I am considering a GL350 / 450 but I can't decide whether to buy or lease. I drive about 15-18K/year and would like to put no $ down for either route. The MSRP on the 350 was about $69K and 450 was $72K.

Please help me with this decision as I am currently in a rental car now. . . .

Thanks.

 

Follow the money. You probably would do OK on a 15K miles per year lease, depending upon residual & money factor. When I got my wife's GL, MB had 1.9 financing and I was sure buying was the way to go until the salesman told me the money-factor equivalent was 1.7%. If you plan on keeping the truck 5 years or more then buy, otherwise at least consider leasing.

 

In your particular case, you would be better off leasing simply b/c of the miles you drive. If I were you, I would try to make some kind of adjustment to where you are at a max 15k miles per year, that way on a 36 month lease you are still under factory warranty the entire time. Plus, the amount of miles you drive will absolutely kill any type of trade-in value at the end of 3 years. So like stated above, unless you plan on keeping the car more than 5 years, I would think leasing would be a better scenario for you.

 

If you put no money down - you should lease, otherwise you will pay more than 100% interest to the bank. Down payment is where you pay no interest.
By the time you finish making all the payments - you'll waste close to $100k and the way you drive you'll be close to 100k miles on your car.
Maybe in 5 years we'll be out of gas. Who knows?
You should lease...

 

Exactly. Banks want something down especially now. If nothing down, your credit better be impeccable. Lease is the way to go. Also.... if you lease, and go over milage and trade to another MB before the lease is up, you don't have to pay for overage!!!
Something to think about also is that your payment will be huge with finance/no money down. Go to MBUSA website and plug in lease vs finance figures and compare. The monthly payments will vary greatly depending on term and milage, etc. Good luck.

 

Thank you for the input everyone. What should I be expecting for the money factor now? My dealer offer me .0033 for GL350 with residual at 53% and .0022for GL450 with 56%. They don't sound like a good deal to me at all. Any recommendation of a dealership in southern California? Based on the MSRP of 69K / 72K he offered 63K and 65K which is not even 10%....

Thank you.

 

You might want to check out
https://mbworld.org/forums/automotiv...ry-2010-a.html

It is from the MB forum board near the bottom. It has the lease numbers, etc.
A website is also LeaseCompare.com


2010 Mercedes GL450
24 Month – Residual 58% of MSRP – .00254 Base Rate
36 Month – Residual 56% of MSRP – .00209 Base Rate
48 Month – Residual 40% of MSRP – .00209 Base Rate
60 Month – Residual 35% of MSRP – .00330 Base Rate


2010 Mercedes GL350 BlueTec Diesel
24 Month – Residual 59% of MSRP – .00365 Base Rate
36 Month – Residual 53% of MSRP – .00330 Base Rate
48 Month – Residual 43% of MSRP – .00330 Base Rate
60 Month – Residual 37% of MSRP – .00330 Base Rate
CLICK for $986 / 39mo Lease Special

Residuals posted are for 15K miles/year. Add 2% to Residual for 12k mi/yr and 3% for 10k mi/yr on all terms

Note: I just copied and pasted this info from that other page. Check it out.

 

I ordered and waiting for GL350 BlueTec, but probably will go for GL450, because it always has some special leases. 450 also has the best residual and money factor. The best way to get the best deal is to shop Dealers around by requesting quotes through the Internet. This way you make them compete for your business. You can request quotes from any MB dealership in the entire USA here: Access to ALL Mercedes-Benz Dealerships in USA.

 

Is this really a MB policy or is this on a dealer by dealer basis? If so, then do you guys who lease always do a 10,000 mile a year lease? I had no idea this was available and it totally changes the value proposition of leasing for me. Is there a limit to the overage? Do you have to pay MSRP if they give you this deal. I'm curious how this works because it sounds almost too good to be true. Maybe I'm misunderstanding...

