Hi All,

Originally, I was going to wait to lease another car till the end of the year, (my current lease expires), but I can’t wait that long so I want to lease a new car now.

I’m looking for an E500 with AMG, Premium and Lighting packages.

My questions for all the experienced people out there are the following;

Is it possible to get a 05 car like this at or below invoice?
If yes, how much under and which dealers to call.

I Live in New York

Thanks for your help.

 

European Delivery (7% discount, no destination/delivery charge) and negotiate a further discount from the dealer.

 

If you want to deal with a local dealer in NY, it will be very difficult to get at car at or below invoice. I checked with several dealers on E500's before I bought and the best discount offered was $1500 off sticker, which is a far cry from invoice. For E320's where they may feel more competition, maybe you could do better, but not for an E500. On the other hand, if you are willing to buy from a more distant dealer there are much better dicounts out there -- like from California dealers who seem to be able to offer much better deals than the NY dealers.

 

I live on Long Island, couldnt get a great deal here in Sept of '03 on an ordered '04 E500 (remember there were vast amounts of unsold '03s in Sept-Oct last year). Found a dealer in PA 2 1/2 hrs away who made the deal on the computer & phone, asked for a $ 500 credit card deposit & gave me his build date allocation of Nov1Q. Care came in as promised Delivered Dec4Q. Incredible experience, deal, salesman, dealership. (Never ran my charge card thru for the deposit & never had a signed contract from me. He said he ran my credit report & knew it would be a done deal, no hassles. Arranged for MB finance, ordered/installed front license plate holder, arranged registration/title in NYS for me, my plates transfered. Oh yeah, gave me a fair & honorable price for my '02 Caddy DHS, [drove it down in between order/delivery for him to look at it & I wanted to be SURE we had a deal.] which was sold within 10 days!) Saved a bundle. Dealership was not a palace, but has an agressive "we're here to sell cars" attitude. I service it here on L.I. at a palace.

 

That's interesting. I thought usually they'd offer more discounts on cars with higher MSRPs, although maybe not percentage wise.

 

Its all Supply/Demand/Dealers getting together & setting low price limits. Not very above board, but so done. There's one dealer in this market that sells for a grand less than the others if they like you. All the others quoted the same price to the dollar. That's why I went to the internet.

 

What site did you use to send out multiple emails? It's a bit tiring having to go to each individual dealer's site and click all the little boxes, etc.

 

Please elaborate on this? I've never heard of anything like this.

 

Make up 1 e-mail text in Word/WordPerfect that says what you are looking to buy, listing all equipment & option numbers, when you plan on placing your order, and that you are looking for an aggressive price. List your full name & phone numbers & email.

Cut & paste this text into the "contact us" at each dealers website. Or call each dealership and ask for the GM's name or internet salesman's name & fax number.

If the dealership wont give you this info, fax it to the service manager's attention. He will see the sale as a "sure thing" & give it to the most agggresive salesman in the store, who will give him a few bucks if the sale is completed! Be sure your credit is up to date so the salesman will know it will be a sure thing. Fill out a local bank's auto loan app & have it ready to fax to him AFTER he gives you a price. You dont want too many people requesting a credit report. It alarms the credit bureau computers. Tell him you have it all filled out & you need a price. He will definitely use his sharpest pencil!

 

Thanks for the help. How does sales tax, etc. work if you're purchasing out of state (in your case, PA instead of NY)? Do you pay NY or PA tax? Or are you double taxed?

BTW, I think if you get lots of credit checks in a certain time frame, it's just counted as one check.

 

The dealers use a "car registering service" so they can register in all 50 states. In PA I had to sign a "power of atty to register a motor vehicle" (not done in NY for an out of state reg).

The dealers call this company who faxes a correct state new vehicle registration package to them. They have it in advance of your new MB delivery. You sign it, they fill it out. (In my case there was a transfer of plates involved since I had a trade in. I took my '02 Caddy's plates home w/me). so the dealer made a photocopy of my NYS caddy registration. I signed over the Caddy title. They kept all the NYS paperwork to register the car & FedEx'd it to the "registration company" people in NY. Sales tax on newly sold cars is always paid to the registering state's DMV. (NY for me). The registration people tell the dealer in advance what the sales tax will be and it is made a part of your final contract to be included in the financing or paid by cash check or credit card at delivery of the car. Back in PA they had ordered the front plate bracket (in the matching color) since they knew NY was a "2 plate State", PA is not). The dealership mounted PA "paper plates"/ 30 day transport / 30 day temporary tags, or whatever you want to call them to the rear plate mounting screws & 29 3/4 days later my NYS reg arrived FedEx from the PA dealer after I called them about it. The package had my registration & a 10 day temporary Inspection Sticker for the windshield. (NYS crap). Took off the 30 day papers, mounted my plates, put the 10 day sticker on the dash top & took it to the local station for a "white dot" New car inspection & Inspection sticker NOT the computer generated 3rd year emissions type inspection sticker. (more NYS crap)

Piece of cake, all handled by the dealer. All they need to know is what state you will be registering in, whether it is a transfer of plates or new reg, and if you need the front plate bracket mounted/ordered for the car. Be sure the dealer gives you FRONT & REAR plate screws (4 each) they are different front to rear & the rears are metric.

...and no dealer advertising decal on the car.

The dealer I bought from has 5 MB dealers in DC, MD, PA & VA & others. Mine was the PA one. Those that do a brisk "internet" biz, are well versed & have all your answers. They LOVE to steal sales from out of state. They represent no hassle, for sure sales. FOUND MONEY.

 

I buy all my cars in NJ. I pay no sales tax to NJ, I walk out with the original MCO and a 20 day temporary plate. I walk into NYS DMV, show them the bill of sale, pay sales tax, fill out the registration forms, give them the MCO, they give me plates and the title comes in 45 days. you have 10 days to get the car inspected, but you don't need an emissions test.

no fees are paid to the NJ dealer for registration of any kind, other then the 20 day temporary tag.

 

Why not save all the hassle & let the selling dealer register it for you?