johnlk25

I have been offered a $10,000 discount on a new 2013 E350 Bluetec. The sticker price is $54,000 and after tax, tag, title, the out the door price is $48,000.

I know that is a good discount, but do you think I could get more. Keep in mind that this car is pretty stripped. It does not have nav, heated seats, rear window sunshade, harmon kardon. Its your pretty basic E350. It is the sport version.

Should I counter offer? If so, what do you think I should counter with?

Arrie

I would only buy it to sell to someone else. What a boring car it must be without any options at all. Obviously they cannot find a buyer either when they offer that much discount. I would not buy it as I could not drive it for my long highway trips.

If you drive only short distances in a city or something like that, which this car could be ok for, ask another $5000 off.

johnlk25

I know....its pretty stripped and thats exactly what I was thinking was just to buy it and flip it because I would not want it either since it lacks so much. I have not counter offered yet, but I think I am going to counter with $40,000 out the door, cash. All they can do is say no.

CEB

If they can't find a buyer, what makes you think that you can?

johnlk25

For $40,000, I'd be willing to give it a shot.

threeMBs

Absolutely. Who buys cars without power windows in this segment? The fact that it has no P1 (same as if it had no power windows) in this segment makes it impossible (or next to impossible) to sell. One thing is guaranteed: whoever buys it for X and wants to "flip" it, will have to settle for X - y (not X +y).

johnlk25

So what you are saying is that $40,000 is not a good deal for this $54,000 car? Then what is?

thenew3

That doesn't apply to everyone. I'd love to buy a base model E350 bluetec for $10k off (or more) if I was still doing 50k or 60k miles a year for work.
Comfort, efficient and most importantly safe.
I wouldn't be looking to flip it. I would drive it till it fell apart.

For people who spend a lot of time on the road, there's nothing like the safety and comfort of a MB E class. Especially if its diesel, you get the added fuel efficiency as well.

Don't necessarily need P1 or P2 for a work/commuter.

My wife is someone who prefers a base model stripped down car for her daily commuter. But still wants a safe, efficient and comfortable car.

aprevo15

I see your point but if you are gonna drive that much a year for work then I don't see why you would need a $40,000+ car for that. In less than 4 years it would have over 200,000 miles and most likely gonna trade it in. A Honda Accord Sedan or Toyota Camry would be a lot cheaper option.

thenew3

Believe me if you drive that many miles a year, you've seen a great deal of accidents on the road. and let me tell you, I do not want to be in a Japanese car in an accident!

The last few accidents I've been in, my cars have been totalled (all German) the other party(ies) cars were also totalled, I and/or my family members in the car all walked away, the other parties all suffered significant injuries and several actually died. Emergency response personnel couldn't believe we could walk away from that severe an accident. German cars are designed to run at 120+mph on the autobahn all day. Japanese cars are designed to be very fuel efficient. Lots of low weight plastics. Traffic congestion in Japan doesn't allow you to drive faster than 60mph on a regular basis.

If you are driving that much, you'll want to spend the $$ to get as safe a car as you can.

CEB

You won't get it for $40k and you certainly won't be able to flip it. The dealer would rather sit on the car and use it as a loaner than take a huge hit on it. Since it is not unheard of getting $10k off a car, you might be able to do better but forget about flipping the car - you WILL lose money.

thenew3's comment pertained to the thought of flipping the car. If the dealer can't sell it (with a vast network of other dealers) then the OP has a snowball's chance in hell of selling a stripper version and making money. Dealers aren't stupid. There is a tiny market for non P1 cars in this segment and the OP has zero chance of tapping into that unless he is planning on exporting it to Uganda.

CEB

Look at it another way. If he gets a $10k discount off a $54k car but the OTD price is $48k, the in his state, the tags, taxes and title cost $4k.

If he got the car for $40k (instead of the $44k he was offered) then you need to add about $3800 for TT&T bringing him back to the$44k invested and he'll want to make a profit on top of that.

In addition, since his publicly posted intention is to flip the car, he is technically a curbstoner and owes tax on any profit he may make.

If the dealer can't sell it for $44k, what makes the OP think that he can sell it for more?

