Bowyer

In a few months my daughter will inherit my beloved W210 e430. I'm in the early stages of looking for a CPO E550. Ideally it will be CPO and I'll add the 2 year extended warranty.

With that being said, I am looking daily on the MB site for cars I might want. I'm curious to know if (or how much) the dealers usually discount or haggle on their used CPO vehicles? I'm sure the starting price, desirability, color, options all come into play as they would with any used car. Anyone have insight on MB pricing/negotiating tips?

Also, there are not a lot of 550's close to me in Memphis, TN, and the better priced cars seem to be out of Florida or other locations far away. Not sure if I would ever want to buy a used car without thoroughly looking it over and driving it, but I know a few people who have bought Audi's and a Porsche online without driving it, they just paid shipping. Anyone ever shipped a MB, and how was the experience?

Thanks

cc16177

I bought my 2011 E550 as CPO and I was very up front about the fact that I planned on extending the 2 year warranty and asked them to give me a discount on the car. It's been 8 months or so but I believe they gave me $1,000-1,500 off the price... basically splitting the 2 year extension with me.

thefisch

There are a few stories on here about buying out of state. I haven't done it myself but some of those folks might chime in or you can search for their stories.

I would think about $1k off is pretty routine. Also, they will drop the price over time. Since it doesn't sound like you are trading in, you can't play the angle to get more on the trade.

drcookie

Based on my experience from a recent purchase of a CPO E350 and after talking to a few dealers around here, i believe it depends on the timing and how long the car has been sitting on the lot. The longer the car stays at the lot, the more they are willing to discount it. As far as the price range, like thefisch mentioned, it somewhere between $800-$1000. I might be wrong but I don't think they make a lot of profit on CPOs compares to the brand new MBs. You could definitely have leverage on negotiating the extended warranty and other accessories.

Good luck on your car hunting.

MagmaSilk

Cargurus dot com track price changes over time ... One cls in my area dropped 7k after 80 days on market. Can't really verify the data but seems accurate.

Johnny Rad

I bought my CPO'd E550 out-of-state from a Merc dealer (RAB Motors in Marin, CA) and it went as well as I could've hoped.

I saw it online (more like stalked it online while I got my courage up to buy my first Merc and leave Lexus behind). We negotiated the deal over the phone and then I flew out to see it firsthand. The car was fairly represented (surprisingly neither over or under-represented), so I signed over my dough and happily drove it home.

I wished that I could say that I drove an amazing bargain, but I made a tactical error during negotiations and I had run out of time. Argh! The car was priced OK and it's turned out to be a fine automobile, so I'm happy. Water under the bridge.

One, I don't think I have the courage to buy a car from a private seller sight unseen. I don't believe that private sellers have much at stake, which scares me. Even though this stealer doesn't really expect me to be a repeat buyer, they have a reputation to protect and I like that.

Two, I wanted a bigger safety net with my first German foray and that meant CPO. My local stealer had zippo for interesting inventory, so I hit the net. I rationalized passing on a PPI since these cars were CPO'd.

Three, once I zeroed in on my "new" car, my choice was to either fly out and drive it home or get it trucked to me. I absolutely wanted to put eyes on before signing the check away, which meant the best option was flying out and driving it home.

smiles201

Most people don't realize that the service history matters. Car with poor service history can be denied warranty service, being CPO does not change warranty criteria. Get service history, use as basis of negotiation if not "by the book" (few are), get best price, then say you have a deal if you throw in a free service. They should accommodate this request. Good luck. BTW I only figured this out after I bought my CPO car.

jonUF02

I was just browsing what's available for E550 right now, and I thought this one was an absolute bargain, and it happens to be in your city!

It's not CPO, but miles are pretty low, and it's LOADED with premium options. I think you should go buy it now. At the price, you can afford an after-market warranty for your paranoia.


http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?endYear=2013&zip=32804&doorCo de=4&maxPrice=35000&showcaseListingId=420619495&mm t=[MB[E550[]][]]&doorCodes=4&modelCode1=E550&sortBy=derivedpriceAS C&startYear=2012&makeCode1=MB&showcaseOwnerId=6620 6609&firstRecord=0&searchRadius=0&listingId=418181 646&Log=0

thefisch

Must have been so good the listing is gone.

jonUF02

Yep, if you see a great deal jump fast.

jonUF02

Actually I went back to my computer and it's still there. Link didnt work on phone, but try again, or search Autotrader. Its 2012 E550

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...searchRadius=0

thefisch

Would be perfect for me if it had pano and dynamic seat. I don't mind high mileage if records are good. However, carfax shows buyback/lemon title and 3 owners.

ddeliber

The problem is ... it has a branded title

http://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistory...&partner=ATD_W

Bought back by MB as a lemon.
I wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole.

jonUF02

Interesting, I failed to click the carfax. This is a strange one. There does not seem to be a ton of dealer visits in the maint. history, and it all centers around the brakes and alignment. It sounds like someone was a big complainer about this area of the vehicle.

