E550 vs. 550i that is. Has Mercedes completely ceded the midsize v8 sedan market to BMW... at least for customers looking to lease? I'm looking to move up from a 335 to something a bit larger. The 550i and the e550 were my top two choices. I've always owned BMW's, but after moving from an x5 to a GL for my wife, and really preferring the GL by far, I thought I should also consider moving to mercedes for myself. I went to the BMW dealer and they had 9 550's in stock and many others at other dealers in the area. The Mercedes dealer didn't have a SINGLE E550 available to them in the entire state of florida. They had two in Texas.

Then came price... or more specifically lease terms. Mercedes isn't even in the same ballpark. For similarly priced/equipped vehicles, the monthly payment is ~50% higher for the mercedes. And that's before even considering the maintenance which is included with the BMW.

I can't really say which car I prefer independent of price, because I was unable to test drive an E550. But I'm quite sure I won't like the Mercedes more than 50% better than the BMW to justify that level of a price premium.

The best the sales person could do was try to steer me towards an E350, but even that would be more expensive than the lease on the 550i.

What gives? It seems Mercedes isn't even trying to compete.

 

Maybe it's a Florida thing? Dealers in MA are jumping all over themselves to offer huge discounts on E350/E550's and the lease rates are extremely competitive.

I would try to find an E550 somewhere to test drive and then decide what car you like best. You should be able to get a great deal on both if you expand your search.

On another note don't discount the 535. The acceleration is great, cost is less than 550, and it gets better mileage. Finally, if you are really adventurous try an A6 which actually has a better engine than the 535.

 

E550s are rare. Only about 5% or so of E class vehicles are E550s. I had to looks for months to find one with the options I wanted but it was worth it.

You will pay a premium over a 350 but it is most certainly not 50% extra. I think what you are seeing is a Florida thing. In the DC area there are E550s. It is still not easy to find them but they are certainly available.

Are you in a hurry? I would order one just the way you want it to make a rare car even more special.

 

Interesting but true. When I purchased my E550 there was only 2 in my entire state and i was actually the 1st to purchase one of the new w212 550 models. They are very rare as compared to the BMW. But isn't that the case across all the BMW versus MB car lines? It may be just due to lack of incentives to move the MB product, I'm unsure? Maybe why BMW is more ubiquitous and Mercedes more exclusive.

 

I ordered mine and I also agree that the 550's are rare....
and ditto to RNBRAD, mine was the first or second 550 to arrive
in late 2010....here in the triangle area of NC...
it's mainly a styling thing I guess, although I have heard
good things about the quality material in BMW's being nice,
I'd prefur the MB styling...
maybe you could test a car with the same engine if there's one
available....

 

Unfortunately I am in a hurry. Was in an accident that totaled my 335. I'm driving a Kia forte from enterprise. Unfortunately it's not just the availability issue. Pricing is a bigger issue. I'm getting quotes of 1100 per month for a 36/10k lease on the e550. Similarly priced 550i is low 700s per month.

 

Supply and demand I guess.

 

i guess you have no choice if you are in a hurry unless you are willing to fly to another state, test drive, buy it and ship it back .

 

Yeah, sort of gets to the heart of my question about whether Mercedes has ceded the midsize v8 sedan market to BMW. If there was a demand for e550s they would be more readily available. Based on the fact that an e550 lease is more than a 50% premium to BMW and there's no inventory, it almost feels like Mercedes has decided the e350 is their sweet spot and there's no need to compete on price with BMW for the 5% of customers who want the v8 model.

 

Have you looked for a used E550? You can save $15k off a sub 5000mi car all day.

