E55 KEV

DoubleNickel,

That's a first! A customer agreeing with a salesman! Some people have more time than money and some have more money than time. If money is no object and your time & family is more valueable you should have no problems with 10 grand over sticker. Just walk in pick out the car and drive it home - no questions asked. Many people do.

Never agree with a salesman about loyalty, because in the future he will be selling BMW or Jaguars or whatever if they offered him more money. Loyalty to a dealer - Yeah Right!

MarcusBenz said:

"Find a dealer that you feel comfortable with and stick with them, it will pay off in the long run."

How do you find a dealer to "feel comfortable with" unless you spend time and gas to visit them? I had the same dealership for 4 years and it did not "pay off in the long run" as MarcusBenz stated. How would it "pay off in the long run"? - a free coffee mug or a t-shirt to advertise for them? Not even a free oil change did I get. You go to the dealer you want based on your criteria and not the other way around.

Speaking of loyalty - When I tried to trade the E430 I purchased from the same dealership and the same salesman and buy a E55 they let me down by trying to rip me off - plain and simple!

Maybe you feel comfortable getting "RIPPED OFF" - I don't!

E55 KEV

DoubleNickel - From my understanding - when you order a car, any car from the factory it will always be at MSRP. It is usually when you want to buy a limited production car like an AMG or M that is actually sitting in stock or acquired from another dealer when they try to hit you with that $10k over sticker crap!

This board is about sharing information. Many Mercedes buyers actually believe that you "must" buy a car at sticker. They are usually shocked to find out that others received huge discounts. On another thread a fellow E55 owner reported he got $7700 off MSRP by shopping around. That trumps my $6000!

KenE55

It is very valuable and interesting to see this discussion about actual prices paid and MSRP and all that, but it is hard to compare apples and apples.

I checked www.edmunds.com, and they claim the MSRP is about $5,000 over invoice price for the 2002 E55. Now, Edmunds could be wrong, and I know dealers sometimes get cars for less than invoice or may get incentives from the manufacturer. But I doubt a dealer would have to sell an E55 at a net loss.

I paid about $1000 less than MSRP. I felt I got a very reasonable trade as well. I paid $26,000 for my previous car new (no jokes please, it wasn't a Benz), and got $22,000 for it with more than 30,000 miles and some dings and wear and tear. I doubt they could sell my old car for more than $19,000, and they obviously have some real costs in doing that. In Arizona, we only pay sales tax on the difference between the new car and the trade, so in a sense there is a 7% incentive to trade a car rather than sell it on my own. That's $1,540 right there.

Bottom line is I got about $4,000 more in trade than I would have selling it myself, without even considering time, hassles, and expenses. This puts the net cost of the car well within what I think was reasonable and fair... about $5,000 total off MSRP.

If you are comfortable with the deal, be happy!

ORK1

Hello to everyone!

1. Did you know, that Mr. Bangle used to work for Opel?

2. CL and 6 are different classes, incoparable cars. To my opinion, CLK AMG5.5 is much closer to M6s, so why did you choose CL600 which is closer to m8?

orangemarlin

OK, I'm sorry, but I cannot quote a reply on here, but I am replying to the previous post.

About Chris Bangle, I guess I knew it, but all I know is that he's a pretty good designer. And American, I think Californian. Not really important to me.

About my purchasing the 600. OK, here it is. Get ready. This was an impulse purchase. If the CL55 was around, I would have bought it. Maybe. I really wanted a sport luxury car, with the emphasis on luxury.

Since there's no M6 out there, at least since 1988, there's no comparison to be made. But if it were available, the M6 would have one thing that the CL55 does not have...a six speed standard transmission. That's one of the crucial 5 or 6 things that makes a car a driver's car.

By the way, BMW does not make an M8, never has, never will. They made an 850 CSI, V12 and all, but given some of the problems on the early BMW V12, I think I'll stick with the CL600.

But if anyone wants to let me try their 55, I'll be glad to race it up SR33, heel/toeing throught the mountains. Oh, that's right, can't heel/toe in Mercedes. I'd still have fun I'm sure.

E55 KEV

KenE55, every business including car dealers sometimes sell things at a loss to move it. After the WTC bombing many business had to sell at a loss. There are many factors involved in purchasing an E55 and market conditions vary from place to place. All E55's in every market do not fly out the door. I have posted that I know the where-abouts of 2 2002 E55 sitting since last August and the dealer can not sell them. Even if the dealer sells the car at or below invoice he still receives the Hold-Back which is listed as 3% of the MSRP for Mercedes-Benz. That is $2250 profit on a $75k car. I traded my E430 which will also bring them a $7500 profit.

JamE55

That is very true!

Fast Eddy

Pease tell me is Orangemarlin DUDE for real? this dude would like CL600 with manual transmision? Compairs CL600 wich is available NOW versus M6 that does not exist and not available anywhere and starts dreaming how he would buy one over the other if that would only EXIST, but its nowhere. THE orange does not know if the M6 will be with manual transmission yet posts it as dissadvantage to CL600?
Is there really need for a S600 or CL600 with manual transmission? What a joke! Can this clown find us BMW 745i with manual transmission ? I don't think so. DO any of you believe that 760Li will be offerd anywhere in this world with manual? For that there are Ferraries and porsches and evn P comes with step.
How many CL600 with manual would MB sell? 0? A hollywood producer would not order CL600 with manual( a hollywood producer is another marlin's story if you dont know).
Part of being luxuy is not to have to jerk the stick all the time.
and how many the same cars does this dude need?
He claimes M3, M5 and would like M6 with manual, do you believe there would be that much difference between m3, M5 and M6 in terms of performance, what would it be 0.1 sec faster?
Wake up.