 

This has been the case for several years with my dealer. I assume it is a MB policy. I didn't check my lease paperwork but has always been my experience. I used to pay for 15K miles. Now I routinely do 12K and am usually close but my salesman is quick to remind me that turning in early negates the overage on miles. Also, my 08 E350 was on 24 month with 12K per year. MB offered to buy out up to 4 months of lease payments to trade early plus negating the overage on milage. We got a 10 E350 at a great 36 month lease with 12k per year. Got out 3 months early because I didn't know about the deal sooner plus the 10's were just coming out. No limit to the overage. They said didn't matter. No did not pay MSRP. At the time my lease pmts were well below what I was seeing on the board. That is dependant on the dealer. Good luck.

 

That's good information, thanks.

 

Thank you for the info. Are these numbers the real bottom line or there is still room for negotiating?

Thank you!!

 

MB Financial has Loyalty Accelerator program from time to time, where they forgive you 3 to 6 remaining payments, if you take a new car lease with them. So lets say you take 12k miles per year for 36 months. It means you can drive the total of 36,000 miles before any addtl charges. So, for example, if you get to 36,000 miles in 33 months - you can take advantage of this program - they will forgive you last 3 payments, and you are still under 36k allowed miles! You pay no overage charges and also your disposition fees are waived.

However, this program is not a 100% rule. It floats from time to time, so you have to watch it, or have your salesman be on alert. Usually, MB Financial notifies you, if you are the one who qualifies...

 

Exactly. Now if the program is not in place, and you are over, you can still trade early and not be responsible for the overage but you will still be responsible for the final lease payments depending on how many months early you get out. You have to then do the math and see which is cheaper, paying the overage or maybe just the final month lease payment and get into a new lease a month early.

 

These numbers are right from MB financial as posted on the Lease board. It changes month to month so check back to see what their rates are. Also compare with LeaseCompare.com. Sometimes they run lease specials on left over models and if there is a model change coming up and they want to clear inventory.
No the money factor is not negotiable from MB financial (usually) but you can negotiate other variables such as other fees they try to add on and the final sale price. Term sometimes makes a huge difference. Different models have different residuals depending on options, etc. So do your homework to do your best deal. For example sometimes a higher end car/suv with all the bells and whistles may have a higher residual than a less expensive model with less options. You are leasing the portion of the car from the price you negotiate to the residual. So you want to lease at the lowest possible price on a car with the highest possible residual and hopefully a great money factor (money factor is similar to a percentage rate on a loan). So sometimes you can almost wind up with a cheaper payment on a loaded model than a stripped down model based on residual value. (this is simplified but you get the picture). Go to MB USA and run different terms (24 vs 36 vs 39 months) etc, and different models, options etc. You may be surprised. My philosophy is to put little money down on a lease (why put a lot of money down, you are still paying the same amount for the term, you just make the monthly payments less) lease for short enough term to avoid out of pocket expenses. Why lease long enough to let the vehicle get out of warranty? I prefer 24-36(39) month leases, any longer, I purchase. If you are going to lease long term, why not just purchase? If I am paying on a car for 5 years, may as well get equity and then sell it or trade and have something to show for it.
Sorry to ramble but just my two cents worth.

 

Thanks again. Very good information.

 

I am a lease guy, always have and always will, I have the itch to trade and move cars every two to three years, if I was buying I would get raped on the loss I would accumulate, with leasing, it gives me the peace of mind that after a few years the car is gone, meanwhile, nothing for out of pocket expenses as the car is always under warranty...plus, never buy a depreciating asset unless you plan to keep it more than 6 yrs. Right now I had leased a 2009 ML350 for my wife last march 2009, since then we added another child into the family, so we have a two year old boy and a 4 mnth old girl, with the double stroller and everything else associated with having two very young children, I am struggling for trunk space in the ML. On the weekend I had a 2010 GL450 for the day and was very impressed with it, funny enough, it fit in the garage no problem, it seemed to be the same width as the ML but just longer and taller, so I am now negotiating with my dealer to take back the 2009 ML350 and get my wife into the 2010 GL450, I will keep you posted....oh, and it is a lease we are trying to figure out.

 

I am a purchase gal but considering converting. . . . How interesting!! I also have a two year old boy and a two month old girl I think that I might not need a big suv like GL in few years when the kids grow up a bit more. . . . my dealer advise me to stay in the rental and wait for new incentives in March. Should I?!