neodoc

Hello, everyone:

I wanted to run something by all of you in the hope of getting an idea about what to expect when I approach my sales rep. When I got the GL, what attracted me most were the features found on the Premier Edition, namely the light wood, Nappa leather interior, chrome roof rails and the wide running boards. All the time I have had it, I've wondered what I would get when the lease was up, since back then and even more recently, those features weren't available on standard GLs, not even the 550, except maybe for the running boards. That is until now. The lease on my GL450 Premier is up next September, and reading the list of std equipment and options on the 09 GL550 (posted in another thread,) I found I could essentially configure one exactly like my current 450. Since I don't know whether any of my "prerequisite" options will be available on a 2010 model, I thought of trading the 450 in the near future for an 09 with the aforementioned equipment. Does anyone know if it is permissible to do this before the lease is up, so long as I leased another MB vehicle? Would there be a penalty? I'd really hate to wait until Sept 09 and discover that none of the cosmetic features I want would be available on the 2010 model I'm assuming would be due out at that time. Your input would be most helpful.

oknish

Joe - the way SUV sales are going right now, I would be very surprised if a dealer won't let you get out of your old lease into a new one. I wouldn't expect it to be a "walk in the park" though. Be prepared to negotiate. All the best.

neodoc

I called my sales rep today to ask if it would be feasible to trade up to a GL550 as I described above, but I was told that it would not. I was told that with 14 months left on my lease, I'd have to get the vehicle appraised and see if it appraised for more than the residual and then MBUSA would have to decide if they'd let me do the trade. I'm going to look into this a bit further, but it seems like I'll be "stuck" with the 450 Premier until at least September 09. At that point, I hope the 2010 GL550 still has the light wood and Nappa leather options available, which are my two most favorite parts of my current GL. Oh, well...

StevethePilot

With the SUV resale market as bad as it is, even the horrible SUV new market probably won't give you the difference you need to trade up. If you'd gotten in to, say, an E320 Bluetech or even an E320CDI (did they make one of them?), you'd probably have a good chance as the resale value on that one's probably really good.

Just my two bits!

STP