If he wants a very nice no options BT then he should negotiate a bit more (if $10k is possible on an optioned E, then a bit more might be possible on an undesireable stripper - but not too much. If the dealer is desperate he might get $12k off but I can't see a dealer selling at a loss this early.

eNNCity

I got offered a similar deal, but was in process of purchasing a CPO. My rep asked if I could look into their new 2013's so they can start moving them (this was back in august). I picked out the one on the showroom floor instead of the 2011 model I drove. I ended up leaving with a 2013 E350 Sport, amg package, pano roof, heated seats, rear sunshade, harmon kardon, HIDs for 50K out the door. I've bought 3 MB's from the same dealer within the last 2 years though so I got taken care of very well.

JALLEN4

So a novice off the street is going to outwit the guy with a multi-million dollar investment who already owns dozens of new Mercedes by buying his year old merchandise? Really!!

aprevo15

Doing a little search on Autotrader, the cheapest 2013 Blutec does go for $58,000. Of course this one comes with P1 package.

So if the dealer is willing to sell this car for $40,000 (highly doubtful) then I don't see why the OP can't make decent money from this. Should be able to flip it real fast for about $50,000 or little less.

If the argument is whether the dealer will sell the car for 40 grand or not then I don't they will. But if the argument is if it's worth it to buy it for 40 grand to flip it then yes I think he should.

alsyli

Do you like the car? That's really all that matters. MB nav doesn't get particularly good reviews, and do you need heated seats? (I live in LA and have never found a use for them, but other people I know like them a lot) My family has always bought "stripped" MBs, and we've been fine w/ them. I do wish I had a back-up camera on occasion and the HK audio, but, again, not a deal breaker.

If the dealer is *offering* you $10,000 w/o a fight, then you can always try to negotiate a little more. You can say (rightfully) that an E350 w/o P1 isn't going to be an easy car to sell or have as good a trade-in value (even if you don't plan to sell the car in the future), but you'll be happy to take if off their hands for an additional $2000-3000 off since that'd be a great price. It's late 2013; they should be pretty eager to move that car off the lot....

K-A

This doesn't pertain to diesels maybe but $10K off a W212 E350 is pretty standard fare. Somebody just posted $12K off of $56K in another thread. I'm sure Bluetecs don't get the same incentives but being a bonafide stripper might balance that out.

johnlk25

Well, I gave it my best shot. Offered 41,000 out the door, but they wouldn't go for it. Oh well. It was worth a shot anyway.

CEB

'splain something to me. How can the OP buy a car new, pay tax and tags and the resell it as used and make money?

BTW, according to the OP this car does not have P1.

threeMBs

Exactly, but we can all dream. Having said that, the OP wanted the car for $40K out the door (an other dream). Even IF that dream would come true, how many people are willing to buy a used "new" car in this segment without Nav. and heated seats (yes, even in LA - I'm in south FL and sometimes in the "winter" they do come very handy)?

aprevo15

I know the car OP is referring to doesn't have P1. The P1 was referring to the $58,000 blutec that was on Autotrader.

Here's a used one with 17,000 miles on it for $50,000.

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...adius=200&mmt=[MB[E350BLUE[]][]]&listingId=340996602&listingIndex=1&Log=0

Assuming the OP is talking about a new car. I understand as soon as he takes it out of the lot it is considered used. But it would have a lot less miles than the link I posted.

Let's just say the dealer did sell him the car at $40,000. He pays tax and other stuff so the total price comes out to about $44,000. He doesn't drive it around and puts it up on Autotrader for $48,000 as brand new. The mileage on the car would state that this is near brand new. He would make $4,000 in a month or less. I know it's not easy but I'm just saying it's possible and worth a try.

Majority of the people on this forum have passion for their car (including myself) so of course we want options. But there are more people out there that are willing to drive a car with a lot less options as long it's a Mercedes and they can get it as cheap as possible.

CEB

Yes, and if he got it for $20k then he'd really make a killing.

Reality is that the dealer would probably sell the car for $46k out the door. Assuming that is a desirable color, then he might be able to resell it for $44k.

Just because a car is advertised for $50 doesn't mean it will go for that. I can buy a new 2013 any day of the week for $10k off.

aprevo15

I understand that. My argument was if the op was able to get the car for $40 then it's worth a shot.

fintail

No P1? I've never seen a W212 in the US that lacked it. Failed special order car? The dealer will never sell it.

A local salesman told me of someone who bought an E cabrio and ordered it stripped - no P1. Apparently his wife wanted to strangle him when she learned about it. Dumb corner to cut, resale hit will be enormous.

JALLEN4

I have a large amount of experience in this area and would happily supply to you a variety of new vehicles fresh from dealer's lots at similar savings to those you describe. I will though have to ask they be COD as you will soon be overloaded and broke!