Buy or Lease?
 

I notice most of you lease your GL. Is there a reason you don't buy? Which is the better way to go and why?

I plan to keep my GL for 7-10 years so I purchased mine.

I can't lease because I put a lot of miles on my cars. Mine is 20 months old and I have a little over 50k miles on it. I bought it brand new with only 3 miles on it.

This is my 3rd GL since 2011. First I bought, second leased, third bought. I leased second because at that time to lease was cheaper than to buy.

Thanks all. I too keep my cars for a few years and would finance.

I'm assuming you all purchased extended warranties as well? At what point should I consider an extended warranty?

What do you spend yearly to maintain your GL?

How often have you purchased tires?

I'm thinking to get extended warranty if I will keep the car for more than 4 years, but I still have 3 years to decide. You can get some discount for EW if you buy it in next 30 days after your car's purchase. Somebody here said it's about 15% off of regular price, which is also negotiable. My GL350 is 1 year and 1 month old and I've spent about $300 on maintenance till now (Service A). Everything else was covered by warranty (one visit to a dealer). Just last week they changed left front strut. Any brake parts like rotors and pads not covered by warranty, but for me it's too early to change it. My car has 14K miles.
Also keep in mind - there is 2017 refresh model coming out this spring and totally new model expected in 2019. Some people don't like to drive old models, so if you're one of them - it makes sense to lease for next 3 years and buy the next model for another 7. Anyway - good luck.

Thanks. I'm definitely looking at the 2017 model. I'm not one to chase the newest model every time its refreshed or renewed so I'm ok with keeping it for a while.

Leasing seems more costly to me. I'd rather have something that's mine in the end instead of spending money on a lease and have nothing in the end or need to start over. Then again, with a finance I would put a large deposit so I guess it evens out.

I lease because it's a little more cost effective and plus I don't want to pay for tires all the time.

Expect them to wear between 20k-30k miles.

is there any calculation anywhere for GL550 for lease vs buy? i'm going to be getting GL550 soon so it'll help to decide. I do intend to keep the vehicle at least for 7 years.

If you plan to keep a luxury vehicle for 3 years or less you should consider leasing. If you get in even a minor accident and then go to trade, the carfax report could cost you $15,000- $20,000. If you plan to drive it for 5 plus years, then financing or cash makes more sense. I look at a lease as an insurance policy. You can wreck the car, get it fixed and be out nothing because of the accident. Having said that, I purchase because I don't like replacing every 3 years. 5-7 year replacement reduces depreciation costs significantly on luxury vehicles.

Does MB finance limit how much of a down payment one can put on a vehicle?

Are there any advantages going with MB finance services over an outside bank?

No Limit based on your credit history (I guess).
Outside you can find lower interest rate.

Out of curiosity, at what point, mileage wise, is it break even for depreciation for a diesel vs. gas model?

If you know you don't want to keep a car long term - lease it.

But, if you might or do want it long term don't dismiss the lease option out of hand.

I view the difference between the financing costs of lease vs. buy as something like the cost of a stock option. If it turns out you don't like the car or you wrecked it thereby reducing its value you can simply give it back at the end of the lease and you avoided a lot of the sales tax in the process. If you like the car and want to hold it long term you then have the option to for buy it for the preset residual or even negotiate a price lower than the residual. It's possible you could get a price far below the residual and more than offset the difference in the financing costs mentioned prior ultimately making it cheaper than buying the car. A lot depends on the difference between the Lease Money Factor and the Loan APR.

I've never heard of the option to negotiate residual value at the end of the lease, especially with MB. Usually they inflate residual as much as possible, so buy out does not make any sense. Is it really possible ?

You mean deflate? Inflate reduces your monthly pmts which makes leasing cheaper. With these cars they deflate as much as possible when the car is a new model. As time passes it normalizes. For me (always lease) I am finding that at the end of the lease the car is pretty much worth the residual.