Drgolf131

The lease is almost up on my E350 ... Went to my dealer this afternoon and looked at both an E550 and an E350 ... Sticker on the 550 was just over 73,000, while the 350 was 64,700 (red with pano roof, mb-tex).

So ... Both lease payments came in at about $980 ... The 350 is for 26 months while the 550 is for 48. Money down is 6,000 for the 550, 3,500 for the 350.

All is not equal between the two cars, obviously ... But still, I would like to hear from anyone out there who might have some good input.

Thanks!

hx_guy

Those lease payments seem ridiculously high especially given how much money you are putting down. Were you able to negotiate anything off the MSRP? should be able to knock $6000 - $8000 off MSRP and use your money from the down payment to do multiple security deposits instead of putting any money down.

Tjdehya

I don't know much about leases but it's pretty obvious that both of those deals are horrible. $53k to lease an E550?!? $1k a month to drive a car with mb-tex?!?

KEY08

You'd be better off purchasing/financing at those lease rates.

GregTR

Good lord....here we go again... the peanut gallery will tell you they are horrible deals because you should be able to lease one of these cars in the low $300s....

What was the capitalized cost/residual/money factor on those deals?

BTW I see you're in Texas so you're getting screwed on the sales tax, meaning unlike in other states like NY or CA where you only pay sales tax on the monthly rent fee in Texas you pay sales tax on the entire purchase price. So on a $73K vehicle with a 50% residual that is a $2,200+ difference. Split it over 48 months and a lease in Texas will cost you $50 more a month than it would in another state.

Leasing in Texas is generally highly unfavorable for private parties because of this very reason unless the residual value and the money factor are subvented enough to make it worthwhile. With conventional loan rates being under 2%, it is highly doubtful that a lease is a good deal unless you can write it off as a business expense.

Another thing that can help is if MB Financing had taken some juicy lease returns recently and they can apply one of those as a "trade-in" on your deal for sales tax purposes. Given that we're early in the year they might not want to do that just yet but it never hurts to ask the dealer if there is something that can be worked out.

But carry on...the peanut gallery definitely knows what they're talking about...

KEY08

I for one never said he can lease one of these for $300. WTF are you talking about?
My last MB lease for a new '02 C32 AMG cost me $820/mo. and that was 12 years ago. I'm in Illinois with the same full tax disadvantage. I think you may need to stop drinking so much coffee in the morning and hanging around the water cooler.

bigigg

Ok, I'm not here to argue.. or claim to be some kind of lease payment expert. But here's some basic math I came up with for the E350, 65K car should be able to get 12% off, thats 57K. My guess is residual after 26 months is around 70%, so 30% of 57k is 17K( rough numbers here).
Lets say that $3500 down they want just covers taxes and fees.. no cap cost. without any interest your around $650/month. How did they come up with $980 ?

cbeck44

Are 12% deals common now outside of LA?

bigigg

I believe so.. people were getting 12% off when the face lift model first came out. I would think more so now.

Tjdehya

Read this thread https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...d-you-pay.html

As you will see most buyers are paying $500-$700 for an E350 lease with no money down.
Paying $1000 a month for a MB-tex E350 is ridiculous. That is E550 territory.
Paying $53k to rent an E550 is ridiculous. That is E63 territory.

Personally I would have been insulted by those offers and I would not go back to that dealer to give them my money. I would go elsewhere.

cbeck44

That was with huge incentives from MB at years end - supposedly to push sales to beat BMW sales for the year (which they did). I know the programs exist still, but not as strong. Maybe they pump up again with the 2015's coming.

GregTR

Again, you're looking at numbers that are the result of various inputs. There is no telling how those numbers came about. Anecdotal evidence is not evidence.

Until OP or his sales rep offers to disclose
1) MSRP
2) Sales Price/Cap Cost
3) Residual
4) Money factor

we're doing nothing buy guessing. Arguing about whether a monthly payment is a good deal or not is moot. You have to look at the above 4 variables and decide whether they are reasonable or not. Once they pass the reality check the monthly payment will become whatever it will become.

OP, have you considered a balloon loan/premiere purchase option? It is similar to a lease and given how badly leases suck in Texas it might be a marginally better option.

I'm also going to state that OP is in Texas where the largest dealer sells an average of 400 cars a year so the sales volume is significantly lower than the coasts and it also makes them far less competitive on pricing. This is why OP should not listen so much to the peanut gallery talking out of their butt but do a reality check instead...

instantfob

Inventory is not so great this month.

