carpersn

In NC, looking to purchase new E250...what are people actually getting as far as discounts off MSRP on the diesel?

Thanks.

Substance

I got $9000 off + all season floor mats(like $130) from $71400 msrp. Its a special order car with all options. 3 months delivery time.

turbonos7

We just purchased one three weeks ago. Came with the p1 package, comfort box, rear spoiler, cardinal red (+$1000), keyless go package, sports package, and all the NC stuff. MSRP was $59k we paid $49,187

USCGTO

those are some good numbers.

Substance

If you special order,

1-dealer profit is higher. It cost them money if the car sits at the lot.

2-you may see the smile on your dealer disappear. They cant charge you for the car until its delivered which means their commission is 2-3 months delayed.

3-some occasions you can get better pricing on a car already available. They want to move the car its been sitting for long or they want to hit a certain number that month/quarter.

4-incentives(discounts) differ each month. When we placed the order in february mercedes was offering $3000 off on top of the dealers best offer. It is a risk there may be no incentives on the month you pick up your vehicle. I negotiated locked in $9000 off regardless no incentives. Their previous offer was % 8 off + whatever incentive available on delivery. I didnt want to take my chances.

turbonos7

I agree with above. We were about to order since it is very rare to find a red one (even just a regular E350) and my wife MUST have red! Then the dealer said that one had just arrived in Cali. But they wouldn't tell us where it was. They were holding out trying to transfer it to their lot. My wife spent 3 hours online going through each dealers' inventory until she found it. The only thing that we had to "settle" on was the black interior instead of the light gray. Panoramic sunroof and lighting package were not a must so once we got to where the car was and she saw the red.... There was no leaving without the car! We cut them pretty deep on the price.

Substance

my vehicle arrived to the port 2 days ago. I am anticipating a call from my dealer any day now. I know he is going to throw all sort of extra things at me to purchase. what do you guys think worth adding?

1-Extended warranty? I am planning to keep the vehicle 7+ years so I would go with 7yr/125k. MSRP is $5350. What is a fair price to pay? I am thinking $3500?

2-Pre-paid service? The vehicle will be serviced at the MB dealer for sure. Is the savings worth buying them in advance? How many years/how much is worth buying?

3-Wheel care etc.. I think I will pass. I only will have stock 17" wheels I doubt I will have issues.

4-Dent removal...I think I will pass.

5-Tinting windows. I will skip the dealer. I am planning to go to Tint-King in Boston for Formula 1 or Huper ceramic tints.

6-Clear paint protecting film vs. wax protective coating? this one I don't know much about. I can use your opinion especially on this one.

turbonos7

We went with the dent removal for something like $450, and so glad we did since my wife already got a dent on a door. The dealer offers dent removal for the first 30 days regardless but my wife LIVES at the mall and hates to park where she should. Our past experiences with other cars made that a no-brainer i.e. She put a dent on the 2012 Land Rover the day after we got it and since land rover doesn't offer dent removal I ended up paying $120 to the land rover dealer just for one dent. Five years worth of dent coverage was priceless to me! Lol

Second, we chose to go with the 5 year /125k mile extended warranty. We paid $4400 and some change, thought was that one of the reasons we got this car was because of its highway mpg and because of that we were going to drive it a lot so that made sense. 7 years sounds better but knowing my wife she'll probably want something else by then so...

Wheel repair I really thought about because my wife curb-rashed one 20" wheel on our 2012 Land Rover but, since they are 17" and she mentioned she liked the AMG 18s that come on the standard E350 or something even nicer down the road I decided to save the money.

Pre-paid services, well you don't save anything by pre-paying for it and in reality you're paying for the intervals and not the time (meaning 2 years of pre paid services really means your first two services, not however many services you come up to in two year's time), and since depending on how much you drive that can only be a year or maybe even 6 months. Because of that we decided to just pay for them as they come up. When we bought our first Land Rover it had 11k miles and it was two years old, we drove it so much that by the same time next year it was at 47k miles...lol. So again based on our previous experiences as a family we decided that "prices for service can't change that much in a year" which is by when we figure the car will have over 20k miles. If things seem different for some reason we can always buy the maintenance then... That's an option you have with the prepaid maintenance that you don't have with the other plans they offer, they're only offered at the time of purchase so spend the money on what counts now... Get the maintenance later... Good luck with everything!

thefisch

Prepaid service is something you will actually use where as the others are insurance. Some have said it is better to pay for the first 1y/10k service yourself and then buy prepaid maint for the 20/30/40 services since the 20 is more expensive and the 40 is even more expensive.

There are names of finance reps at dealers in other areas that offer the best pricing on extended MB warranty. Many members have used these reps to buy the same coverage their dealers offered but for less. So check them out for the best pricing.

drsaab

+1

PeterUbers

7/125k warranty -- shop Dan Boone at Austin TX mercedes, his colleague Brett is covering him this week --- he'll get you a Much lower price than $5K .. LOL, that's ridiculous

I paid $2880 for a 7/100k for my brand new 2014 E550.. to give you and idea, and don't get from your dealer right away so you're not taxed on it.. you have 30 days to get it.

