We have had our GLK for a few years and really like it overall. The family has expanded and we're looking for something bigger. Last week, the GLK was in and the dealer gave us a GL as a loaner. I wasn't particularly blown away with it, but the added space was nice.

A few questions:
The dealer is offering to sell the 350BT loaner to us at a discount (TBD). Sticker was 79k and it had about 3,500 miles on it. What should I expect the dealer to take off?

Also, does anyone know if there are any incentives on the GLs knowing the new GLS is coming out? The dealer wasn't willing to disclose that but its usually not hard to find out.

I'm trying to get a sense for whether I should try to negotiate the loaner or just purchase a new.

Thanks for any feedback,
David

 

The advantage of a Service Loaner - is if it is sold to you Mercedes Certified - then you will have a UNLIMITED MILEAGE Mercedes Certified warranty out to a full 5 yrs from the original/1st in-service date.

In the case where a loaner has been in service - let's say 6 months - then that means you have a 4 1/2 yr Mercedes Certified Warranty where you could run up a Million Miles in that 4 1/2yrs of ownership and still be covered by warranty.

Considering pre-owned - ex loaner or not - it's Warranty that is one key "value" indicator -and the 2nd is to know if your target Mercedes has the colors/features/options that are of value to you and your family.

 

Holy cow! That's enough to make me go looking for a loaner next time. If you drive 20k miles/year, you have a 90k mile warranty in your example.

 

Or, that "loaner" is a Mercedes buy back (highly likely) that was repurchased because the service department couldn't repair a problem within the necessary time to avoid lemon status. What you are risking is purchasing a vehicle that has made a previous customer unhappy and could potentially do the same to you. There is no lemon law protection for used vehicles. If you have a problem, they will give you a loaner but I can pretty much assure you it won't be another GL. Therefore, if you need the space a GL affords, you are out of luck. Those of us that have owned GLs for some time (I've had three) will tell you that you can get one that is hardly ever in the shop and has what seems to be Lexus quality or you can get one that has you visiting the service dept on a monthly basis. This GL would be a real roll of the dice in my opinion. If they give you an unbelievable deal and you can afford to not have the space while it is worked on, go for it. I would want $20,000 off at least.

 

It is simply not true. If a car was repurchased - it will have not 1, but 2 owners on its Carfax. Your conspiracy theory does not work.

 

What does happen to a buy-back? Is the dealer stuck with it or does Mercedes haul it off and ship to Russia?

 

The dealership buys it back as it would a used car. That doesn't create a second owner. Want to guess how I know?

 

The dealer fixes it as best they can and they put it on their lot and sell it as a certified used car or a used car with the remainder of the factory warranty left. You as a buyer are none the wiser. It doesn't get titled again when the dealership buys it back any more than any other trade in would get an additional title on a trade in. It is a way for the factory to avoid having a lemon title on a relatively new car. This is more of a transaction involving the manufacturer than the dealer. It happens frequently guys/gals. Those cars with low miles sitting in the dealership's showroom aren't there because, "the buyer decided he didn't like the color.". Guess where I've heard that? If your car meets lemon requirements, the factory will offer you this at the 11th hour when they realize their vehicle is going to get a lemon title and be worth at best 60% of its value.

 

Interesting. Sad the dealer would get stuck with something that left the factory half-***. It's Mercedes' fault not the dealership.

 

There is some mis-information - any vehicle "Bought-Back" by Mercedes such as can occur under Lemon-Law - thoose buy-back's go all-the-way-back to Mercedes Corp - and if Mercedes chooses to repair and release back to retail - the vehicle title is permanently marked forever as a buy-back vehicle - and is sold thru auction to non-Mercedes dealers - and does have any remaining balance of the 4yr/50K MB new car warranty - but DOES not qualify either for Extedned New Car Warranty - and cannot ever qualify for CPO warranty either.

Often - these Mercedes buy backs - again with permanent marked titles - are purchased by US export dealers - and there are a select # of independent dealers in the US who specialize in retail US sales - as Federal law requires disclosure and written acknowledgement by the buyer.

Now - I have seen select cases now-and-then - where a MB dealer may take on a low mileage trade in - let's say over mechanical issues - where Mercedes will not authorize a Mercedes Buy-Back - but Mercedes will give the Mercedes dealer some "trade-support" - think of that as added dollars coming to the dealer from Mercedes to increase trade-in value for the customer over quality/service issues that they own now for the purchase of a replacement new Mercedes . These MB dealer buybacks - with Mercedes trade assist - that can happen - no those are not title marked - and can be sold without marked title, and do qualify for extended or future CPO.

