Anyone cancelling their factory order because of tariffs? Is MB possibly going to offset car orders prior to tariffs?

I'm not cancelling my order, but will reject it if pricing becomes too high. I'm looking at 1- 2 year old CPO S500s as an alternate but I very much prefer the styling and size of the E-Class.

Keep in mind what happened during Covid and people were paying above MSRP for new cars and above book value for used cars: in a few short years when it came time to sell or trade, they were extremely disappointed.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Germany just stopped sending r class cars and others made in Germany can’t blame them if they did. Who’s gonna pay 120k for a new E class and why should mb have to eat it ?

That would surprise me. They make money selling to the US market. Can't imagine they would just be willing to lose all that profit even if it's reduced due to eating some extra cost.

MB is waiting to see what the competition does. Some dealers are reverting back to full MSRP, while others are waiting until EOM; custom orders are in an iffy spot right now but are still being fulfilled. People need to understand that this is not COVID-19, and the cars will keep filling the lots; there will be no issue of supply when it comes down to grounded units on dealer lots.
On the other hand, has anyone checked the resale value of the W214's? I've been hearing some good numbers compared to what it was 4 months ago.

It seems the US will now get car prices like we have here in the EU with VAT and the various other taxes

They should keep the same prices and show the tariff as a line item like VW is doing. That way people will realize they have not raised their prices and it is simply a tax by the US govt. It will also show that they were lied to when told the exporting country paid the tariff.

I would hope that people doing well enough to afford a Mercedes would be smart enough to know that the buyer pays the tariff, but maybe I'm being naive.

I am afraid you are. It is amazing how many people actually believed Trump when he said the exporting country will be paying the tariffs.

Remember:

You're probably right. Looking from Europe it all seems unbelievable that America would shoot themselves in the foot like this and everyone in power is okay with it. Then again, we have populist in my country, too. People believe the crazy things they say and accept the things they did when they were in power as well.

Well, not exactly.

The importer pays the tariff. That is fact.

Whether the tariff cost gets passed to the consumer depends on market dynamics, with the potential for the manufacturer and/or middlemen to absorb the the cost to some degree and for some period of time.

So, we shall see.

Yes exactly: Trump said the exporting country would be paying the tariffs and that this would be "free money" to US citizens.

People actually believed this!

I don’t believe he said that. He said there may/will be some pain. He never said it’ll be “free money” for anyone…

That is the problem. Trump has thrown so much BS out there we tend to forget what he said as everyday there is another onslaught of BS to deal with.

As I posted, Trump did actually say other countries and not the US would be paying the tariffs.

• At a rally in Arizona in mid-August, he claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, is lying when she refers to his tariff plan as a “Trump tax.”
• In September, he repeated the claim during an interview with Fox News: “It’s not a tax on the middle class. It’s a tax on another country.”
• And he
  said
  again during a rally in Wisconsin Saturday that “it’s not going to be a cost to you, it’s going to be a cost to another country.”
• Vance
  said
  in late August that as a result of tariffs Trump imposed during his presidency, “prices went down for American citizens.”
• “They went up for the Chinese but they went down for our people,” Vance added.

See: https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/09/polit...ffs/index.html

• President Donald Trump told an Ohio audience Thursday that China is footing the bill for the massive tariffs he's slapped on foreign goods coming into the United States.
  
  “Don’t let them tell you, the fact is — China devalues their currency, they pour money into their system. Because of that, you’re not paying for those tariffs. China’s paying for those tariffs,” the president said, hours after announcing the new set of tariffs on Chinese goods. “Until such time as there is a deal, we will be taxing the hell out of China.”
  
  see: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...-he-s-n1038751
  

Here is another reference to when Trump said other countries, China, will be paying for the tariffs and not the US Taxpayer;

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000006661985/trump-china-tariffs.html



And


see: https://www.factcheck.org/2019/02/do...a-pay-tariffs/

I was at my dealership today for service and talked to the GM about the tariffs. He told me Mercedes would be selling ‘MY 25’s at MSRP. No incentives.

Yes, this was discussed here: https://mbworld.org/forums/g-class-w...inventory.html

Just a contra thought:

We all know that E Class sales have dropped precipitously since 2019 when over 40,000 cars were sold as compared to less than 18,000 in 2024. We also know that over 80% of E and S Class cars are leased.

Back in 2019 the residual on a 36 month, 10K miles per year was 60% and today it is 52%. This is part of the reason that monthly lease payments are $250/300 more than in 2019 - and these payments were including substantial discounts and/or incentives.

Now with those incentives removed, with cars selling at full MSRP, the lease payments will go up another $150/200 a month.

If people felt the lease payments were high before and not buying, I see very little reason for people flocking to the dealers now and willing to pay an extra $150/200 a month.

I predict people who used to lease, at lease end will now buy their car as we did during Covid, and not lease a new car. The reality is that with lease payments with zero down and including sales tax, assuming there is a sales tax in your state, will be approaching $1500 a month. In just four months, by buying a person will have saved $6,000. That $6,000 will pay for a lot of "maintenance" on their car if it is out of warranty.

Just my $.02

You have to take into account how much they paid to buy the car out. It's not really $1500 saved a month until you make up for the buyout price with the lack of payments.

You are correct: With the increase in prices of new cars, there will be a corresponding increase in the value of used cars - same as in Covid.

That means at the end of the lease there will be equity in your car: the market value of the car will be higher than the residual. That is why most of us at the end of our lease in Covid winded up buying our cars rather then leasing a new car.

Hope this clarifies.

okay, I understand. In my country leases uzyskały work differently. You pay basically for the whole car and at the end buy it out for 1%. The US version of a lease (a bit like a long term rental) is new here, so I wasn't familiar with exactly how it works.

Interesting that your lease has a 1% buyback: Many years ago, in the 1980's, our leases too had a 10% residual: What happened was the corporation was making the lease payments on behalf of Presidents, Vice Presidents and other high officers of the company. The lease was in the officers name. At the end of the lease, the officer bought the car for 10% and as the car was only three years old, it was worth 60%. The difference was a bonus to the officer.

Our IRS stopped that many years ago.

If that is true, do o not expect it to last past May. That is the deadline for EU retaliatory tariffs of 25% unless something is worked out. MB are absorbing losses on cars entering the US as of today to keep some goodwill. That cannot last long because they do not have 25% margin Expect them to stop giving dealers allocations for stock, only factory orders..
And on the financial side, how is this trade war working out for you guys ? The US stock market is doing well? China just added another 50% to US exports this morning. The Dow was up 250 points earlier but on that news, it is now down 750 points.
Why would Congress not put a stop to this. They know he is not a financial genius. He went bankrupt six times. Now he wants to bankrupt your country.
Expect the US and most of the world to go into recession. We will ALL be poorer by the time this ends. Price of. Cars will be the least of our concerns.

It's not like that here in Poland. The user of the car is definitely paying for everything., The lease with 1% residual value at the end is much more expensive than the "US style" one, where you usually return the car at the end. I can go to the Mercedes website and compare the monthly payments. That said, the 1% lease still usually makes more sense financially if you want to keep your car longer than 2 or 3 years.