Leased a 2017 black GLS450 for 3 year/10k $32000 total cost
 

2017 gls450 black
MSRP: $78700
Selling Price: $74500

Security Deposit: $8400
Total Due At Signing:$9630
Monthly Payment (incl. tax): $877

Sales Tax Rate: 9.5%

People in my area are rich. Black GLS sells fast. Price of black gls450 is very hard to negotiate. Only get around $5000 off.
Dealer tried to mark up MF, but after I showed them standard MF and quote from other dealers, they seemed to give me a good number.
Overall I think it is fantastic deal!

Looks like your total cost between down payment and monthly payment is 41k to me. Or are you saying that the 9600 due at signing includes the 8400 sec deposit?

Assuming the latter, 32k out of pocket over three years on a brand new 75k dollar car sounds pretty good to me too!

I've never understood car leasing maths, but to me 36*877+9630=41202 USD. How does this work ?

In any event, congrats on your acquisition. Still 10 months to go for me !

Pete

i like dumbing it down like this...

for any lease you are paying roughly 4 things: the value the car loses of the course of the lease, sales tax, interest on the money you are borrowing from the bank to lease the car, any additional bank "fees."

to really dumb it down, focus on the first item: the value the car loses. that's a fairly easy thing to estimate.

so, let's start with what the car is worth after three years of ownership. if mbusa is saying the residual is 50% at the end of a three year lease, they are saying the car retained 50% of its value after three years. or conversely, you can think of it as having lost 50% of its value. if you agree with their assessment of the cars value vs what you think you could get for it in the open market on your own if you were to buy the car and sell it yourself, proceed to the next step....

so we now have a good conservative starting point for a monthly payment: taking 50% of the what you pay for the car. whether it's MSRP or a number you negotiate from MSRP doesn't really matter, for the sake of simplicity. so a car that costs you 75k with a 0.50 residual (i.e. loses 37.5k of it's value after 36 months) should cost 1042/month. factors that impact how far north of 1042/month you pay are the rate you are borrowing money for (MF), whether or not you pay a security deposit, the sales tax rate, and any other dealer fees etc.

a rough estimate of the sales tax is easy to calculate. take your monthly payment and multiple by the sales tax where you are registering the car. if it's 6% your payment should now equal 1100. (1042 + 1042*.06).

next step: i like taking this number and adding to it what my finance charges for 36 months would be had i bought the car outright using chase or bank of america or whoever. that's easy to figure out: 75k new car loan over 60 months @ 3% you will have paid, say, 4800 dollars in interest after 36 months. 4800/36 = 133/month on average.

so take that number, add it to 1100 and you have 1233/month for a good comparison point vs what the dealer is offering you as a no money down, no security deposit, monthly lease payment.

compare 1233 to what he offers...if he's offering 1400 or something he is juicing you on the MF (higher interest rate and/or higher "fees"). you can then better identify why you are paying more than you might expect by multiplying the MF * 2400 to get the APR. that helps you drill down whether he's charging you too much to borrow money from MBFinancial (or whoever the leasing bank is) and/or you are being assessed egregious fees.

i'm not a lease expert but i look at it in this basic way. other people can offer a much more informed opinion, i'm sure. the way i've described looking at a lease is a way to catch a really terrible or a really impossible deal. at the very least, this method is good for that.

looking at the numbers above that the OP put out there, they don't add up to me unless i'm missing something or there are some typos there. those numbers imply a money factor of zero

ps you are my hero for driving a 500 SEC...all time great benz

Yes, I should say drive off $9600 including $8400 refundable security deposit.

So total cost to lease is $($9600-$8400) + $877*35 = $32000 :)

Why thank you good sir, although I don't know if I am worthy of being someone's hero.


It's got about 70K miles on it.


Pete

This 'security deposit', what is it for, exactly ?


I'm just trying to understand how this works on your side of the pond. I've Always considered leasing a losing proposition.


The kind of deal you're getting isn't available here. WhenI ask MB to lease me a 78K car over 36 months, they're going to want 10 up front, 31 months of around 1.8 K and a residual of about 10K.
Which is why I've always preferred just buying them.


Pete

Congratulations!
 

That's great! Do you mind me asking where you live? I am looking to lease a new 2017 GLS in the next week in NYC. (Currently drive a 2014 GL.)

It is for when you turn the car back in if the car is at less that predicted value, they (the lease co.) do not have to strangle you to get the $$$s adjusted.

I live in San Francisco bay area.

I dont think yours is a better deal. Here is the math:

The number deal gives is based on MSRP $69000

cost to lease: $679*36*1.09 + $5568 = $32211

Current residual is 58%. To lease a $79000 MSRP one, you need to consider $10000 difference between $79000 and $69000 msrp and will have to pay at least $10000*.42*1.09 = $4500 more.

So total cost to lease my car based on information given is around $32211 + $4500 = $37000.