Try Euro Motorcars. In Bethesda ask for Tom Pflieger in Germantown ask for Dustin Craver.

 

I bought my W212 from Bethesda as a CPO in 2017. They sold it to me with two bent rims, and at some point they opened the transmission pan and then sheered off two bolts when putting it back on. I could see the service in the history. Previous owner (lease) complained of a funky shift habit. Working in Tysons and living on the VA side burbs’, I took it to Tysons for a wierd humming noise on the highway. Also to have the deck lid spoiler corner reattached. They sat on it for nearly two weeks. Called me to say it was fixed, had a bent wheel. Picked it up, still made the same humming noise on the highway, and the rear trunk lid was scratched to hell and back from them installing a new deck lid spoiler (instead of just some new 3m tape on the corner. That’s when I took it to Silver Star Motors in Fairfax for a tip/tail inspection. Took them 5 minutes to identify the problems. Two bent rims, and asked if I had messed with the transmission. They showed me the two sheered off bolts on the pan. Pulled records and could see when Bethesda worked on the transmission.

I had the wheel warranty package. Third party company sold by Bethesda. I called them to let them know that Tysons had charged them to fix a bent wheel, when in fact they had not done a thing. It was so bluntly obvious the wheels were bent. Putting it on the lift in neutral and hand spinning the wheels made it so obvious that Stevie Wonder could have spotted it.

One time Bethesda bent the dust shield so badly on the back drivers wheel that I didn’t make it a 1/2 mile before going back. It destroyed a new rotor…

Hit a bad pothole outside of Indianapolis, golfballed the sidewall but didn’t burst the tire. Made it to the MB dealership in Indy for a new tire. They installed a used tire that was defective. Had a split in it. Discovered that when I made it back to DC, and took it to Bethesda to figure what was wrong….thats when they bent the dust shield. How they bent the shield on the rear when the tire was on the front, is a head scratcher..

Bought the GLS from Chantilly MB. Car only has one door ding on it….care to guess where it came from during a warranty claim for a squeaky driver’s side window? Note my post above…still squeaks. Ding still there. Please don’t make me recite the saga of the seat covers….

There is one common element to all of these but Bethesda….Penske Automotive Group. They own Tysons, Chantilly, and the Indianapolis dealership I visited. The turn over of staff is ridiculous at Tysons and Chantilly. On two occasions, at each dealership, the service advisor that checked in the car, were no longer working there by the time I went to pick it up. No joke.

The Tysons location? My dad bought my mom a red GLA (2019) in 2023. They had the only one on the east coast. They flew up for Memorial Day from Naples, we picked it up as a surprise for my mom, and they drove it back. Literally sitting there with my 83 year old dad, the salesman tried to slip in a ton of add ons. A $2,500 ceramic coating. $900 to activate the navigation unit. $500 for the second key. I ripped the manager’s head off. The $2,500 ceramic? A guy who didn’t speak English with a Walmart buffer and turtle wax in the back. The navigation unit, despite being advertised as having navigation? A $30 SSD card for the maps (it’s a Garmin system). The second key? Well, that’s when the phrase “bait & switch” came into the conversation. All items were dropped. Want to know how I know the guy in the back was using a Walmart buffer and turtle wax? Because they made us walk all the way to the back of the dealership to get the GD car!!! Made an 83 year old Veteran, with a cane, walk to the back for the car he just bought with cash. What a f’n disgrace!! I’d like to burn that place to the ground for that (or send ICE in there to round up the sales team).

damnit…I need by blood pressure medication now… 🤬 I hate these dealerships more than I hate Celine Dion!! And you know how badly I hate that nasty testicular terrorist!

 

They can be very slow to look at a car. I actually had my car at Bethesda once for 5 days after having made an appointment 2 weeks earlier and they hadn't even looked at it and I went and picked it up and told them to call me when they could actually look at the car. But outside of that I haven't had any issues. Bought both of my S Classes from Germantown and the experience was great both times, wound up with deals each time that were totally impossible anywhere else...and I know because I had negotiated them all over the country. Euro also never tried to give me the hard sell on anything.

My only experience with Tysons is a few visits to look at cars and each time they presented me with a ridiculously bad deal.

 

Yes, I would buy my GLS 100 times again if time goes back.

As to you comment about reliability and BMW, yes, in fact both modern Mbenz and BMWs are a piece of junk nowadays (and I meant it). If there was any other alternative within the same price range, I would take it. It seems to be a matter of luck. If you get a BMW or Mbenz and it doesn't break every other month, keep it!. I have been VERY disappointed by the dozens of electrical and drivetrain issues am reading in many modern sub-forums especially for Mbenz. Doesn't seem to be so different on the BMW side too, but Mbenz seems to be even worse on the reliability side nowadays. Cabin materials, creaks and rattles - something we never had to deal with in the past or at least wasn't that common with Mbenz, and not it's becoming the norm.

