Nope never leased. If anyone pays MSRP then its not a good deal (buy or lease). Can we agree on that?
That is point number one for me.
Point number two is not the fact that the payment is $980, its the fact that its $980 for 48 months.
Point number two maybe the whole lease vs buy argument (no need to go down that road) but point number one is universal.

 

my 2 cents.

1) Taxes - in Texas

2) I know for leases there is a sweet spot on residual value -does extending your term to 48 months term have a favorable residual. Meaning sometimes MBUSA etc will inflate a 30 month or 36 month residual in order to move units, is this MBUSA's residual or is it dealer number

3) Why would you want to be responsible for 4 years of wear and tear on a lease?

4) Does Mercedes offer Multiple Security deposits in order to bring your MF down?

5) What are the miles per year?

Personal Experience. Own a 2014 Porsche Cayenne (Wife). Wanted a "second car" for the commute (2 mile commute). Started shopping around Christmas, since I have a porsche thought I would go for a camry, cheap lease 200 or so dollars. Walked out before I went to finance.

Moved on to the Infinitis G37 sedan, great deal on the 2013 still didn't do it for me.

Great offers on leasing a 3 series over xmas time. None of the dealers in Texas would even entertain what BMWUSA was offering, they all wanted to rip me off on lease terms on way or another, package etc

Bought myself a used e class. 2010. 32K plus ttl. A little money down, 1.75% interest rate, and a ELW later. I've got 3.5 years of worry free driving.

My commute will be much longer in June, due to unforeseen circumstances had I been in a lease I would be screwed.

side note - enjoy driving my used Merc more than the Porsche.

 

$980/month for a E550 basically means the buyer paid full MSRP for the car. We strayed away from the fact that the OP said they wanted "close" to $980/month for the E350. For a 65K car at full MSRP with $3500 for taxes/fees you should be no more that $800.. Garbage deal, but still not $980!! So if anyone is going to sit here and argue that the "deal" the OP was offered is valid or not.. you are delusional! Paying full msrp or any where near it is a crappy deal.

 

Uhm, OK. Actually you still can't make a determination whether it's a horrible deal or not as we still don't know

1) The assumptions I made were correct or not
2) there are any manufacturer to dealer incentives in effect on the E550 for the month of April
3) OP's financial situation and whether he qualifies for Top Tier financing


The point for you is that if it's close to $1,000/month then you damn better be buying that car. Otherwise you're just ignorant as sh&t and have no idea what you're talking about.

Lot of great points in this post.

1) Yup, they suck and make leasing very expensive and not lucrative yet I still leased 3 cars when the MF and residual were so ridiculous that it made sense. I ended up being ahead on those deals when I returned them.

2) With MB 24 and 27 months seem like the "sweet spot" although generally longer terms will render generally cheaper leases but only marginally and in rare cases they can render higher rent. MBUSA likes to do it this way so they can get you return for a new car sooner and return a car at the end of the lease with still some factory warranty left to make it an ideal CPO vehicle.

3) You're not responsible for normal wear and tear. The only thing I can foresee on a 4 year lease that you would not have to pay on a 24 month lease is possibly a set of tires, which can be a biggie. As long a you never lease past the manufacturer warranty I think you're safe. I actually prefer to lease up to the manufacturer's warranty as it often renders the lowest rent. My longest lease was 39 months.

4) They do. Given that I don't know what the money factor is or what the OP's financial situation is it's hard to determine whether this one makes sense or not. The only concern is what if the car gets totaled or stolen? And this reminds me of another advice: never put money down on a lease! Sign & drive!

5) I assumed 15K/year on my calculations for some reason I thought OP posted the mileage. You can buy miles up front at a discounted rate and as long as your driving habits and needs don't change you'll be fine even on a high mileage lease. The problem is when something change in which case things can get out of hand but in worst case you can just buy out your lease and sell it private party and get out of it that way at the end if it makes more sense. The only problem is the tax implications in Texas where you'd end up paying sales tax twice.

Again, $980/month on that E550 is not paying MSRP. It's paying 5% off MSRP, which in Texas is a decent deal and I don't think you can do better without manufacturer to dealer incentive which, again, I don't know if currently exists or not.

FWIW my monthly payment on my $75K wagon is over $1,700...

Another thing to consider is that OP's current lease won't be up until September so unless there is a 6 month lease pull-ahead in effect he has to pay for the remainder of the lease on his current car which could mean serious money rolled into this deal, another unknown.

Generally if his lease is not up until September and his new monthly payment would be higher than his current one and he is not upside down on the mileage on his current one his best bet is to stay with the current car until the lease runs out on it and not take advantage of a lease pull-ahead even let alone eating the remainder of the rent charges only because he got the new car itch. So what the current deals are in the month of April can very well be moot.

 

Well ... I should've figured that my post would spark some fireworks ... I appreciate all comments, even those that called into question the intelligence of other posters. It makes for lively reading.

Some clarification ... MSRP is 73,030, price reduced to 68,720. Due on delivery is 3,000. Term is 47 months. Don't know the lease factor (he told, just don't remember). The dealer pays off the balance of my lease, about 3,000. I don't need to do anything, obviously. My credit score is north of 800, so I should get the best rates.

I pretty much deduced that the deal on the E350 was sketchy, but the 550 is reasonable. It seems like we just don't get these super deals that y'all get out in California. I just don't see 18 percent off around here, period. My first MB I got 10 percent off and thought I had done well ... Until I got on here. Hope to improve a bit this time around.

For what it's worth, at this point, I'm seriously considering a CLS550 that stickers for 83,000 with 43 payments of 979 ... Heck of a car! It's sitting in my garage right now ... Looks good if I say so myself.

So ... Keep up with the input ... Thanks to all!