It was sold on 5/7/12 with last reported mileage of 2895miles on it, then reported as buy back on 5/22/12 with only 2969 miles reported. There is no sale just after that, but the next reported record is a service at 5500 miles, listed as "manufacturer vehicle" then sold at auction with 5700 miles. Someone drove it from that point to 42K miles with minimal service trips. It's very fishy. I would probably still go for it after a proper inspection at the dealer, as long as you intend to keep it a number of years until the value is low. It sounds like the intention is to purchase extended warranty anyway, so that would cover any issues that might pop up. I really think this is one of the mis-interpreted oddities of CarFax system.

As far as the specific options you want, it's very hard to find something exact in a used car as rare as E550, unless you're willing to fly and get one like I did. Put down a deposit on dealer's review, site unseen. I have seen extremely few with dynamic seats in the 2012+ models. Pano roof is more common. This one does have lots of options though, that's pretty much the only 2 things it missing. I'm not personally a fan of the light wood trim, but I had to settle on it.

ddeliber

I am pretty sure you can't buy an extended warranty on a lemon. I know MB won't do it, this is why they try very hard to do their buy backs quietly before it ever goes to court.

Bowyer

Lots of good info. Car Guru's seems like a great site I haven't been looking at. Been searching the MB site and Auto Trader.

Sounds like there is some room to negotiate, just not too much. I guess every car and dealer is different. If the car is right for me and flying or shipping makes sense, I would have to go that route to look it over.

Yes, that 550 is pretty loaded and priced right, but the lemon and the white interior are a turn off. I had seen it a while ago and I think Smith changed the listing description. I remember it was bought back due to "vehicle shimmy," whatever that may mean. Also, that dealer seems to sell a lot of buy-backs. I'm looking for Silver over black or tan. No hurry as my daughter won't get my car until October.

jonUF02

This just popped up under $30K. 1 owner, clean Carfax, All black, including the wood, which I love. It seems to be well loaded, including the rare dynamic seats, and Pano roof I think.

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...CALERTSEMLSRCH

Russ103

Not bad at all, other then over 60K miles. But for $30k and a E-550 I doubt they will have a hard time selling it.

Funkster

I bought a 2011 E350, CPO certified. It was really low mileage (3500 mi) so I did not get the extended warranty. Turns out there was a transmission leak that the CPO warranty did not cover and then the transfer case/ transmission had to be replaced at 26,000 miles. Obviously the extended warranty would have paid off, but financially you are better off over the long run if you do not get the extended warranty. The extended warranty is one of the most profitable items for a manufacturer. Of course this means you need to have a fair chunk of cash ready for when you do go into a MB dealer.

Whether it is MB CPO or a corner car lot you need to be careful buying used cars. I trusted the MB dealer and should not have. I should have followed my instinct and had the car inspected by a trusted independent mechanic. Since this dealer sold the car new and bought it back, they listed work on the CARFAX as "routine maintenance". They are putting the same code for my transmission replacement. I guess that helps my resale, but I would not trust another Carfax report.

starbrite

Question: If the dealer trade in value on a particular car is, say $35k, what is the most likely dollar amount that MB Financial would sell that same car, coming off lease, to the dealer?

Funkster

I believe that most Lease trade-ins go to auction where any dealer can buy them for essentially wholesale. You can get a rough idea of wholesale from the Kelly Blue book "Dealer" price.

starbrite

Yes, most, however, in this case the dealer bought directly from MB Financial.

I don't see anything in the KBB listings for "dealer" price. Please enlighten me.

I would assume, maybe incorrectly, that the sale to the dealer would be less than trade in, or else why bother??

cx876

If it's something that won't be cover under the CPO warranty, it won't be cover under the extended warranty neither.
And I don't see any reason why a leak won't be cover under CPO warranty,

"Transmission
Coverage includes most major transmission components including control module, casing, clutch disc, pressure plate, and all internally lubricated parts, seals, and gaskets."

thefisch

MB ELW > CPO. The CPO is an inclusive warranty - it lists the components covered in the detailed terms. Granted it should cover most things but not unless it's on the list. The MB ELW is an exclusive warranty in that it covers everything except what is listed as excluded. It's the closest thing to the factory warranty.

cx876

There's ELW for new cars and ELW for CPO cars, they're different,
he brought the car as CPO so it's only qualify for the CPO ELW,
which is the same as the CPO warranty itself.