 

@nc211 Your experience basically sums up our expectation with dealers around here. We make sure they see us taking a video of the car when we drop it off and closely inspecting it when we pick it up. If I had more confidence that we could get warranty work when needed wed do our own regular maintenance to limit the exposure.

I think you buried the lead. Staff turn over is high and I think directly related to the service issues. We have mostly used MileOne because they are closer than the other terrible dealers and just about never see the same SA or mechanic twice because they have left.

The best service we ever had was in Naperville, IL. We had the same SA for the 5 years we serviced there. Any concern was immediately addressed the moment it was voiced. They never asked if we were staying, dropping off or needed a loaner, the loaner was always available. Today we have to negotiate to get a loaner and a simple oil change somehow takes 2 full days.....

In spirit of honoring the topic of this thread.. With all the negative service experiences, we will still buy again and (maybe ignorantly) from the same dealer. We buy with cash and run our cars to the ground. We only have to deal with the bad service department for few years of our total ownership. If we leased we would put some serious effort in finding a better dealership, but it simply isn't worth the effort for typically one visit a year for only the first few years of ownership.

 

It should be bury the lead. As in lead sentence or headline. But it isn’t. It’s “Bury the Lede”, and I have no idea why. I might look it up if I get ambitious.

 

I will say that the service staff at both Euro locations have been around for a long time, decades even.

 

Man, after reading all these responses I'm more uncertain than before. LOL My problem is right now I have 2 vehicles. A 2020 Ram 1500 for towing jet skis and anything else to throw in the back. It's been a great vehicle, really has. Fully loaded, drives great. But Ram like many other vehicles is just not the same anymore.
Also have a 24 i5 BMW. Had huge issues for the first year with software bugs. A crap shoot if it would charge overnight and terrible software bugs with CarPlay and other operating software issues. Tried to lemon law it but NY atty said it would be difficult. They only want slam dunks.
Now I tried to trade it in but not allowed by BMW financial. I hadn't leased in years so I was not aware of that rule, and quite honestly it never entered my mind that I would want to. I have heard that MB has that same rule about trading in before end of lease, but I think a work around for that is to lease through a private leasing company.
Any incite to this ?

Once again
Thank yo for all the responses

 

This is a typical restriction, I assume to keep the vehicles in their dealer network. When I purchased my CPO GLS I was driving a leased 2020 Acura MDX with positive equity, but Acura/Honda Financial had the same restriction. Luckily for me the MB dealer is owned by a national corporation who also happens to own a local Honda dealer and they processed the MDX trade thru the Honda dealer. As an aside, they also own the BMW dealer here which is where I found the GLS online. I talked to the used car manager at the MB dealer and he had the GLS transferred to them and certified it as part of the negotiations.

 

You can check out Equityhackr (part of the Leasehackr website). They're experts at getting you money for "hard to offload" cars!

https://leasehackr.com/blog/equityhackr

 

I assume you’re meaning a trade for another BMW model instead? That, I can see possibly in the small print, but would be a poor decision on BMW’s front, as there is no law that restricts you from trading it in at another manufacturer’s dealership. Now would that make financial sense to do? I haven’t a clue. I’ve only leased two cars in my, a 2001 Maxima and held it to the end. A 2013 Toyota Highlander to get out of a bucket of turd Volvo XC90, and bought the Toyota outright at lease maturity for the residual.

On the Toyota, I learned a valuable lesson. I cut out the dealership entirely for the buyout and dealt with just Toyota Financial. The actual dealership literally would not honor the residual number. Said they must include their own profit margin and some “refurbishing fee”. Thousands. Told them to pound sand. I share this because if you’re dealing with a dealership, then you’re dealing with a middle man in the process. Call BMW Financial directly. The amount to clear the lease is probably your residual and whatever lease payments you have left (hence financial sense?).

Hopefully the theme you see here is that yes, many of us would buy the GLS again. Some of us just live in an area where the dealership quality is spotty at best for support. I suspect a key reason for it where I live is they’re simply overwhelmed. A black Mercedes in DC is right up there with all of the wannabe secret service soccer parents with a black Chevy suburban or tahoe…

For those in my neck of the woods, that Toyota dealership was Koons in Tysons. Right across the street from the MB dealership. No wonder Joyce Koons has the biggest house in Naples, Florida…

 

Worth a shot nothing to lose.

