Is a 2 or 3 year lease the most popular lease option? I am hoping to find a nice E450 wagon when my X5 lease is over. I'm hoping to find a 2020 but concerned there won't be many available in less than 3 years. I doubt many dealers use them as loaners.

 

Remember the longer you lease a car the more "expensive" the monthly payment is: You are paying the same monthly cost for when the car is brand new and and at the end of the lease when it has thousands of miles on it.

Having said that:

The most "efficient" lease is the 3 year/36 month lease. It usually has the lowest MF and highest residual which give the best monthly lease payments.

The monthly payment on the two year lease will cost considerable more because of the residual.

A four year lease might work depending on the mileage you drive. If you drive more than 10 miles per year, before the 4 year lease is over. you will need tires and maybe brakes and another "B" service. When you add those cost into the lease the monthly payment for 4 years might actually turn out to be more than a three year lease.

However, if you drive less than 7,500 miles per year a four year lease might be cheaper - but remember at the end you are driving a four year old car.



MF - interest rates are set by Mercedes Financial: However, the dealer can mark it up, so make sure you are getting the MF set by Mercedes and not your dealer. Checking a few dealers and you will find the correct MF. If any dealer marked up the MF, I would walk out never, ever to return!

Residual are set by Mercedes Financial.

Never forget the first rule of leasing: NO MONEY down to reduce the monthly payments. Put everything into the lease including sales tax and acquisition fee. At lease inception all you want to pay is first months payment and motor vehicle fees - but never sales tax!

The only exception is if your state allows MSD - multiple security deposits: MSD are usually 10 payments that Mercedes holds as a refundable deposit. MSD can significantly lower the MF and thus reduce your monthly payments.

Hopes this helps.

 

Thanks for the info but I was asking if more Mercedes leases are 2, 3 or 4 years to gauge how many cars will become available when my X5 lease is over. It sounds like a 3 year lease is the most common term so that should mean that in the fall of 2021 I should start to see 2019 models being turned in. Am I on the right track?

 

From the postings on this Forum, it would seem that the actually number of wagons imported into the US were very few. Of course like all E Classes over 80% were leased. But 80% of perhaps 3,000 is only 2400 hundred wagons.

I would assume most were 3 year leases.

 

I was surprised to find 3 CPO E wagons at my local dealer, Sun Motors, last week. I am hoping they seek out nice low mileage wagons that can be certified. I plan to talk with their used car manager when I take my X5 in next month for it's annual service. Appreciate the feedback.

 

CPO '17 and '18 wagons are showing up around here - they don't last long, but they are definitely rolling off lease.

 

This is what I want to hear and gives me hope that a year from now we'll see '19 and maybe some '20 models available. Most seem to be well equipped so finding the right color combo will be the more difficult challenge. I'm willing to travel to find the right car so I'll be searching far and wide but am hoping I can entice my local dealer to try and find the right car perhaps at a Mercedes auction where lease returns are sold.

 

Your best bet is 2019's rolling off lease. I highly doubt any new 2020's will be left by the fall of next year. I've been in the same boat as you, also in an X5 lease but mine ends in Jan 2021. I've been watching E450 wagons for six months now and six months ago there were around 350 country wide. Now they are down to about 40 or so. There were no new 2020's left here in Texas as of about a month ago. There was one at MB of Austin but it was a loaner with about 4K miles on it and I wanted new as I might keep it after my lease ends if it is trouble free. I did find a wagon in Ohio that had the exact spec I was looking for but second choice in exterior color but options are running low. I remember this time last year there were many more E450 wagon's available but I think production was reduced this year due to COVID.

I put a deposit on the car and will fly to Ohio to pick it up near year's end and drive it home. Good luck with your search and landing what you want.

 

The wife of the owner of our local dealer was driving a nice wagon and it was for sale a couple weeks ago at a fair price. Had about 1500 miles on it but the color was wrong. I have another year on my X5 lease so I am not in the serious hunt yet. I will start a serious search next fall. Good luck with your new wagon.

 

I wouldn't make any decisions based on what you see today. There's a shortage of cars due to the pandemic. When the vaccine gets rolled out, people who were driving instead of taking public transportation might get rid of their cars or at least the demand for used cars might go down next year. But yeah, finding the right wagon is going to really be looking for a unicorn. It's hard enough just finding a regular sedan that's loaded.

 

Good points. Who knows what the world situation will be a year from now?

 

What is “MF” ?

 

Money factor. Basically it's the interest rate. Multiply the MF by 2400 = interest rate.