jmsspratlin

Wondering the reason you chose to purchase over leasing, and vice versa. I'm new to the MB community and since acquired my latest E350 coupe P2, coming from a C300 '09. Thanks...J

mg-E550

Purchased my e550. I drive a lot and plan to keep this as my daily workhorse for many years.

volfan615

I leased my e550 as well as my last 335i. I usually get the itch every 2-3 years for something new so leasing makes more sense for me.

Ninjaryder

I never liked the fact of someone telling me how & when I to drive my car so I purchase vs. lease always. For some people leasing is a good option but Im not one who trades vehicles often .

chicagoed

I don't like being forced into the new car market at the time of lease expiration - it may be a poor time in relation to model changes.

Dema

I lease only, because selling car is a big problem, so far I couldn't sell any purchased car, so either gave it as trade in or sent to junk yard. In both case you lose big money When you lease, you pay less and do have new car every two year without hassle getting rid of old one. Only drawback that your insurance price higher, since you can’t get liability only. If you own business your lease payment will be tax deductible.

FrozenNorth

Usually keep cars for 5-6 years and drive 12K miles per year. So purchase pencils out better for me.

icelandicmax

first time leasing- for tax write off purpose, and can get new car every 3 yrs wo longterm maintenance costs.

Ninjaryder

I would advise checking local tax laws. In washington state your allowed to write off the sales tax when purchasing.

K-A

I usually Purchase as it's more a piece of mind thing. I just don't like the idea of "Renting" cars. However, as much as I like to think I want to keep my cars forever, I'm in the market to buy my third car in 3 years, while selling my second in that time frame. So it would seem Leasing would make more sense for me, essentially. I've crunched the numbers, and for example, with a car like a new E-Class, I feel that if you owned it and sold it in 3 years, if the car depreciates moderately, you might even save a few bucks over Leasing one.

To get Tax Write-Offs for Leases, you must own a Business? And you can write off the whole Lease amount?

jmsspratlin

I chose to get rid of the 2009 C300 last night. It had 4K miles on it and I had owned it nearly a year. I ride my motorcycle alot to work, so thats that. I chose the 2010 E350 coupe, however the negative equity of the first year in the 300 killed me at nearly 8K, so I chose to lease since I'm one that likes the latest and the greatest. Also, given my recent track record, alone since April of 2006, I have purchased: Nissan 350Z, Dodge Ram quad cab 3500, BMW 530i, Hummer H2, MB C300, (for the wife) Toyota Camry, VW Beetle, BMW X5, and recently a BMW 328i....and now leased the E class. This is my first lease, so I hope over the next 3 years, I am happy with it. Thanks to all of the responses, it has helped me to rationalize my thoughts toward a lease versus a purchase.

K-A

Yeah, seems Leasing should be the right choice for you, especially considering the low Mileage driving. Only problem is, seems you might like to switch earlier than 3 years, let's hope you like this car that much.

jmsspratlin

Yeah, I know right. The dealer tried to set me up for a 60 month to lower the payments, however this is just like buying, so I opted for higher payments and a lower lease term.

K-A

Oh man, good call on the 60 month thing. I think Leasing anything for even a smidge more than 3 years is getting ripped off, at that point you're forced to keep a car you may not want in that time, and the money factor probably isn't working in your direction at all, all things taken into account.

jmsspratlin

Yeah, the payment is steep, but I work hard, and figure its time to reward daddy for a change.

mcdohl

I saw all the cars you bought recently, from all those cars, the one you should have bought unfortunately was the E-Class Coupe. The E-Class Coupe makes no sense at all to lease currently with the program Mercedes Benz has on it.

I will explain why. The money factor was 0.00305 till April first when it was lowered to 0.00285. That translate to an interest rate between 6.5-7.4% depending if you bought the car in before April or after April 5.

The car has 58% residual at 36 months.

Everyone I know who has bought a E-Coupe and I been told the E Convertible is going to be worse even, has bought it either cash or gotten a bank loan via credit union or Bank of America as you can get loans sub 3.5% for 36 month easy via almost any credit union and Bank of America is offering rates between 2.84-3.4%(depending where you live) for 60 months.

The dealer I work with for years, has told me pretty much only people who lease an E-Coupe currently are people who can not otherwise offer to drive them based on the above because used 07/08 CLK coupes who have already taken hit for the new body are selling around $32-33k used in my area with low milage. And the E-Class coupe used should sell in 2-3 years slightly better than CLK are currently selling and CLK are currently selling around 60-64% of new MSRP of the car.

Again their is no guarantee of the above being the case when you sell the car, but the fact the cost of money on a lease is almost double than on a car purchase and if MBUSA is correct on the residual of the E-Coupe then it ends up being over $10k cheaper to buy then lease currently even factoring in the taxes paid over buying vs leasing because you are paying taxes on the interest paid on a lease and because the interest is so high you end up paying close to 75% of the value of the car over your lease term.

I have a E550A cab I am picking up around the 10-20th of the month. And I am planning to buy it, I have not bought a car in over 20 years, but leasing a car who payments equal 75% of MSRP over 3 years makes no sense, as their is almost no way I can loose money even trading it into the dealer in 3 years. As the car will not be worth $0 in 3 years, and will be worth way more than $20k which is the difference between total lease payments minus MSRP on the car.

jmsspratlin

Very interesting. However, I had nearly 8K of negative equity on trade.