I have been checking those volume dealers and they no longer have 100s of E-classes sitting around. Back to normal double digit inventory.

threeMBs

+1.

thenew3

Probably because of MY15 cut over. the MY 14's started showing up in show rooms late April of 2013, so I'm guessing the dealers are waiting for their allotment of MY15 E classes to show up. What you see on lots are probably the last of the MY14's

threeMBs

Well 2014 was a refresh MY for E class, hence they showed up early. I know that the new gas V6 TT E400 will not appear before Q4 (Oct./Nov.), so other '15 MY Es most likely will appear in their normal Q3 window of August or so.

hx_guy

As GregTR said, we really need to know those numbers to be able to tell if those are ok deals or not. A lot of times dealers will even be hesitant to give you the full details because then it comes out to simple math and sometimes it doesn't work out and they don't like to have to explain why. Make them give you the numbers and if they aren't upfront about it, go elsewhere.

drsaab

I also think this $980 is real high.

I think the OP should look into this lease which is in texas

http://www.leasetrader.com/2014_Merc...0_195500.xhtml

2014 e350, 1100 miles per month, $0 down, and $649 a month.. and it has PRE- PAID maintenance as well.

you may be able negotiate it down a bit.

Tjdehya

I am sorry to inform you that when the payment is $1000 month for an E350...
1) Doesn't Matter!
2) Doesn't Matter!
3) Doesn't Matter!
4) Doesn't Matter!

Unless he will own that E550 at the end of that 48 month lease then... 1-4 don't apply.

hx_guy

This seems like a buce deal, even as a purchase. You have $649 for 28 months which is $18,172. The buyout is $32,413 for a total of $50,585 and includes Pre-Paid Maintenance as you said. Car seems to have some nice options too like Keyless Go.

GregTR

I'm glad you really added value to this discussion with your ignorance and lack of basic math skills. Let me brake it down for you in very simple math: $980x48 < $73K.

And the rest of it very much matters. You clearly suck at math and apparently ignorance is bliss...

Tjdehya

I already did the math. Its $53k like I posted several times. $53k to rent an E550 is ridiculous. Its a LEASE not a LOAN.
Like I said before the only way that could be an acceptable deal is if he owns the vehicle at the end of the lease... but then it wouldn't be a lease...
I'm glad you really added value to this discussion with your lack of comprehension and lack of basic reading skills. Let me brake it down for you in very simple english: Lease < Loan

GregTR

OK, so in December the residual value for 48 months on an E550 was 48% for 15k miles/year. This is April now so I'm guessing the residual dropped another point or two so we can assume 46% for residual. I'm also assuming standard lease money factors given that even during the winter sale event there were no subvented lease money factors available on the E550. The standard money factor in December was 0.0018 for Super Tier, let's assume OP qualifies for that rate and let's assume that the rate is still the same this month.

So If the residual is 40%, MSRP is $73K, sales tax is 6.25% on the entire purchase price (which it is in Texas) and the money factor is 0.0018, the down payment is $6,500 and the buyer pays full MSRP then the monthly payment should be.....drumroll.... $1070.60 on a 48 month lease. Now the OP is actually only paying $980 which means that if our assumptions of residual and money factor are valid then the only thing that can be different is the capitalized cost which is the sale price of the vehicle.

To get to the $980 you would need a capitalized cost of $69,500 meaning he got offered roughly $3,500 off MSRP which I have no idea whether good or bad given that I have no knowledge of the current incentives going right now. If there is no cash incentive then 5% off MSRP in Texas is pretty much normal and that is precisely what he got offered. If there is cash incentive then he should get 5% off plus any applicable cash incentives in effect, at least that is what I would shoot for if I was in the market for a new E-class right now.

Again all this assumes 40% residual and 0.0018 money factor based on my educated guess based on an outdated December sales bulletin as I have no access to the current one.

And this is how you do math, not by saying whatever he got is too much as you have zero idea how the number came about. Figures don't lie but liars do figure...

Tjdehya

Wow that was a long post just to point out that its a horrible deal... kinda like what I have been saying.

hx_guy

I assume you're never leased a car?

You do realize that if you were to finance a $73k E550, after tax, it would be ~$1500 per month for 60 months. If you did a 48 month loan you'd be looking at $1800/month. So leasing the car you're actually paying around 1/2 vs if you financed it.