ysgi

Can anyone let me know if there are any 2007 or 2008 GL450's coming up for auction anytime soon.

im looking for white or pewter with a light colored interior, still under warranty. rear dvd's and backup cam. Would like a hitch too.

Thanks,


ysgi

alx

there are always plenty as lease returns are at full swing

ysgi

If anyone has any info as to whats recently sold, or whats coming up, I would really appreciate it.

Mama wants a new ride. and a happy wife = a happy life.

-ysgi

aeggroup

Here is from Manheim in PA on August 5th.
Enjoy :
2008 MERCEDES GL450 IRI SIL 4 8 Gas 27,797 $44,000
2008 MERCEDES GL450 IRI SIL 4 8 Gas 35,360 $34,500
2008 MERCEDES GL450 CPR BLU 4 8 Gas 66,092 $31,000
2008 MERCEDES GL450 IRI SIL 4 8 Gas 30,414 $39,250
2008 MERCEDES GL450 ARC WHT 4 8 Gas 15,129 $42,250
2008 MERCEDES GL450 BLACK 4 8 Gas 35,705 $36,000
2008 MERCEDES GL450 ARC WHT 4 8 Gas 40,645 $34,000
2008 MERCEDES GL450 BLACK 4 8 Gas 53,241 $35,250
2008 MERCEDES GL450 CPR BLU 4 8 Gas 39,821 $35,500
2008 MERCEDES GL450 BLACK 4 8 Gas 37,690 $36,000
2008 MERCEDES GL450 BLACK 4 8 Gas 23,406 $38,750
2008 MERCEDES GL450 VER BK 4 8 Gas 38,475 $38,750
2008 MERCEDES GL450 WHITE 4 8 Gas 27,860 $41,000
2008 MERCEDES GL550 WHITE 4 8 Gas 37,334 $51,250
2007 MERCEDES GL320 PEWTR 4 6 Diesel 52,280 $43,000
2007 MERCEDES GL320 IRI SIL 4 6 Diesel 31,281 $41,000
2007 MERCEDES GL450 SILVER 4 8 Gas 68,484 $26,800
2007 MERCEDES GL450 IRI SIL 4 8 Gas 47,208 $29,500
2007 MERCEDES GL450 PEWTR 4 8 Gas 27,798 $33,500
2007 MERCEDES GL450 SILVER 4 8 Gas 108,704 $27,500
2007 MERCEDES GL450 BLACK 4 8 Gas 63,114 $26,800
2007 MERCEDES GL450 WHITE 4 8 Gas 56,425 $31,250
2007 MERCEDES GL450 BLACK 4 8 Gas 34,151 $33,000
2007 MERCEDES GL450 ASB WHT 4 8 Gas 42,355 $32,000
2007 MERCEDES GL450 IRI SIL 4 8 Gas 33,837 $31,000
2007 MERCEDES GL450 BAR RED 4 8 Gas 47,506 $30,000
2007 MERCEDES GL450 BLACK 4 8 Gas 39,101 $36,750

next auction is tomorrow and there are at least 30-40 GL's

ysgi

THANK YOU !!!

I wish I had access to that site.


-ysgi

kevblah

i dont get it, if you don't have access to the auctions, how do you plan on getting one from the auction?

ysgi

There are local dealers that will buy for me at a 5% premium.

But I am being so picky as to what we want that I dont want to be a nuissance to them. If I can find what I am looking for on my own, then tell them what I found, they will bid for me.

-ysgi

aeggroup

Dealers in NY take up to $500 fee, go with you to auction and buy a car.

ysgi

$500 - wow, thats good.

Maybe I'll keep looking for a new dealer. Especially if all they are doing is sitting on the computer and bidding when I tell them to.

If anyone knows of a better way, let me know, please

-ysgi

Benz-O-Rama

On top of the dealer's fee, keep in mind that you'll likely have to pay seller's fees, transportation fees, and it'll probably need some sort of reconditioning in the form of tires, brakes, etc...

