stealth.pilot

Has anyone actually been able to sell their EQS without trading it in for $30k below market?

I saw a nice EQE SUV AMG in Florida and thought I might be interested in switching.

So I went on Cargurus to look at value, and it was telling me that my low mileage EQS580 in amazing condition which is 26 months old is now worth $48k on an MSRP of over $140k.

LAZARU5

I entered the details for my 22 month old 2023 EQS 450 4Matic SUV with 42K miles into the trade-in value calculator on the mbusa.com website and it also came back with an estimate of $48K. The MSRP on my car was $121K. The second owners of 2-year old EQS sedans and SUVs are going to get 3-year unlimited mileage CPO warranties. I wish I could trade my own car in and buy it back with the CPO warranty.

Crito

You could trade it in for another used EV. I've been looking at a low miles Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Tourismo for the last six months and the asking price has dropped from $120K to 100, or about the same amount of value my EQE 500 SUV has lost in that time.

LAZARU5

I miss the way my 2022 Taycan 4 CT handled. But I don't miss it's flakey L2 and L3 charging behavior. The J1772 connector got "locked" onto the port 3 times in my garage. It took 3 hours to figure out how to release it the third time. Many of our L3 charging sessions lasted over 45 minutes since they required calls to EA to initiate the charging session. If you get a CPO Taycan make sure it has the option for DC charging at 150kW at 400v chargers. Otherwise, you will be limited to a 50kW rate at Tesla Superchargers.

Crito

I decided to wait for the Macan EV which'll be a closer match size and utility-wise. Kyle Conner said something on one of his YouBoob channels about a delay due to them wanting to ship with fresh software though. So I get to watch the trade-in value of my EQE SUV drop even further while I wait. :cry: Wish I had taken Tesla's $70K offer a few months ago but oh well.

Strafzettel

I got my 2023 EQS 580 SUV with 11K miles for exactly half the msrp so that car guru quote might be pretty accurate, sorry

streborx

Certainly reinforces advisories to lease instead of buying.

emailforbrett

I leased my 2023 AMG EQS back in January of this year. $170k MSRP. $1,400 per month, 0 down, 30k miles for 3 years. I learned my lesson against purchasing a BEV when I sold my Plaid. That car lost $70,000 in two years!

HBerman

Unless you are a car collector, it makes much more sense nowadays to lease rather than buy (cash or finance). I'm leasing a 2024 AMG EQEX4 for 30000 miles / 3 years. I haven't "owned" a car for the past 35 years. No worries about values at the 3-year turnover. Occasionally, the vehicle's value is greater than the calculated residual $$, and I receive cash back for the transaction. NC only has a highway use tax at 3% and it is only applied to the periodic lease payment rather than to the capitalized value of the car being leased. YMMV

streborx

It'll be interesting if MB makes an end of lease buyout offer that's substantially less than the leasing contact states. Keep us posted!

emailforbrett

I would definitely buy it if the price was low enough to take on the risk of out-of-warranty issues. I absolutely love everything about this car and will be sad to see it go.

stealth.pilot

Yeah but half MSRP would be $75k which I think is the market value. Trading at $48k would mean the dealer makes a profit of $27k. $27k is too high a spread. The car needs no new tires and no paint repair because it is PPFd. Very clean car.

MB2timer

From what I can see, the new EV market is cratering, and lowering the value of used EVs to chump change.

streborx

Ford just announced plans to cancel development of a planned full size SUV EV, and is taking a $1.9 Billion write-off to cover the $44K its reportedly has shipped with every EV sold to date.

Seems as if Akio Toyoda's caution on EVs has been vindicated.

stealth.pilot

Depends on your definition of cratering. Growth has slowed but EV sales are at a record high in the US.

https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-in...2024-ev-sales/

stealth.pilot

superswiss

And as said in the article partly fueled by higher discounts and lease deals putting further pressure on used EVs. Nobody is really gonna pay you even 50% of MSRP if they can get a 20% discount and sweet lease deal on a new one, and not losing their shirt trying to sell if after three years. I just read Mercedes made significant price cuts in Europe of their entire model lineup. This and more is why you see 30 cents on the dollar trade-in offers after only a couple of years. I heard some dealerships don't even take EVs as trade-in anymore, because they can't get rid of them. Wondering how much longer the leasing companies can keep this up until they realize they have a Hertz problem.

stealth.pilot

yes we all know the dynamics are not great on resale.

But my point is you can’t buy a non branded title accident free EQS580 for anywhere near $48k.

I know this because I am also buying a used EQE AMG product so I have a sense of where they are selling.

maybe the issue is demand uncertainty is causing dealers to want higher margin spreads on these cars. They want $30k profit vs $10k profit on an ICE model.

superswiss

Yes, EVs sitting on lots much longer than ICE probably has something to do with it. Also at what price they are advertised vs what they are ultimately selling for is also a different story. You might have a lot more room downwards on that EQE AMG than you are aware of.

stealth.pilot

Let’s keep this helpful. The comments I am looking for is what is best way to sell.

i know it is better to lease if you are buying new.

The secondary market is debatable. It is all about at what price you buy. At $45k a mint condition EQS580 with 13,000 miles and 2 years of remaining factory warranty would be a total bargain. I would buy more at that price! Of course only a dealer can buy at that price. Maybe I should apply for a dealer license.

joeshannon095

If there is no lien on the car then take some good photos and list it privately. Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, Autotrader, Cars.com. List it high and negotiate down. That would ideally get you the most money.

superswiss

Right, selling it privately is ultimately the way to get more for it, provided you'll find a buyer in a reasonable time, and you'll lose out on the sales tax credit if that's a thing in your state. When I sold my previous car I had it appraised by the dealership where I originally bought it. That was an Audi RS5, though, which was originally limited production and they were eager for me to sell it back to them. The used car manager was also nice enough to give me an idea of what I could get for it in the private market and he recommended to list it on Autotrader since I wasn't in a hurry to sell. Ultimately found a local buyer within a month who pretty much paid my asking price, and I didn't have to deal with an out of state sale. We did the complete transaction at a local bank branch and went to AAA to do the transfer to avoid the DMV headache. Since in California every ICE has to be smog tested when sold, I could also do that not far from my house the same morning.

stealth.pilot

Sales tax credit is a sore point in Georgia. We do lose out on sales tax credit, but the dealers mark down their trade-in estimates so they don’t even attempt to give you the benefit of sales tax credit. When I bought my current EQS I traded in my previous EQS. My Atlanta Mercedes dealer offered me less than a KIA dealer in from Kansas City even when factoring the sales tax credit. They offered 112, and the KIA dealer offered 125. This was back in 2022 when these cars were new.

I’ve never had a situation where the trade-in tax credit benefited the me as the consumer when traded in against a car I was buying. The one time it did work for me was when a dealer wanted to buy my Corvette and offered to run the private sale purchase of my Porsche through his books to get me a tax credit.

stealth.pilot

BTW it would be good if KeySavvy or Drive Caramel offered the trade-in tax credit on private party transactions. Would be a big bonus to people who like buying private cars.

stealth.pilot

Okay so I got some data from a broker.

The average Mannheim Auction sold value for an EQS580 4Matic is $56500 based on 10 auction transactions in the last 60 days. The values range from 49k miles for a higher mileage car, to $61k for the best one. Most of the better cars were in the $55-60k range. So that would be the right wholesale value for my car. Retail listings tend to be around $70-80k. So the retail margin is probably in the $10-15k range on these, which reflects that the dealer may bear some timing risk on holding time of the car.

We also looked at other cars. The Porsche EV depreciation curve is a lot less steep than the Mercedes one.