Keep the beat !

 

Exactly, thanks for clarifying the nomenclature. "Buybacks" are typically what your state or attorney general consider a lemon vehicle. The moment you send something in writing to the factory or dealership that your vehicle is a lemon and you outline in your correspondence what criteria have been met, the vehicle is required by law, if it does indeed meet the lemon criteria, to be titled as a lemon otherwise known as a buyback. There is no turning back for the factory.

Where I would tend to disagree with Fab, is on the frequency of these trade assists. These usually are negotiated between the GM of the dealership, MB regional VP, customer, and the service manager. Sales staff aren't involved perhaps explaining why fab isn't aware of the frequency. A trade assist works well for all parties because the factory avoids a buy back title on the car which would plunge its value, the customer gets another new car, and the dealership gets to sell two more cars, one new and one used. It's the factory that pays. The dealership isn't stuck with anything. From my experience, the factory, aka mbusa will play chicken with you and won't offer you a trade assist until you are about to send a demand letter. Trust me, they don't want you to send the demand letter. They are screwed when you do. At least this is how it works in my state.

All of this is why I do not trust the low mileage cars on lots at dealerships. I would much rather see a vehicle that was turned in with lease justifying miles and months in service than a car that was a "GM demo" or "first customer didn't like the color" kind of car. If it has less than a year on it since it was in service and less than 15000 miles, buyer beware. Again, the salesperson may have no clue why it was traded back in.

 

As I understand initial argument was about Loaner car. Loaner car can not be untitled, even if it was bought from previous owner for the reasons you specified above. So if a dealer bought back a car, fixed it, used it as a loaner for 3-6 months and then put it on their lot to sell - this car will have a second owner in its Carfax.

 

You are right about that. If it is truly a loaner then that would be the case. I guess you would need to get to the bottom of why the dealership is loaning out a GL. A GL is not a typical loaner vehicle which is why I question whether it is really a vehicle bought new by the dealership to be loaned out to customers getting their cars serviced. There is a reason this car is a loaner or demo or whatever it is and I wouldn't trust the dealership's explanation if it were me. Another red flag is that the dealership is offering to sell the OP the "loaner" car. That isn't normal. They don't offer to sell their loaners. Loaners are usually kept for a certain period of time/miles and then put on the used car lot. I wouldn't trust this vehicle but that is just me.

BTW, I just re-read the original post. There is no way the dealership bought a $79,000 GL for their loaner fleet and now just happens to be trying to sell it with only 3500 miles. This is so fishy.

 

I agree with you, but somehow my dealer has several GLs and S-classes in loaner fleet. I doubt all of them are some kind of defected cars. Also, I was offered sometime ago to lease a previous loaner car with about 20% discount and I have no reason to suspect my salesperson of trying to fool me around.
I'm not a fan of conspiracy theory. I think some dealers just keep expensive cars in their fleet to attract customers who own such cars. j

 

Mercedes US offers "retail cash support" for vehicles put into loaner service - and the "retail support dollars" are by model - and change monthly _and sometimes within the same month - as Mercedes incentives to dealers to "ounch/sell" into loaner service - which as a program trims the delaer inventory and increases MB unit sales for that model that month.

That retail dollar support for that vehicle has a "hold in loaner service clause" which sets a minimum time/in-months - the "loaner" needs to be held in service to claim the reail support dollars.

A dealer can choose to put a model into loaner service on their own - without retail support - and that can occur for several reasons - including hitting model sales targets - month/quarterly sales quota etc.

It is not necessarily uncommon for a dealership to have luxury models in service in their loaner fleets.

On "trade assist" - frankly I am fully aware of what can-does happen - and frankly its "quite rare" - let's say - as compared to 100 loaner or low mileage trade-in's - like "might be" one trade assist situation - as compared to 99 loaners and/or low mileage recent model trader-in's.

Frankly - across several dealers I am close to - in the event of a trade-assist dealer trade-in - those dealers I know move those back up-stream thru MBFS auction ..

Some say tomAto - some say tomAHto - if you ever have any question regarding the vehicle history before you buy - ask the dealer to print and review the VMI with you - which shows you the full/exact service history.

 

Okay, I was trying to not do this but since I am apparently being called a conspiracy theorist, I'll explain why I would proceed with caution.

My 2014 GL450 was repurchased from me by the dealership by way of a trade assist from MBUSA. In order to repair an oil leak, the entire front axle, transmission, and engine was removed from the vehicle to fix the leak. In order to remove the engine, hundreds of screws, washers, clamps, hoses, belts, mechanical components, etc. etc. had to be removed in order to lift the engine up out of the engine bay.