Add a few grand to those Manheim figures, and that's what you'll truly be paying.

aeggroup

On top of dealer's fee - you need to pay auction fee, which is about $400.
This is basically it. Dealer can use his dealer's plates and you may drive your car home after it payed off at auction. After that you go to DMV and get a registration.

ysgi

benz-o-rama sounds like a dealer.

aeggroup

I think he's not. He bought a truck from , I beleive, Texas dealer not so long ago and drove it home 2 days. Dealers never buy cars from another dealership, if they can go to auction and buy it there.

ysgi

I mean those are the words that a dealer would say to me to discourage me from buying from an auction.

But the way I see it is... A little hard work never killed anyone. I'm just looking at ALL my options. And trying to think outside that damn box.

Benz-O-Rama

Not a dealer. But have investigated the auction route before. The price you see listed in the Manheim reports are not the price you'll be paying. If you happen to find a car that needs NOTHING, which is rare, you'll only pay the dealer's fee and auction fees. Keep in mind that previous owners are not going to do a complete brake job and purchase 4 new tires for a car their getting ready to turn in off lease. The car's that need no reconditioning, will fetch a premium at Manheim.

kevblah

That's not entirely true. Beyond the $4-500 auction fee, and maybe a few hundred bucks for tires and/or towing, there are many cars (especially cars from Mercedes Financial aka lease returns) that need close to nothing for them to be road ready. You're making it sound like you'll have to spend thousands on top of those transaction prices to get a decent car.

Although I don't endorse retail buyers at auto auctions, there's nothing I can do about it, so let me just say that be fully aware that when you purchase a car at auction, it's YOURS! There's no warranty or guarantees. It's the risk you assume for getting the car for less.

Benz-O-Rama

When I purchase a new(used) vehicle, I expect it to be in like new condition. I'm assuming anyone ponying upwards of 30K, expects the same out of his new GL. If it needs pads and rotors, you're looking at $1000.00, unless you take it to an indy and do it yourself. If it needs tires, you're looking at another $500-$1000.00, depending on wheel size and level of tire. Of course, the dealer usually takes care of these needs as part of the reconditioning. At another couple hundred for detailing, and if its a dark color car, it will most certainly need paint correction. That's another couple hundred, or even over a grand in some cases. My SL600 needed $800.00 worth of paint correction for me to be satisfied. And it only had 12K miles on it, when I bought her. Light color cars will show less defects, of course.

I'm not saying deals can't be had at auctions, they can. But people see these auction numbers and think they can just waltz up and purchase a car at that price. It's very misleading.

As a current owner of 3 MBs, I've certainly learned my lesson on how to buy these cars. With these cars, you generally want to pay extra for a clean one, rather than price shop.

Good luck at the auction, it can be fun or completely disastrous. Make sure to get one that's still under warranty.

aeggroup

It depends what car you buying.
First of all - if a car goes on green light - auction garantees engine and transmission. If you check this car and it does not work properly - you can return it ( it happened with my car, that I was trying to sell at Manheim and it had bad transmission).
Second of all - if you buy a car, which is still on manuf. warranty ( 2007 and up) and sold on green light - the worse thing can be - you may change brakes, tires and rims. Everything else covered by warranty and you can go to the dealership and fix it for free using warranty.
You take a chance when you buy a car out of warranty on AS-IS light.
This is the worse possible scenario.

aeggroup

How is your RR. I sent you PM long time ago - you never replied. Is there anything wrong ?

kevblah

There can be a lot of bull**** things that don't fall under green light coverage and warranty coverage, things that dealers are used to and retail buyers are not. For example, bent rims. I was just saying that there's a risk associated with buying from the auctions, especially if you are an unexperienced retail buyer.

DoctorJeff

So if you purchase as-is, out of warranty, via Manheim, don't you have options to get extended warranty after you get the car home? I realize this doesn't cover tires/brakes, but for the rest of the machine?

Benz-O-Rama

You did? Crap, sorry about not responding.

