They are out of their mind on a car with such a low MSRP to have to pay around $5,000-$6,000 out of pocket between cap cost and if paying all fees/taxes up front.

http://pepeautogroup.com/mbad0911.jpg

Hoping MB offers realistic lease pricing soon because my lease is up in Feb. I may have to extend it a few months until MB wakes up and offers some deals.

 

That's just insanely high, M-B is really trying to make up that that $5K less price than the outgoing model with some absurdly inflated Lease prices.

Give it some time, the Leases will come down steadily as the new hype of the car wears off.

 

Wow. It seems I can jump a better equipped 2010 E350 and reduce my lease payments. Will reconnect to a dealer.

 

Your E Lease costs more than that? Damn, seems like buyings the better option here IMO.

 

Get used to higher lease prices. Car companies can't borrow as easily as they once could. Expect lower residuals. Leasing for the general public is coming to an end. North Amercans must be weaned off the never, never plan. Never own,never stop paying. Leasing was always a false ploy to put people in expensive cars they normally could not have. We all saw what happened to home ownership on the never never plan. It is high time that people start living within their means.

 

Yeah, I've never been into Leasing either, and a lot of that is because certain people do Lease cars they don't really have the money for, those as well are usually the ones that try and hold it over other peoples heads, haha. I own my car outright, if I decided to use all that money and go into a Lease, I could have gotten something the cost at least twice of what my car did!

 

Well I do hope they get more realistic soon. As far as lease vs buying, I refuse to buy something that depreciates the instant you take possession of it, it just does not make any sense to me. I own my own business and have a few cars and just refuse to buy any car unless it is a classic (working on getting "Eleanor" soon). I own real estate and buy houses (never rented in my life), renting to me is as bad as paying for something that depreciates (owning a car) but leasing ie "renting" a car just makes sense to me.

I used to buy cars when I was younger and then as I got older and started making serious money I stopped buying, go figure. I have run the math, did the scenarios over hundreds of time with regards to leasing vs buying and leasing is just the way to go.

I also do not like having a car more than 3 yrs, I get bored after 2 though I enjoy my car now and sort of wished I had more on the lease. I did a short 27 month lease because I knew the new body style was coming out soon and figuring I would love the new body style so that just when my lease was up I would get right into the newly released design which I really do not like so I am debating on which car to get now. Shame.

 

I agree. I get the new car bug every 2 or 3 years. I like to lease my "toy" car - just came off a lease for my 2006 SLK - I wanted the manual transmission, and it's difficult to resell a Mercedes manual. Simple to just turn in the car to the dealer and walk away. Lease costs were a couple thousand less than depreciation would have been if I had bought it. Now I'll wait until spring when I need a convertible again.

 

As far as a lease price is concerned my payment is $800 per month with total out of pocket of $5k for 18k miles a year for 39 months for E350 4 matic, obsidian black, black leather, sport package, p2 package, rear split seats, parktronic and heated steering wheel.

Residuals are now lower because the banks and finance companies are not going to take losses on overly aggressive residuals anymore. Thus you pay for more of the car during the lease period than before. My 07 E350 4matic had a residual of 62% for 15k miles per year for 27 months. Now its somewhere in the 40's (I forget the actual number) for 39 months with 18k miles per year. I'm ok with the payment although steep but I live in NJ and the demand for luxury cars is still there.

 

I agree with the comment before yours - it will be harder than ever to borrow. As a real estate professional you probably noticed that by now.

I also agree with you that for a business owner it might make more sense to lease a car and keep writing it off as a business expense than buying it. One will just have to tweak his budget a little to accomodate extra 200 per month. This will not or should not do a thing to your bottom line. And you will probably be able to keep your habit of changing a car every 3 years.

For a private consumer the reality of buying an expensive car will be (and already is) different. For starters, depreciation will not be as drastic. Secondly, people will start keeping their cars longer. And finally, they will be (and already are) buying fewer luxury cars. All of it is really bad news for the luxury car makers. I am sure that if they could they would start printing their own (car) money. But they can't. Leasing was somewhat profitable for MB. It was really profitable for their underwriters. But the underwriters run out of equity lines to keep the circle going. The equity is not there because lay people have nothing to buy it with any longer. One might ask, what did people buy it with then? The answer is - not cash. Here is a very simplistic scenario: Joe had a house and it was valued at 650K. He has 90K of equity in it. The contract price on the house was 500K and Joe has been paying a mortgage of about 2600 per month (best case scenario). The bank gave him a home equity credit line of 50K with a max per month payment of 500. Joe maxed the line by paying for his holidays, lovers AND car lease payments. His total monthly payment now stands at 2600+500=3100. The house went down in value to 390K. Forget about any new credit lines now. Joe or his wife looses a job. They now need to get rid of the car because they cannot afford it. You get the picture...The key thing in this scenario is to understand that there were never real dollar bills printed to support all of this. It was all underwritten with what they now call toxic assets.

Since there is no more Monopoly money left to underwrite car credit lines with, the only thing that they can rely on now is Cash. And who really has it? Salaries are stagnating. No new significant breakthroughs in technology are coming. Humanity is still in the era of primitive energy solutions. Obama administration and governments around the world are pumping money into the system, but it is not enough.....not nearly enough. Dubaya spent 1 trillion on Iraq. This will never be recouped. It literraly went up in smoke. Real estate bubble is estimated to cost US 2 trillion. Some of this will be recouped because population is growing and people do need places to live. But overall, we are in deep sh*t.

So, if good leases appear they will be underwritten by dealerships or conglomerates of dealerships. And they will be very rare.

 

I guess we all see the same picture. Leasing was originally for commercial vehicles. For guys that work with their cars and can write them off it can work but for most of us purchasing will be the only viable option. Don't get me wrong,all semi luxury and luxury cars are for people who hate their money otherwise we would not put it into a car.

 

That sucks, I'm sure you can extend your Lease for another year or so while you're still enjoying your E while you contemplate your next move? Might give you time to see what BMW has in store for the next 5'er as well, as your kinda in the same boat with me about the new E.

I have always bought, as I tend to get attached to my cars and like to keep them, yet at the same time I'm always looking at and comparing others too. I was thinking of trying a Lease out for my next car, but with the higher prices now, I"ll probably disregard that. I figure, buying new VS leasing new, the lease is the smarter financial move (if you're not going to keep your car for a long time), but if you wait until the car is a couple years old, it'll probably be smarter than to Lease a new one?

I just paid off the my whole Loan on the E350, as I figured I have the money in the Bank, and am tired of paying interest for nothing, so as long as the car keeps me as happy as it does now, I'm probably gonna just keep it, and if Lease prices come down some, maybe try out a Lease for my second/revolving car.

BTW, Eleanor =

I was on the Set of Gone In 60 Seconds, and sat in and saw up close all the Eleanor's, granted a lot of the body cladding were all cheaply pasted on, it was GORGEOUS. Nicest car I've ever seen to this day I think.

 

Sure collecting moneyis most stupid things in the world.

 

I doubt you can purchase having payments below $1K. This lease pricing is for MSRP, taking $5K-$7K discount is really easy so lease payments will be below $500 with something $1K out of pocket, I pay more now.

 

the 7500 miles/yr is the REAL catch here