 

What it comes down to from my observations is that M-B further alienates its enthusiast base, to cater to a "Rent then toss" base. Therefore, base base E350's are all M-B needs, and they even throw a free "Sport Package" on it, which looks interchangeable with the E550 to boot. Lots more guys on the BMW side are more performance-oriented, therefore there's a slightly higher supply/demand for 550i's. Also, BMWUSA is far more creative and enthusiast-oriented in how they option their cars (lots more interesting stuff you can do to Option your car, I've found, and they still price the M Sport Package at a premium, so you don't see them everywhere as much, aka less dilution of the "Sport Model").

That's my take.

 

In California/Los Angeles, there are loads of all models , Mercedes & BMW. All MBZ are discounted much more agressively here than BMW's. I just leased a $60K E350 for less than I could lease a $45K BMW 328. As far as 550's, even here in LA I see very few MBZ 550 or BMW 550's; maybe 1 out of 100 on the road are 550's. So it certainly looks like a matter of low demand for 550's in these midsize models.

 

I agree with that as well. I don't think I've ever come across a Midsize Luxury Car as subsidized and artificially cheap to Lease than a W212 E350. Even the W211 E350's were Leasing more "normal to the MSRP price". My 2011 was such a ridiculous deal, and when I was shopping around just a month ago, Leasing a 2013 E350 would have been by far the cheapest option, considering cars that even stickered the same (or even less in some cases, as you said).

I think this is another reason you might see less incentives on E550's. MBUSA is busy almost giving away E350's with the artificially low Lease rates due to very aggressive incentives/subsidies.

 

[QUOTE=Bocahoo;5537428]E550 vs. 550i that is. Has Mercedes completely ceded the midsize v8 sedan market to BMW

From an enthusiasts perspective, apparently so. As stated elsewhere, V8's comprise very little of W212 production. So little in fact that Mercedes was selling more E63's than two wheel drive E550's in this country. So they now offer E550 as a 4Matic only. Apparently they must think that if you want a true sports sedan.....buy a E63. The cost of which is hard to justify for a lot of us.
I would prefer a more balanced vehicle. Comfortable, to take my In-laws to dinner, but also athletic enough to enjoy driving at a brisk pace on secondary roads or through the mountains. Our E550 "Sport" has the comfort part down but misses the mark a bit on athleticism. The 2007 BMW 550i we once owned didn't really have the room in back or comfort but did have the "sport" element (ALONG WITH SOME OTHER LESS THAT DESIRABLE TRAITS).
I have been wondering lately about the Jaguar XF, if they have a strong dealer in your area it might be worth a test drive

 

$1100/mnth sounds like S-class territory to me. Speaking of which, have you looked into those at all? I would imagine they are incentives considering the 2014 new model..

 

E550s and E350 Bluetecs each make up only 5-10% of the E distribution. That makes them relatively rare. If you are not in a hurry, you could always order one with exactly what you want on it. That would be the best route to take.

 

That sounds more like a "buy payment" than a "lease payment". Are you sure they are quoting you correctly? Before I bought my E550, they showed me a "lease payment" price to compare, which was around $825+-(not positive, but I know it was in the 8's).

 

It was definitely lease. $0 down (other than first month + acquisition and inceptions). MSRP was low $70's. Their quote included a $4500 discount off MSRP (and I'm pretty sure I could do a lot better) and a lot of junk fees (e.g. "paint protection"), but when the starting point was more than 50% higher than BMW, it wasn't even worth trying to work them down to merely 30% higher.

I might look at the S-class. Based on USAA pricing and solving for the residual and money factor on the MBUSA website, it looks like I should be able to get an S550 for $1,000 - $1,100 with no money down (again except for first month + acquisition/inceptions) . Just not looking forward to a $1K+ car payment. But if I'm going to spend that much, it had better be an S class not an E class.

 

the e550 is in a peculiar territory. the majority of people that want the e class would be happy with just the e350... moving upwards would change the demographic of the buyer... these ppl value more performance while keeping the luxury stuff. however.. the price point of the 550 is such that for the people that can afford this car and demand the performance, they might as well just jump into the E63. Thus the E550 finds itself in an odd and less demanded niche.