Rover is great. Drove it from Houston to Maryland when we purchased it, and just got back driving it down to Orlando (Disney) and back.

I had my local dealer give it a good once-over and update every damn module that needed it.

Currently it has a bit of a coolant smell near the engine compartment but can't find any leak. I could just be imagining things though.

My Rover is a great example for this thread. Local Rover dealers had the exact same truck for low 50's, with similiar mileage. My buddy, who is a dealer, showed me the Manheim numbers for 2007 supercharged Rovers, and if memory serves, they hovered around 43K or so. The Texas, non-Rover dealer, that I purchased from for $45K, stated that it was in like-new condition. When I got there, it certainly was, cosmetically. But, the tires were close to the wear bars. OEM tire replacements are $1100, I opted for a less expensive set at $800.00

Dealer also found that I'm going to need brakes within the next 5K miles or so. Chalk up another 750.00 for that.

So, a truck that was "in like-new condition" needed brakes and tires, for $1550.00

I still came out a couple grand ahead, even with travel expenses.

Point is, had I purchased from a local Rover dealer, the truck would've most likely already had these things done, and charged the customer for them.

So, can you buy cars from auction? Sure, but budget another couple grand for fees and reconditioning. You're not going to get a like new, dealer-lot-condition vehicle at auction pricing.

aeggroup

Good point. Totally agree.

ysgi

I guess my point with this thread is that I can do or get the work done and still come out ahead. Its not like a dealer will buy a car, do all the upgrades and not make a profit.

So if you buy from the dealer, you are still paying for having all those things done. And from some of the a-hole dealerships that I've been to, I'd rather oversee the work and make sure its done right.

For example. One of my clients is a body shop. We were talking recently about how dealers come to them with used cars and get the 'cheap fix' method. Meaning that they want any damage fixed as cheaply as possible - just to be able to sell the car. Quality doesn't matter.
So schleps like you and I THINK we are getting a good deal, but really we may be getting a polished turd.

I know not all dealerships are like this, but in this economy, I would't put it past any of them.

aeggroup

I’m not a dealer, I just have an online access to Manheim auction using my friend’s id and password. That’s what I understood how this game works.
If you wanna buy a car – there is pre-sale inventory, which you can browse to find a car you want. Any car has a grade – from 1 to 5. 5 – is excellent, 1 – is bad. It shows you the picture of the car, MMR – which is average price at auction, in-service date – which is the date of when warranty started ( so you can calculate when it’s ending ) and mileage.
In my example – I’m looking for Range Rover – 2007 or 2008. I found one online at one of Long Island’s dealers. He’s asking price is $35,900. I clicked on Carfax and it showed me this car was bought at Manheim 2 weeks ago ( you can find it by mileage and color) for $29,500. From my browsing experience I see this truck with this mileage ( 46K ) you may buy at auction only if the grade will be less than 3 ( so, so ) assuming that seller is Land Rover leasing ( which is good ). So, the guy bought it, wax it, clean it inside and sells for $6K above.
He’s probably will come down to $34K . After you buy it from him – you should probably change brakes and tires ( I don’t think rims are bad in RR, it’s SUV ). So..if you go to auction with dealer – you will buy the same truck for $29,500, pay the dealer $500, auction fees $400, wax it and wash it inside for another $300-$400, change brakes and tires for about $1,500. This particular truck is still on warranty for 4 months, so the rest you go to RR dealer to fix ( if any ). Total is $32K. Plus unexpected things – another $500.
It is still less than $34K, which you’re gonna pay to the dealer without going to auction and do the necessary maintenance( brakes, tires ).
Another point – when you at the auction – you can look and inspect a car by yourself visually for scratches and dents, so you can estimate ( if any ) spending for cosmetic work.
Usually those kind of cars ( RR or GL ) are in good hands.
This is the picture how I see it. If anybody from knowledgeable people may point me to my mistakes – thanks a lot.

Good Luck to all and happy driving.

P.S. Oh my God...I typed so much and probably sound too annoying