mhcdancer

I'm close to buying a 2018 GLC 350e plug in. To get the options I want, I plan to special order it. I've gone on the MB build site, plugged in what I want, and got a price of $62,470. Since this is a special order, how much wiggle room do I have negotiating a price? I also plan to trade in my 2004 Ford Thunderbird convertible (under 35,000 miles with hardtop). Am I better off negotation a high trade in value for the Tbird, a lower overall price for the GLC (if so, much much), or should I stick with the price, but ask for add ons (maintenance plan, Driver Assistance package, extended warranty)? Thanks!

ajgraham

Ultimately the way any dealer looks at it is: new car - trade in car = total. They're only looking to get that total to be as high an amount as possible.

The Benz dealer is just going to sell on your vehicle, and it adds extra time and complexity to negotiating a trade in as well which means a sales person is less likely to cut you the best deal. I would find somewhere to sell the Tbird separately at a good price, get that deal in place. Then you can just focus on shopping around for the GLC. If you're really after the best deal check out a 3rd party service like http://www.automatchconsulting.com/ who can source vehicles easily at the best prices due to them doing it day-in day-out. Note: I have no link to them and haven't used them, but they have a good reputation.

openwheelracing

It depends on how many allocations your dealer has for the 350e. These cars are hot due to the heavy tax incentives. They can only sell so many of them, and they want to maximize profit on each unit.

mike7ee

In my experience negotiation on special orders yielded less discount overall vs vehicles already at the dealerships. But there was still some, it wasn't MSRP.

nsoltz

I got 6% on a special order GLC300 4W on a special order placed last August. There are those who said I should have negotiated better and there are those who said that I got an excellent deal. I do know that a couple of other dealers merely offered $1000 off. A friend is pondering a GLC350e and was told by the dealer from whom I bought my car that the 350e is on tight allocation and at the moment they were selling at list price. Now that was 3 weeks ago, and my order was 7 months ago. So best to check with several dealerships.

Rmlasalle

nsoltz

That is an excellent discount but I suppose that a combination of the time of year (right at beginning of model run) and region (NY-NJ) in which dealers were holding prices, limited what I could negotiate. No regrets, though, since I love the vehicle.

But it raises the question of what dealers can actually net from these vehicles. It seems that the delta between list and published "invoice" is about 7%. Obviously there are holdbacks and incentives. I was wandering around showroom while having my car serviced when I overheard sales manager quote a salesman on a $100K+ E63 "Quote 'em $1k under."

Meanwhile, the answer seems to be that at least certain vehicles can be special ordered at a discount.

ACN

I got 10% on our custom order glc in the fall.

nlk10010

Just to the question of whether it makes a difference if you negotiate a high trade-in/high price or low trade-in/low price: Assuming this is not going to be a lease, of course, you're better off IMO doing the latter. The reason is you always have the option of selling your trade-in privately before the car comes in, so in that case you are left with the low selling price. If you do a high selling/high trade-in then you're left with the high price. That is, unless there is some proviso that prevents you from selling your car yourself or allows the dealer to change the price.