If I were to put money on it, I would guess when the E63 comes with 4matic, it'll really make the E550 disappear.

 

Don't look now..........AMG just announced the availability of a 585 HP E63S 4matic with a 0-60 of something like 3.6 seconds.
However my guess at a cost of 2 E550's.

 

I kind of disagree: I had an E63 right next to my 550 for 208 days
the upkeep on an AMG is obviously going to be more expensive....and the AMG has a boatload more of POWER, not appealing to all 550 drivers, some of which are ladies who don't need all the grunt that AMG provides.....
and also, I traded that AMG for a different AMG too......one that was better

 

With the exception of the AMG models, which exude no pretense regarding their sporting intentions, in the US, I truly believe that most of the folks that buy MB, BMW, Audi, and Lexus are looking for comfort and competence to go along with the cachet. Outside of the AMG offerings, the "regular" MB models do not really lead in any category. If sport and high performance is your goal, MB offers the AMG line and there are better choices in other brands. Having driven the newer E350 with the DI motor, it is hard to believe than anyone could really need more power in this type of vehicle. With only 5% of the E buyers opting for the power of the E550, I would venture that less than 5% of that 5% even knows what a 0-60 time is.

 

I had a 2011 E350. Problem with it is that because almost everybody wants to race MB cars it is not quite powerful enough. Every little Toyota, Nissan even pick-up trucks want to show how they are faster.

With my current 2010 E550 I have no problems what so ever. Some of the folks obviously don't know what the number in back of the car means...

Another thing is that E550 used to come a lot better equipped than just the bigger engine. Real leather seats, ventilated seats, air suspension with different ride heights. When I bought the E350 new I could have had E550 with $8000 more but did not think I need that. Never went to test drive the bigger "beast", if I had I think I would have bought it right then.

The real reason for me having the 2010 E550 now is that I wanted to have the Distronic, which is very hard to come buy on used cars. There were many E550's to choose from.

 

You must have some ODD people around your area. Out of the zillions of E-Classes on the roads, driven by middle aged Joe/Jane's, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone even nearly considering them "cars to rev up on/race", nor have I ever had anyone try and race any of my E's, all of which were modded to look more aggressive than the average E-Class to boot.

Just the thought of seeing upright, stately, mature looking non-AMG E-Classes stoplight racing, or getting revved on, is humorous to me.

 

still a very small percentage I would estimate since we already know how little the 550 rates in terms of overall sales for E classes. And I'm curious too... these ladies feel that the 350 is not enough power? I would argue the major majority will not notice much of a difference. Remember MB is becoming more of a mass market luxury auto provider... volumes is what they are after.

MB may or may not phase the 550 out... but looking at the c class as well... the C350 while does sell... pales substantially to the C300 and C250. (the C300 is actually very popular here due to the additional features and upgrades that are not available to the C250). And with my own personal experience... I was looking at the C350 when I realized for only 15k ish more, I can jump into a C63... was a real no brainer. Sure AMGs are more to upkeep but imo its worth it. the additional features the AMGs come with makes the experience both owning and driving quite fantastic (as I'm sure you know ). I do however wish the c63 sometimes is a 4matic especially with the snow storm a few days ago... but since the E63 is coming out as a 4matic... maybe one day

dont get me wrong, I am a huge fan of the E class... loved it the first time I saw it. family just got their DW E350 and a really good friend of mine has a ob black on black E550 (gorgeous). One thing I can think of is if the 350 feels underpowered (so far I think it is quite adequate). I had a C250 as a loaner a few times and I felt it was way underpowered.... in this way, I can see ppl jumping into the larger engine size. I will be in the market next year for the GL, thinking going just the basic 350 as it'll be a baby mover and performance isnt a priority, but if it feels underpowered, I will need to look at larger engines.

lastly, the toronto autoshow is starting this weekend... hopefully I get to see the new E63 in person.