Savvvy

Hello from Atlanta!!!!!!

I'm in love with the GLS450. The 2017's are in at my local dealership and my salesman worked up a price based in the options I wanted. How do I know if I'm getting a good deal? Can I still negotiate price on a lease? The MSRP is 83 and the selling price is 82. The 36 month price w/ 2500 down (7,500 miles) is 1351... This sounds like a lot to me.

Help! I'm a newbie. I want this car but for a reasonable payment.

bonboon

the quality of your lease is directly correlated to the homework you do. asking if your lease is good is the bare minimum due diligence you could do: you need to commit to better understanding the components of the loan. with all the information available via the internet, you have no excuse not to.

secondly, don't dumb down your lease to a monthly payment. that is playing directly into the seller's hands. know what makes up that payment otherwise you will get steamrolled.

couple things for you to consider:

lease means you borrow money to finance the value of the car lost during the course of the lease. so you should find out what the dealer thinks the car is worth at the end of your lease given the amount of miles you put on it. compare that to what you think you could sell it for, private party.

borrow rate (money factor). find out what you are being charged to borrow that money. compare that to what you could get if you were to use a home equity line of credit to purchase the car, or a bank/credit union loan, etc.

cost of vehicle: do you think 1k off of msrp in atlanta is a good discount or crappy? i know nothing about your market but i'm guessing you can do much better than that.

know the cost/benefit of putting money down up front.

gotta do these things on your own..it's in your best interest for this and every subsequent car acquisition

Savvvy

Hi!! Thank you for responding. I am here doing just that! Trying to educate myself on Mercedes Benz. I have leased my whole life; I understand the cost components. However, I have never leased a European vehicle. If it helps to frame it better, my family is full of folks that work in the automotive industry. Being a family member gets you TONS of incentives and the other issue is that the residual value is far lower than that of European vehicle. Also there is ALWAYS supply! Now put that next to this experience, I had to wait 3 months for them to even get the color I want and there is more demand for these cars than what I'm used to. So if I wait for discounts I might not have the vehicle I want. This has left me completely turned upside down.

That's why I'm here researching and understand what aficionados like yourself look for when negotiating price.

Thanks for your help!

vkk0210

(Cap Cost - Residual)/ term + (Cap Cost + Residual) x MF = Lease payment

Based on what you wrote, You may know the above terminology.

Cap Cost is the sales price of the car.
Residual is 69% for GLS450 for April
Money Factor is standard at .002

If you already dint know: Add your local sales tax to the lease payment to get your final monthly payment. Local sales tax could be just on the monthly lease payment or the total value of the car depending on the state.

Axxlrod

Residual is 69%????

bonboon

can't be right

vkk0210

My bad..... 59% for April for 36 months at 12k Miles

bonboon

Unrelated but did you go 450 or 550? I remember your guy was telling you the diff between your 93k 450 and a 550 was 400-500/mo. You come to a decision?

vkk0210

Ordered 550. Residual 3% less than 450 for April (36/12) but money factor is same. Dealer was comparing the MF for 2016 GL450 which was 0.00086 back then to standard MF for 550 at 0.002. Looks like the MF for 550 never changes like 450's does!