Advice on buying at lease end???
 

I have a 2018 S560 on order, but as Jerry Seinfeld would say “I’m just not gaga” about the facelifted S and have not been gaga about a car since I took delivery of my 2013 W221. These cars drive beautifully, but I’m having second thoughts about getting a new one, especially when the only thing I’m looking forward to is the Rear Cross Traffic Alert. So, I’m rethinking the idea of just buying my 2015 that only has 33K miles on it and is in near perfect condition. Maybe buying an extended warranty, etc.

I’ve heard rumors of having a dealer take your car in as a lease return and then turning right around and selling it back to you as a CPO, extending the warranty and saving you money at the same time. Has anyone done this before? If so, I would very much like to hear how you went about the process.

Any tips on negotiating directly with MBFS?

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks,

If you trust your dealer that is 100% the best way to buy it at lease end. My buy out was 79k the dealer offered to sell it at 65k with it cpo. However I have heard stories about dealerships raising prices for unexpected reasons once you go to buy it back.

Take it to a couple of dealers and ask them what they would give you on trade in for your car. Whatever that value is, then return to your original dealer and offer to buy it at , say, $1000 above that number. If they don't accept that, then turn it in and get a new one.

This might be a little tricky. Your dealer would need to buy the car from Mercedes Benz Financial Services (assuming that's who you have it leased through). When I've turned in lease cars to my local dealer, they notify MBFS that they have the car and that's been "grounded." MBFS then makes arrangements for the car to be picked up from the dealership and taken to auction. It's at this point that the dealer could buy your car from the auction and then turn around and sell it to you. MBFS may or may not want to skip the auction part and just come up with a number for the dealer to buy it. A lot of factors would come into play if MBFS would do this or not. If it does get taken to auction, your dealer would need to find out which auction the car was being sold at. The two cars I've turned in at my MB dealer in Tucson were sent to the auction in Las Vegas.

I would try both routes. Wait until the very end of the lease and offer a price to MBFS. They will decline any different price before the deadline. Of course if you have a moron on the phone, the car will go back to the dealer.
The dealer will be your go-to guy. MBS63AMG had a good idea re. price but in the end you'll have a number in your head that you are will to pay.
MBFS will try to avoid sending cars to auction because the prices are brutal for 2015 S-Classes. So your dealer will be the go-to guy.
Our last cars were bought by the dealers for local resale due to condition/options/mileage and made at least good money on our SL.

I know this thread is a month old but I just purchased a lease return S550 2015 with less than 24,000 for under $64,000. Certified preowned with new tires and original MSRP of $110,000. Just for your FYI of what is available.

I also just purchased a 15 cpo, but was going to buy out a friends lease on a 15, his buyout w mbfs was almost 68 and my dealer i bought my last cpo s550 from was going to get me the car for 61500 and cpo it. So def ask your dealer about them getting the car. I bet its cheaper than buying out from mbfs.

Our dealer has high demand for these cars (at least at the moment) and now is buying every S class that’s turned in.