PUZZ1

My E500 is 1/2 way through a 4 year lease. I'd like to potentially trade it for a new ML. How friendly is MB Credit going to be on this going from one account to another? Is there any slack that get be cut on the negative equity or is it mutually exclusive (i.e. I may as well be a new guy off the street)?

bradeer

Unfortunately you will have to go to term with your lease. I recently went through this with a baloon payment on my E320(NEVER DO THIS LOAN OPTION). I went back to the dealer I bought the car, and where my father got his and they basically said no can do. With a lease they might give you a break if you had 3 months left. Good thing you got an E500 becuase if you have to be stuck in a lease, you couldn't be in a better car!

Duane

Your screwed, I have 5 payments left on my cl and they will not do a damn things. And I am leasing another car through them.

Duane

sosh

No your not screwed. Read your contract. It plainly says that you can't do this. If abiding by the agreement you made is being screwed I would not care to do business with you. You can purchase the vehicle from MBCC at any time. Why not do this and trade it in.

Duane

You can buy out the car if you can handle losing 30k. My cl55 is worth 60k and the payoff is 89k. Mercedes Benz has a prepayment penalty unlike several other financial companies which adds another 5k. Several other manufactuers offer incentives to get into another car or will let you return the car early at no cost to the consumer especially with less than 6 months less.

sosh

When I went from my 01 E Class to my 05 E Class I got repeated offers from MBCC to take the car back early (6 mos) at no penalty if I took a new E Class at that time. I did not do it and waited till my 01 lease was up to lease my 05. Perhaps the person that formulated your lease on your CL55 tailored the lease to keep your monthly payment where you wanted them. The figures you quoted are so far different from the actual value that it seems MBCC will take a big hit and thats not normal. The pay offs are generally high but not that far off. The biggest problem I had with MBCC was when I went to extend the lease on my 02 ML500 for a year so I could take an 06 ML500 they wanted the same figure I was paying since the 02 was new. I had my dealer intervene and they reduced the payment by over 200 per month.

Duane

All Mercedes Lease's though MB Credit have a pre payment penalty, its clearly in the contract and the reason I bought my e55 and not leased it. Sometimes they do offer incentives if you have a few months left and are coming out of an e class or m, but they do not have much sympathy for someone coming out of a cl55. I have tried every possibillity because I really want to get rid of the car but its just not possible. Once it gets to about two payments I most likely will pay it and give it back. The payments are 1744 per month so right now it would cost me about 10k plus over miles to return it now.

bradeer

Mercedes does make it easy for you to get into the car for sure, but God forbid you might want to trade out and get something else. You really have to LOVE the car because if you buy, the damn thing plumets like a stone in water. I believe that doing a short term lease is always best, and if the payment scares you just put more money down. I did this baloon payment option which was a farce. I'm glad that nightmare is over!

sosh

Putting money down is not the only answer. You can also put a refundable substancial deposit at lease inception and reduce your payment over a hundred per month. This is returned to you at lease end. However I understand that this option is only for top tier credits. I have done this several times. All of this thread supports my theory that leasing is only beneficial for those that have a deductable business use for the vehicle. If you are leasing only because its the only way you can afford the payments you are driving the wrong class of vehicle.

bradeer

I forgot about that option as well, being in Real Estate it's the only way I'm going to drive a Benz. Leasing for me is the way, but I agree with you totally!

jangy

I don't get the points here. Why is a lease bad, jus because MB doesn't wan to take the hit of dumping a car? Either way (buy or lease), you took a new car and are trying to get rid of it after 2 years. Why would you think that you aren't going to be upside down on the value? What does leasing have to do with it? It is no different with a 5 year loan. You think any of you that "buy" can sell the car after 2 years and NOT lose money? Just crazy. There are many differences between loans and leases, and the tax write off is only ONE minor incentive. It is all about when and how you choose to pay. Either way, you will pay, not MB. Lease means you pay for a smaller portion now and then the rest later. Loan means you pay more now and less later.
It is not about leasing because you can't afford to pay more. Its about leasing to pay less for the same thing! Lease or buy, nobody is going to drive a $50K to $100K car without some resources, so Sosh can quit thinking he has it all. Lets see.... what ignorant stereotype statement can I make? If you really had money, you wouldn't even consider driving an ML. Yeah, that is it!!

sosh

Jangy, I think you have this twisted around. Run realistic real world numbers for a lease vs 100% finance in both scenarios, 100% write off and personal use, non write off. Include all fees and taxes. You will see that a lease only makes financial sense in a write off situation. In a personal use sitiuation the finance makes more sense. Be sure to include the disposition/sale of the vehicle. With a lease you have no equity and in effect are renting the vehicle. In a business lease situation there is no depreciation and recapture to deal with. In a personal use finance situation at the end of the term you have equity in the vehicle and own it 100%. By the way the reposession rates on personally leased vehicles is about 4 times higher than financed vehicles per hundred. This indicates to me that more marginal buyers do a lease to put the payments which are lower in a bracket they can afford. If they have equity in it the last thing they want to do is to lose that equity. In the real world the most inexpensive way to obtain a vehicle is to write a check for it. Thats what I do and lots others do for personal use vehicles.Its not quite as simple as a pay me now or pay me later situation as you had stated.

ajf1

why don't you try swapalease or any other similar service?

jangy

Actually, it is as simple as I stated. Do your own side by side and count the money you pay. Be objective and open minded and you will learn something. Be subjective and stay stagnant. I don't care.

Here is the "real" life comparison you asked for:

LEASE OPTION:note that this is a quote from MBUSA and involves ASKING price only. Any added negotiation is simply added benefit to me!
"Advertised 39 month lease payment based on MSRP of $49,025...Total monthly payments equal $17,511. Cash due at signing includes $3,000 capitalized cost reduction, $795 acquisition fee and first month's lease payment of $449. No security deposit required. Total payments equal $21,306.... Purchase option at lease end for $28,942.75 "
In summary: Pay $3795 down (now), $450 per month, and $28,943 in 3 years (later) FOR A TOTAL OF $50249

Purchase option: plunck down $50K on day 1 (NOW) and $0 after any time (LATER)

Now, this includes ABSOLUTELY no consideration for tax write offs (which those of us that invest can use), devaluation of the dollar (I'd rather pay you $50K for ANYTHING later than sooner), Opportunity costs associated with dropping your money early and NOT investing it, etc.

Tell me where I am missing something here? Again, try to stay open minded and learn. if you want to be snobosh and stubborn, then that is your option. It still does not change reality. Either way, we both ended up paying $50K and own the crappy *** used car in the end, so all the BS about equity is a mute point.

End of free lesson.

sosh

What you are missing is the sale of the vehicle on the purchase end and the small return fee on the lease end. You also missed the tax benefits on the deductable situation. Interesting though, I have never been charged the capitol cost reduction or the acquisition fee by MBCC. I volentarally put down a refundable deposit to reduce the monthly payments by over a hundred dollars. My current ML 500 is the 5th I have leased thru MBCC since 1998. all leases have been similar for me except in term, some have been 39 mos, 36 mos and 48 mos.Remember also with a write off situation the entire lease is paid in pre tax dollars and that amounts to about a 35 percent discount and vs a purchase option where the depreciation is over 5 years and there is a recapture for the amount of the sale price of the vehicle when sold.