 

I had a lot of issues with the BMW. Went to 2 places about trading it in. Both said no can do, BMWFS doesn't allow it. I haven't leased in years and found out the hard way. It is what it is. I have a feeling I would lose money on getting rid of it, only have it for 15 months of a 36. I have requested BMW take it back and get me into the same vehicle or a more expensive one X7. They refused, I will say it has gotten noticeably better in last 3 months. The software is horrible and has become more stable. It's an i5 and was crap shoot if it would charge overnight, nothing but excuses about why.
Anyway it's a lot better but I want to replace my Ram with an SUV that is comfortable. Which led me to MB. But if I lease I will definitely not make that mistake again.

 

Everyone has said they would buy it again. I wouldn't be worried about it. Dealers are hit or miss with any brand.

 

this doesn’t make sense to me. How can you not prepay the remainder of the lease and buy the car for the stated residual in the lease today? How is it not allowed to buy out a lease if the figure matches what you would pay regardless? I’ve never seen a “lock out” period in consumer finance before. In fact, I thought it was illegal to do in general. In my world of commercial finance, certain financial instruments come with a penalty payment if you refinance or payoff early, but never a total lockout period to do so.

 

You're right. You can buy out your lease at any time.

There isn't really a penalty per se, but the buyouts are usually calculated by the rule of 78s. Which front loads the interest.

You can also trade your car to another manufacturer by buying out your lease.

 

You have nothing to lose by getting a free quote from Equityhackr.

 

I am familiar with the rule of 72. How much is the rule of 72, to the rule of 78s?

 

Honestly, probably not. I have a 2024 GLS450 that I ordered and there have been far too many rattles and creaks and service trips than I ever imagined in a vehicle that cost over $100K. It's not the dealership, it's the car.

 

This is a development since COVID for most manufacturers. You can always buy out the lease for the residual plus all the remaining payments. The issue is a third party buyout. When you trade a lease car in, the dealer that is trading it buys it from the leasing company. THAT is what they are not allowing, or charging a higher buyout. So you can buy it out and then trade it sure, but you have to go through that process vs letting the dealer just buy you out of it.

This is only an issue when swapping manufacturers, BMW will trade you out of a BMW lease but BMW won't let Mercedes do that....or Carmax...or Carvana...

Manufacturers started really doing this during COVID when people had lots of equity in their leased cars and were selling them left and right.

Correct, but you have to buy it out then trade it. Can't just trade it necessarily like you typically always could do.

 

Ahh,,,ok now I understand, thanks SW! It makes sense to me now on why the dealerships are telling him no. Seems like a paperwork trick in there somewhere. Sounds like it all
falls in that market adjustment crap that played
into the supply chain nightmare back then. Explains why a brand new car with 10 miles on, was being sold as a used car for $15k more. Heard some Ford dealerships were doing that with the Bronco via a straw buyer individual in the dealership when the order wait times were at a year. That’s how they circumvented Ford’s threat of removing allotment counts for price gouging. Considering I sold a 7 year old VW with 73k miles for $21k to Carvana in 2021 (paid $32k for it in 2015), I can see why manufacturers like BMW refuse to sell an existing leased car to a dealership.

 

I agree and reached out to Equityhackr. Waiting for a response.

 

They're totally unrelated. Rule of 72 is an estimate of how long it takes to double your money at a given rate of return.
Rule of 78s as it rather arduous and complicated method of calculating the remaining interest due on a lease. It's not often used today.
https://share.google/EsWwt15jXlCjn7AE6

 

I would get a buyout quote from your lease, at least to compare the net $$$ to you.

Sales tax is an associated issue. Equityhacker seems to send a check with no tax liability, so it appears you are just selling your car to a dealership group, which would be a wholesale purchase by them. (Which is what happens when you trade your car- your actual cash value ACV is a wholesale figure.) They wouldn't pay taxes.
If you get a buyout figure from the lease company, there will be a sales tax on that purchase, because you end up owning the vehicle. However, since you're trading it at a dealership, you are only taxed on the trade difference- the difference between the sales price and your trade-in value. So you'd essentially get credit for the sales tax you paid for the buyout. (This isn't true in California, Virginia, Oklahoma, and DC, where sales tax is calculated solely on the selling price.)

I would definitely get a quote for buyout, and a quote on the ACV from the dealer where you're trading. It might take an additional step, but you might save money.
Maybe a lot, especially if Equityhackr is taking advantage and essentially Stealing your Trade.

I'd do the leg work myself.

 

It's actually aimed at customer retention.
If you have to visit the dealer to buy out the lease, they get one last crack at you.

If one of your options is to buy another Mercedes, sometimes you can leverage this "last crack" to your advantage.
Tell them you want to buy out your lease so you can buy a BMW, then when they offer you a stupidly good deal on a Mercedes, just take it! 😀