Since there is a similarly titled post for 2020 models, I thought I would start one for 2021.

On a 2021 GLB 4matic with an MSRP of almost $57K, I got a discount of $7,000. On top of that, I received a $2,500 discount under the Small Fleet Program. Small fleet incentives (up to $5K depending on the model) are available to any business that has been in existence for at least 12 months and that is formally registered with the state. To be eligible, the car must be registered in the name of the business. On top of the price of car, I paid a doc fee of about $700 plus a “dealer’s business license” fee of $90 (this was added at the very last moment and I was just too tired to fight about it or try to understand it). After subtracting the dealer fees, the entire discount was 15.28% off of MSRP (I am not including state taxes and registration).

I won’t lie -- getting that discount took a lot of work and patience. I started by visiting a few dealers, and they gave me opening offers between 3% and 5% off, insisting that they could not offer more. That just did not seem serious to me (especially after reviewing the "price paid for a new 2020 GLB 4matic" thread on this forum).

The first break in the dam was a dealer who offered me 6% off on a custom order. I countered (based on 2020 pricing thread) at 12%. He countered at 10%, and then came up to 11%, saying that was the best he could do. Since I didn’t have any real sense of the market, I decided to email most of the dealers within 100 miles to see what was out there.

The opening email offers I got were uniformly unreasonable (usually around 2-3% off), but when I responded that I already had an 11% offer and added that I had seen offers between 10 and 12% on this forum, most dealers quickly came around. I got two additional offers of 11% (one for a car on the lot, another for an allocation in production), and an offer of 12% on a custom build. I got a second offer of 12% off from a dealer on the other side of the country (I reached out because someone on the 2020 thread had had a good experience there).

By the time I got to the dealer where I bought the car, the process was pretty straightforward. I didn’t email them in advance, but just walked in. They didn’t dick me around (pardon my French) because I was able to list several dealers by name that had given me offers of 11% and 12%. So I was spared the song and dance about how scarce the GLB is/how they are flying off the lot/that no one discounts a custom order, etc. Inventory may well be low and the cars may well fly off the lot. But, in my experience, several dealers are still discounting them, whether on the lot or a special order. My dealer traded with another dealer for an allocation that met my wish list of options (it arrived a few weeks later). After we agreed on the discount, I looked around for incentives and found the Small Fleet Program. The combination of the dealer discount plus the Small Fleet incentive left with me a discount of 15.28% off of MSRP.

At any rate, when I started my search for a car, there was very little pricing information from real world, actual people who had recently bought (as opposed to sites like Cargurus and True Car that show average discounts). The 2020 GLB pricing thread really helped me, so I wanted to pass my 2021 experience along. Hopefully more people will add to this thread as they buy.

 

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the thread! You may take the win (so far) with the best deal. Christmas Eve, I walked out of the dealership with 10% off msrp and they gave me more on my trade in than what I paid for it with almost a year of ownership. I was happy with that!

 

Yeah congrats! That’s awesome!
sounds like you got a fully loaded GLB too..I can’t think of you missing any options/packages at $57k MSRP, that’s a nice ride!

 

I don’t think that I did much better than you did; what made the difference was the incentive that I happened to qualify for. That's great that you got more than you paid for the trade in (I didn't even try to trade my car in). I did see some posts on leashackr.com that reference 12% off (https://forum.leasehackr.com/t/2020-...ic-deal/212864) and 13% off (https://forum.leasehackr.com/t/2020-...-deal/212864/6). I know nothing about the economics of leasing, so I don’t know whether the discount on a lease should be comparable to a discount on a purchase. Still, my gut says that on a purchase, even at 12%, money is being left on the table.

 

I wasn’t looking to get that many the options/packages, but (as always) I suffered from mission creep. I started the process wanting a stripped down car, but one by one I decided that I wanted/needed just about each option that is on the car I bought. The expensive option that I ended up with but didn’t feel I “needed” was the Burmester sound system. But at the end of the day, I had to buy something, and at 15% off it didn’t hurt as bad as it could have.