This is my 1st time custom ordering a car for a lease. In the past, I was able pick out of inventory. I called several California dealers about custom ordering a 2022 GLE450 4Matic.

1. Some let me order the car first with no obligation to purchase. We would negotiate/sign at delivery

2. Others require negotiate/sign before custom ordering

Whats pros/cons of each? I'm skeptical why dealer would let you custom order without commitment to purchase, seems shady.

 

California law allows you to back out of a purchase at any time, even get your deposit back, right up to the time you take delivery. Effectively option 1 applies in all cases regardless of what the dealer says.

 

I was in the same boat as you. I used to pick a car on the lot but with these shortages I had to order mine. I am in Florida so I cannot comment on California law, but option 1 lets you walk away should something happen or if they try to charge you a crazy "market adjustment". Additionally a con of that is the dealership may try to play games and sell that car out from under you if they can get more money from someone else. Also if you do end up walking way from the car the dealership will not have a problem selling the car to someone else. However, if it's an uncommon build they may charge a refundable deposit because that unit will be harder to move.

When I did mine back in October 2021 (with delivery being December 2020, but it was delayed until the end of February 2021) all I had to do was sign a build sheet (not even a purchase order or contract) and they ordered the car. Although I started my order in October 2020, I was working on the price with my sales guy on pricing a little less than one month before I was supposed to take delivery in December. Then in February when the car was actually on the way to the dealership we finalized the price right before I walked in to sign the papers and take delivery.

Since this is your first order, here are some tips I learned from my experience:

• Your GLE will most likely be delayed (especially now that things are worse than they were back in December 2020).
• If you are considering getting a certain option but you are on the fence, add it to your build anyway. You will usually have 2-4 weeks to make changes before the order is locked in but the option will be in there just in case you miss the deadline. (this happened to me and I couldn't get the AR package).
• Not sure how far you are into the process, but test drive a few different GLEs in your area (if possible) to see the different options and colors.
• Due to the current part shortage there may be some options that you will end up getting a credit for (somewhere it was posted that GLEs are not coming with wireless charging so those builds got credits).
• Try to get everything in writing from the dealership. This can be helpful if you need to reach out to corporate about any issues (I ended up getting a free maintenance plan out of it for my lease).

 

Laws aside, dealers will order a car without a committed sale because they will sell the car days after it hits the lot in this market. Nearly zero risk that the car won't immediately sell.