MMAfia

orangemarlin, u r a disgrace to the bimmer community, making lame statements like that. yer just not making any sense.

i'm a bimmer head, no doubt, but daaaang.... this kinda post perpetuates the incorrect prototypical bimmer head stereotype i hate. it's the dumb boy-racer image that us bimmer heads get labeled as that i really can't stand, and you are adding fuel to the flame.

oh, and you're a stud for being able to buy a CL600 on an impulse. thanks for re-iterating that, it really makes us jealous and envious of you.

MMAfia

ORK1

BTW, you are not quite right. They DID make M8.


http://www.mobile.de/cgi-bin/search....he=2&x=44&y=18


And there are many more of M8's at german autoshop
http://www.mobile.de/cgi-bin/search....=pkw&sprache=2



And also, I didn't mean CL5.5, I was talking about CLK 5.5 because BMW 6 is going to be based on platform of 5 series, so you can't really compare it with such a grand coupe as CL class, as it's based on S class. So, IMO CL is simply a higher class of a luxuary car then 6 is going to be, isn't it?

E55 KEV

DoubleNickel, you did not know that all E55s are considered "rare"? Mercedes only makes 500 E55's per year for the U.S. - that makes it rare. BMW sends well over 2000 M5 units to the US - not as rare but still considered rare.

E55 KEV

DoubelNickel,

Not trying to get hung up on semantics. You can describe your car anyway you want. To me the car is rare. Webster's defines "rare" as "seldom occuring or found". A yearly production of 500 is seldom occuring.

The E55 may not be rare to you, but to me and most other people remotely aware of what an E55 is - the car is "rare". Most listings and auctions for E55's the word "rare" is commonly used. You will be using the word 'rare' when time to sell it.

Eventhough, I did not call the car a collector's car, it is. If a auto collector, like, Jay Leno has or had a W210 in his stable it would not be a E320, but an E55. Collector cars are only rare because they are usually really old and the majority of the production has vanished and is now rusted scrap metal and someone has restored it or keep it in like new condition.

Hence, Limited Production E55's are rare.

Fast Eddy

And 2 out of the 3 you see on the road while driving to work are probably rebaged 320 or 420's with sport package-Bay Area-Silicon Valley that is the capital of rebaging.

E55 KEV

True Fast Eddy, there are posers out there. I know of a guy who rebadged his 1997 E320 with sport package to E55. E55's are probably on every corner and two or three per street in zip code 90210 - Beverly Hills. Ferrari's, Lotus and Lambo's are run of the mill there also.

E55's are still 'rare' regardless of semantics or personal opinions.

Fast Eddy

The car may not be rare in terms of value but in terms of numbers it is a limited production car. Lets say all 500 of one year's production went into Bay area. What is the population there, has to be 5-6 million people. that is 1 car per 10000 people. YOu may see them more often in your neighborhood but that does not change the overall numbers. Those 2-3 you see every day are but a 2-3 cars in the sea of all the othe cars. Availability at the dealership means nothing. THere are Bentleys and R/R's at the dealerships at all time ---you can come by they will detail it for you and off you go ---- does not mean the car is on the every corner.

Fast Eddy

there was this program on MTV or VH1 and it was about who owns what and how many cars. Shaq has 8-9 Bentleys with big crome wheels and so on. If you live in his hood you will see him may be twice a day and may be in different Bentley, there may be people like him visiting him in the Bentleys(Rodman in his convertable?) as well, so if you were to see these cars every day would that make them less prestigeos just because you see 1-2 a day in the surtain places. There are still less than 500(e55) of them sold yearly in US.
I'm sure if you were to go by some restorants you would see fancy cars every night------how does that change the numbers or what the car is?
Why don't you go to central LA and never see Bentley.
If there are 200000 Tauruses sold each year and 500 E55 that is rare in comparisson and that it obviously what the Kev wanted to say. It is nt collectible item but in terms of simple numbers it is rare in comparisson to all but a few automobiles.

E55 KEV

Cmon, DoubleNickel, what do you want us to do - change our opinions and the facts? This is not an opinion - it is a fact that E55's are indeed rare. I already gave you the "90210 Beverly Hills" example and you came back with the same example for Marin County.

This is getting old! Don't you have a wife to argue with? Geez!

oresama99

question for those following this thread.....

in many duscussions regarding bmw's the point is brought up that in order for a car to be a 'driver's car' it needs to have a manual tranny. is this really true? is an F1 car less of a driver's car because it has a semi-auto? (clutch only at the start)

is the m5 really a driver's car? how can anything that weighs over 4000 pounds be considered a true driver's car.

curious

BMWMnut

I have to disagree; the M5 is a "drivers" car. Then again, it depends what your definition of a driver's car is. What is a "true" drivers car? I think this can be very subjective.

Granted, the M5 does weigh in excess of two-tons, but it is the best all-around performing car on the planet for its size, with the E55 coming in at a very close second.

I have driven my car at Sears Point several times and it is very impressive for its size. The car definitely does not feel like 4,000 pounds. Then again, it is no M3 or 911 for pure agility.

Just my two cents.

infonaut

There is some great info on the new e-classe...I found the info at http://www.autospies.com/report/default2.asp