This is an ELW benz warranty from Dan Boone

Substance

@turbonos: did they tax the extended warranty? I was quoted MSRP $3950 for 5yr/125k. You said you paid $4400. It makes sense if you paid tax on it but then no discounts?

@Peterubers: Do they tax the extended warranty? Do I have to buy it from out of state over the phone to avoid paying taxes? or just have to buy it on a separate transaction? I was quoted MSRP $4500 for 7yr/100k so your price is amazing!!! just to double check ELW is the one Mercedes offers for brand new vehicles in other words best coverage possible?

Thank you for your answers. I am pretty sure I will skip on pre-paid maintenance and wheel care. I might do dent removal if its around $500 for 5 years. thanks again

USCGTO

warranty is not taxed.

thenew3

You can get the cost of each service from your dealer and compare them.

I've checked with 4 dealers in the SF area, and not one show any major advantage of getting the pre-paid maintenance.

The pre-paid maintenance only covers required service. Not the recommended service. (yes MB has 2 different service levels, required and recommended).

When I called 4 dealers, got their cost for each of the services for the first 6 years, and compared to the pre-paid maintenance cost each of the 4 dealers quoted, the total amounts came out to be within $50.

So you may save $50 over 4 years, a little more if the dealers raise their service prices (very real possibility). But you also take the risk of losing all that money if your car were lost/stolen/totaled as the pre-paid maintenance can not be refunded (unlike extended warranty).

In my situation, Pre-paid maintenance would've saved me $500 if the transmission required service at 4 yr/40k. But on my vehicle (2013 E350 wagon), MB says the transmission is serviced at 7 yr/70k. So the $500 transmission service is not going to be covered in the 4 year pre-paid service.

To figure out if pre-paid is worth it for you, just get your service advisor to send you a list of the price of each service. Add it up and compare it to what the pre-paid would cost.

DerekACS

In the last couple of months, I have done two surveys of the E250BT inventory in the southern portion of California. The results suggest to me that there is a multi-month inventory of E250BT on dealers' lots, so the purchase deals should be very advantageous for buyers !!!

YYZ-E55

Derek, were you in Oregon recently? </hijack>

DerekACS

Yes ! It's a beautiful state in which to drive my amazing E350BT ! Highway mileage between 6.0L/100 and 5.7L/100 !

My comments about E250BT inventory pertain only to southern California (San Francisco and Los Angeles). It's very easy to access the dealers' inventory by looking @ individual websites. Unlike in Canada where the E250BT inventory is very tight, there currently seems to be an excess in southern CA, hence the steep discounts being offered.

turbonos7

@ Substance... you bring up an interesting point. I'll have to go back and check the paperwork. I'm sure we didn't get taxed on it but the price seems off. I'm hoping my memory is wrong!

Something to add... I finally had a couple of days off and was able to take the car in for the dent. While walking around the car, we found a rock chip on the front bumper which will require touch up paint as it isn't metal. They said they will take care of it no charge. The same rock also hit the girll surround chrome piece and made a mark that looks like if someone had taken the dull side of a pocket knife an pressed it onto the chrome pretty hard. You couldn't see it at first with the other water spots and such on that same chrome piece but, once they took a microfiber rag to the grill and cleaned it up it stuck out like an eye sore. The SA is going to find out exactly what it will cost to replace that.

Anyways, the fact that they're being so nice and taking care of the touch-up paint damage (which is not included in the dent removal plan) for free makes me feel like an A$$ if I end up finding out that I over paid on the extended warranty and ask for a refund. Kind of a "pick your battles" thing but like I said before I will double check the paperwork before I do anything.

@DereckACS They may have a lot of E250BTCs in stock down here BUT that didn't help us because we had to have RED. I was to the point where I would jokingly ask the sales guys when we arrived at a dealer we had not been to yet "Do you guys have any E250BTC in any color other than GRAY?" Sales guy would say "Of course.... we have 8 in the lot... 3 in white, 3 in black and two in silver!" To which I would answer "So all you have IS gray then..." suggesting that gray is made by mixing BLACK and WHITE and silver is just a metallic version of GRAY so to us that was all the same....

To my surprise some of the sales guys would actually get the "joke".

Substance

7 year/125,000 miles is $5,349
7 year/100,000 miles is $4,489
7 year/75,000 miles is $2,999
6 year/125,000 miles is $4,549
6 year/100,000 miles is $3,699
6 year/75,000 miles is $2,549
5 year/125,000 miles is $3,949
5 year/100,000 mile is $3,099
5 year/75,000 miles is $2,169


these are the numbers I got when I emailed my local dealer. This is without asking any discount. Sales person said I should add another %15 on top of these numbers if I am looking to purchase the warranty 30 days after the purchase.

thefisch

You should be able to do better than that. If you want some leverage, contact Erin from Santa Rosa MB or Dan from Austin MB dealer. Search on here for their numbers. It will be worth your time.

thenew3

Erin and Dan should be able to get you between 30 and 40$ off those prices.