Ninjaryder

1st year is the usually the biggest hit. Expect to lose 5k when you leave the dealer lot.

mcdohl

First off jmsspratlin, Ninjaryder, is correct the largest hit to resale comes in year 1. Also we are talking about E-Class Coupe/Cabs which are comparable to CLK which are limited production cars for Mercedes Benz compared to C class and E-Class Sedan which are 2 highest volume cars so they tend to hold their resale value much better. E-Class Coupe and Cabs also have super bad lease rates compared to any other MB as they are only 2 cars which use "standard money factor" which in simple english means you are getting screwed. Same is true for financing either car via MBF as both cars only qualify for 5.9% 36 months rate and many banks offer much lower rates.

The reason why leasing makes no sense on coupe or cabs, is add up your lease payments over the lease term of 36 months, you will see they add up to about 75% of MSRP of the car. We both know this car will be worth much more than 25% of MSRP in 3 years and more than likely over 60%. The reason it works out this way is because current money factor on both of those cars is so high. If you bought the car, got a loan via BOA for 60 months and sold it in 36 months, chances are you costs to drive the car would be much lower than leasing it. That is not the case with C-Class or E-Class Sedan because of the lease special which allow you depreciate a 36 month lease over 39 months and the fact both have much lower money factors and lease only loyalty discounts which the coupe and cab do not qualify for at all.

That is why you can not say, well I lost my shirt on an C-Class after selling it in 1 year, when most of the depreciation comes in year 1 and the resale for C-Class compared to CLK is a joke.

Also search Cars.com you will find used E-Class Coupes listed for 2-3k below MSRP from many dealers nationwide. No idea what price they would really sell the car for but that is the price they are listing them on cars.com and search used C-Class on Cars.com you will find some 2009 and 2010 listed for 6-7k below MSRP for a cars worth $20k less. So the resale for C-Class is trash compared to both E-Class Coupes and CLK.

jmsspratlin

Well, that being said, since I JUST signed the papers for the lease on Sat. I wonder if it would be possible to go on Monday and ask to purchase instead? I figure the answer will be no, but thought that I would ask. I am new to the lease and you are right, in 36 months I would have paid $39096.00. However the monthly payments for the longest length of loan at 72 is still $966 taking into account the negative equity on the C.

K-A

How does the E Sedan current Lease rates compare to buying? I.e money factor and all that stuff (this stuff is like Alien talk to me).

I've looked up these cars in Autotrader to see what they're going for, and you can find extremely low mileage E Sedans for low low $40's, and E-Coupes for low-mid $30's. Seems that's the smartest current way to get into one IMO.

jmsspratlin

Its just that if I had purchased at the 6% and went the 72 months at $966, then over the entire course of the loan, I would be paying back nearly 70K for a $57K automobile. Considering that I have the 8K of negative equity from the C that I was carrying with me into this deal to begin with. The way i was looking at things is that in 27 months, I'd be able to step into a new MB (either purchase or lease) and be without the negative equity. This would also allow me the opportunity to see if I wanted something different, and thus if so, I'd have that opportunity afforded to me. I do, however not having anything to show for at the end of the lease except for the loss of monies. Its hard to give away that much money and have no asset to show for it.

mcdohl

If you take a loan at 6% today for a car you are an idiot sorry. Bank of America is 3.4% for 72 months in Ca, and in NY state which has the lowest rate for Bank of America offers a rate of 3.1% for 72 months. Their is no law that you have to use mercedes benz financial loans. Leasing or buying an E-Class Coupe of Cab via MBF is stupid when those are the only 2 cars, MB has no specials on and both use standard rates which are much higher than what any bank would charge you today. All other cars Mercedes Benz sell either have rates sub 4% for leases and purchases.

The dealership I have been buying cars from for 20 years, told me not to lease the new cab I have coming in between may 10-20 because the leases are a joke, same dealership told me to use BOA for a loan if I need a loan or pay cash for the car.


Not sure how you got 27 month lease as MB does not offer 27 month lease on E-Class coupe currently, they offer 24 or 36 or 48 months only. Currently MB has a 6 month pull forward program but their is no guarantee in 30 months they will have the same program too.


Again this all boils down to what my dealer told me, only people who lease an E-Class coupe are people who otherwise can not offer to drive it and have no choice but to lease it if they want to drive it.

If you figure you put down $10k get a loan for $47k after 36 months, you will be able to trade the car into a dealer and more than likely get back some money, sure your payment might be higher in the short term, but you will get a check back and after you factor in what in cost you over 36 months, ie amount of total payments over the term your drove it, and amount you get when you sell it and come up with a number and subtract that number from the purchase price and divide that number by the amount of month you drive the car you will see that it will end up being much cheaper than a lease would have cost you.

This is only the case currently on E-Class Coupe and Cabs. Maybe in 1 year the lease terms on both the above cars will change and Mercedes will offer a reasonable lease program which will change the above fact but today that is reality of leasing that car vs buying it. If you can afford the larger monthly payments, and a down payment required for best possible loan or can afford to pay cash, you cost of ownership will be significantly cheaper to buy vs lease on E-Class Coupe or Cabs.

jmsspratlin

I do appreciate your knowledge on the subject. The pull forward program is why it is 27. Also, (don't care for people to know) but my credit is 742. That 6% on the car was from BOA. MBF would not even carry me at this time. Not sure the rationale behind this, but I make good money and my credit score isn't awful.

mcdohl

I don't care what your credit is, goto bank of america web page, with 10% down, credit score of 720 + the rate depending onyour state is listed between 3.1-3.4%. So no idea where your are getting a rate of 6% unless it is based on the fact you are trying to get a loan for more than the purchase price because of your negitive equity. Also 36 month lease assuming they are offering the pull forward program which they don't always offer, and even when they do they don't on all models still means you have to wait 30 months and not 27 as the program Is between 5-6 month max pull forward and not 9 months.