slot of their allocation for a unit sold at a high discount. They have a limited production run on this config, so little budging in price.

Spoke to fellows at "Fighting Chance". They told me the $2500 off was a steal. Take it based on their current take on the MB market.

My local dealer says he will work with me on the price, but keeps reminding me that if I buy other than local, there is no free loaner, (I am told by another local owner that these are never MB'S but rather whatever Enterprise has available) and, that there will be no free wash jobs. (Geez- no free swirl jobs!)

Personally, these are insults and almost motivate me to stay at Lexus, who has never ever failed to eagerly provide a very nice loaner and washes my car any time I drop by. I bought it out of state and shipped it here because of price! Such an attitude if enforced by the service department at MB will not earn my respect.

I guess I understand holding the line on a quality product because I do the same in my business. If you want me, you pay my price. I float a little, but not much. Period.

What offends me is the attitude that if I put together a better deal other than at my local dealer, they can deny me service in any way. The service comes from MB and the Service Dept. not the Sales guys!

 

I talked to a dealer out of my area on a business trip(I am in DC) who gave me some interesting advice. He stated that I should negotiate from MSRP since invoice can include extra fees ala $300-600 advertising fee charged by MB to dealers plus assundry other charges. Based on my experience in working with some local dealers, I found this to be good advice.

The first dealer I went to in the NOVA area offered $500 over invoice when I told him I was still checking out BMW, Lexus, etc. I went back there the following week with the intention of buying and he claimed no memory of that offer. After a little discussion, he came back to that number but then would not guarantee invoice until the car I was ordering arrived. He said invoice can change, albeit slightly, and that he could not commit to a walkaway price, but I should be willing to commit a $1000 deposit (I was ordering the car). When I balked at this notion, he promised invoice would not move by more than $1000 - I read this as a license to charge +$1000 at time of delivery. After a few more attempts to pin down invoice (he and his manager disagreed on invoice for the car with estimates ranging up to $1500 apart driven in part by advertising fees of $500, processing fees up to $300, etc which they were adding to 'invoice'), I walked out.

I immediately went home and sent emails to the 6 other local dealers stating what I wanted and asking for a walkaway price (including taxes, all fees, etc) to be emailed back to me. I asked that all offers be stated as a discount from MSRP and I be given a walkaway price. No dealers are particularly close to me in the DC area so I thought I could save myself some time.

I got quick responses from 3-4 dealers all in the same general ballpark (~$2000-$3000 off MSRP). All of the folks I talked to promised a hassle free buying experience and delivered detailed price breakouts to my inbox, even knowing that my car was an order.

A couple of noteworthy interactions:
Herb Gordon - excellent offer, and internet sales rep seemed to have a lot of integrity. Also MD dealers charge $25 processing fees versus the $100-$300 in VA (insignificant $ I know, but this kind of junk charge p/o's me). I passed on the deal because overall offer was a slightly higher and more importantly, I live in VA and would have needed them to have best offer to go with it.
American Service Center - really liked this sales guy - Tom Rezza - and took his offer. He promised a no hassle buying experience from the beginning, and delivered it in the 20 minutes it took to sign the paperwork and be on my way. He also swore that ASC had great service, so I hope he can help them live up to that (or I take my car to HBL ). He accommodated my requests - like writing on the contract that no additional install fees would be charged for Nav or voice control. I know this probably would have been free anyhow, but I like stuff to be written in case things get hazy later.

So far so good - there is always the chance that something screwy happens at pickup, but ASC is looking at excellent ratings and recommendations from me in the future thus far.

Good luck in the search process.

 

Which ASC? Alex or Arlington?

I have bought a few MBs from Arlington ASC. Their service is good...if you get the right service rep. One guy I have used there is an idiot, never returns calls and seems to be just a dim bulb. The guy they gave me for my AMG is excellent. I think he must be their go-to guy for the high end cars. Hopefully you will not be going in there too often anyway. Good luck.

 

Make sure you are familiar with invoice and MSRP pricing. The prices at the following are the actually invoice/MSRP price.

www.qesonline.com/personal/03ECLASS

Also, marksatex, I completely agree with you that the MB dealers are lower than Toyota/Honda dealers unless you are ready to walking and give them MSRP, in which case they want to be your best friends. But a little haggling with them and they just start doing all kinds of tactics on you.

On the loaner and car washes, did you talk to the service dept directly? Our local salesguy (1 hr north of you), told me the same thing when I told him I was going out of state (i.e. no loaner, no washes), but when I called the service dept., they said, no one gets a loaner anymore and they wash everyone's car whenever you bring it in for service...it's just their policy.

 

BTW, marksatex, I got some shipping quotes online for around $800 from CT or CA to TX, so the $1200 seems a little high. Also, send me a pm, because one dealer in CT was giving $3000 off in our initial discussion with him, but I pay shipping so it came out to about the same as my deal with CA dealer at $2100 + delivery. I agree for $300 or so, I just buy from Dallas, but I think you can save at least $1K - $1.5K over Texas dealers from out of state (including shipping costs).

 

Well my local dealer ( San Antonio) finally bellied up and dropped his price by $1000 and sprung for a wood wheel.

Lowest quote I got was $3000 off MSRP (Catena MB Edison NJ. Ed Arbarbit 732 549 6600), (similar verbal offer in CA but nothing firm- ED put in writing immed at my request), but that requires a $1200 transport-

I decided to take my local dealers offer, which actually is $800 higher.

The offer matches all Texas , LA, CA (except as noted) and FL dealer offers or beats them. I know that if I had the car shipped from NJ I could save another $800 but I felt like the $800 was worth not continuing to hassle over this. Too much time being spent away from work ( and golf ).

I also feel like there would be a continual air of unhappiness at least on my part me because they apparently do enforce the MB suggested policy of restricting the loaners. It's an insult and sucks and I will not forget it, but then again, as my wife pointed out- if someone buys investments from someone else for a lower fee, why should I take care of it?

And one last thought, I know the salesman tried and got what he could, ( out of me and out of the management) and he will have to endure my 1000 questions, each worth at least $1. :p