My GL was put back on the lot and sold by the dealership. Perhaps the VMI details the repeated attempts the technician made to fix the problem and perhaps it details the days that were required to tear down the drive train assembly and remove the engine and transmission. Or, perhaps since the vehicle was not in my possession (it had already been bought back from me as a "trade") all that is stated in the VMI is that an oil leak was fixed. "Some say tomAto - some say tomAHto"... all I know is that my GL was placed on the Mercedes dealership's lot and was not priced anywhere near what it should have been priced to reflect the amount of work that had been done to it. It was a LEMON, meeting ALL of the criteria required for it to be classified as such but it was put back on the used car lot and sold as a nearly new used car that was described as "loaded'. How frequently this type of scenario happens is certainly open for debate. All I know is that my GL is not the only vehicle that I am aware of that has been placed back on the dealer lot as a 1 owner vehicle with low miles that really should have had a lemon title.

The OP can take my advice and ask for a lot off or can take aeggroup's advice and throw caution to the wind. His/her choice...

 

For your info - yes, VMI has full and exact track of of every single-single-part/every-single-service-repair-code done on the vehicle and a cross-reference to every single service/repair-order.

I understand the regrettable experience with the GL - and regret the apparent fact that dealer skated that trade-assist-trade-in.

It's good to share your experience - quite healthy here on this forum - on a pre-owned MB - although a dealer cannot release/give-out a copy of the VMI - they can print and review a copy with you before purchase.

Keep the beat !

 

The CPO warranty is not bumper-to-bumper. There are a lot of exclusions. For example, after 50K miles the struts are no longer covered under warranty. This exclusion applies to air suspension and ABC suspension vehicles.

 

Wear items not being covered make sense and my guess is that wear items aren't covered under the original warranty, either. But excluding the air suspension doesn't seem very reasonable.

 

It could also have been a demo car or the vehicle the GM drove that didn't sell, then turned into a loaner. Here in SoCal, I haven't seen any GL or SL as loaners; that's just been my experience. Me personally, I'd stay clear away from very low mile (under 10k) cars for sale. Our first GL450 was (supposedly) the GM's car. It had 500 miles on it and we bought it as new. It could have been coincidence or not but that pos had so many issues that I ended up selling it in year and a half. Ever since then, I don't buy brand new vehicles with more than double digits on the odometer. If it has to be a dealer trade, then put it on a flat bed if it's more than 100 miles. Call me paranoid, I don't care.
Btw, how do most people drive loaners and/or rental cars? Like they stole 'em?!?!

 

Mercedes Service loaners - in our "fleet" - I would guesstimate 85% at this moment are same-day/overnite - the remaining 15% are 2-3 days for service/awaiting-parts-arrival.

On my side - very/very few "abuse" cases - maybe 1-2 a year - most folks are righteous about that in my area.

"Demo's" - yes, under a dealer plate - it is not unusual for upper-management to hang onto a new Mercedes for some miles - on my side I switch between CPO's every 2-3 days - no-harm/no-foul as exact mileage gets clearly stated at transaction time.

I did have a case where I dealer traded for a specific ML400 - and when it arrived in it had 650 miles AND had chromed wheels - which I hadn't seen for yrs - turns out was that dealer/owner's-wife's car - sloppy !

"Demo's" run under Dealer Plate do not get Mercedes retail support - but for longer term many dealers have a internal write down either by-month-time, or by added miles at liek $1 a mile.

I would say overall - Vance delivery models have under 10 miles in my area - and German models come in with 12-14 miles my area - once rigs are delivered - you can have added "test drive miles" based on overall how long the rig has been on the front line. "Normal" test drive my area is mapped at 8 miles - or occasional "overnite show the wife: mileage depends on how close the customer lives - usually my area under 20 miles for that overnite.

I had one "VIP" customer of our BMW dealership "borrow overnite" a new GL - "to show his wife" - 3 days later I get a call from our State Representative (a friend of mine) from the capital/other-side-of-the-state - to tell me this "VIP" was bragging in the capital - "I can borrow any Mercedes I want" - and when this rig finally got back after 5 days - 634 miles - what a jerk...

 

Total jerk. So typical.

 

I think MB considers it "very reasonable" to exclude the air suspension struts since there is a fairly good chance that the struts will fail by 100K miles.

 

unbelievable -- must have lost that vip status -- great way to destroy your relationship with the dealership..

 

Anyone know how what the cost is to replace air struts when they fail?