nathanyork

I am a classic car dealer and needed a new car for my wife. We looked at everything, but finally settled on a R class, not least of which because I have a small classic Benz collection. believe it or not, after being doing this for many years, I had never been to a late model dealer auction. Anyway, after getting signed up with manheim, I hopped on a plane from Oklahoma to west palm beach for a Mercedes Financial sale. They had about 15 R classes, one with previous rear end damage went for $15,500! most sold in the 20k-26k range, most towards the lower end, but nearly all were low spec cars. Mine was completely loaded, black/tan dvd, dual A/c back up camera, nav, leather, not tex, appearance package with better wheels, pano roof and more. Everyone was after it, so I ended up paying more than I wanted, but got it at $30,500 fees included. Driving home now! needs tires and a good detail. Judging by ebay reseller prices, I think I saved $2000-$6000, not sure, but I still think a good deal given the options and colors.

Just FYI for everyone on prices etc. Thanks to all for posting, this forum has helped alot sort out questions I thought of while determining what to look for.

BallJack

Awesome. Congrats. I'm sure your wife will love the car. My wife used to drive the Honda Odyssey. After having so much headaches with that supposedly 'reliable' honda, we decided get rid of it and take advantage of the trunk money offered by MB last year. So far it's been a great experience. My wife is so happy about the switch we made. The best thing about it - it cost us almost the same as what we would have paid for another honda oddysey.

nanoera

Nice to have all the gadgets to play with. Congrats.

thegeneraltso

Congrats on the 'new' R. It does look sweeeet.

BallJack - You paid 40k on your new '08 R? That is a great deal because the '09 top-of-line Oddy is listed for $41k. The majority of '09 Oddy is around $32k.

RDriver

Good deal and congrats!

Your car MSRP was between $55-$56K and could be purchased for $50K (back then in 2007). So you paid $30K now is still very good. Only must have thing option that you'd want is the active, Bi-xenon headlights. I dont think you have it otherwise you'd have the fog front lights.

Question: How many miles been driven?

nathanyork

I was very suprised by the hugh disparity in prices. I could have bought a 2007 black/Black r350 with the AMG wheels and bumper, leather and rear air for $23,000, but after looking at how expensive and labor intensive it is to add options, such as back up camera, nav, phone etc, I thought it was best to just buy exactly what I wanted.

BallJack

Yes I did. Sticker was over $55K!

nathanyork

locally at the mb dealer, i was offered an 08 CPO with similar options to the one I bought except no rear air, no exterior appearance package, 19' wheels the light wood, and did not have leather for $38k it had 19k miles.

nanoera

Nathan,

hands down for getting the options you want at the time of purchase.
Or you'll be sweating like hell in your garage with one after another retrofitting.

I like your center console. My kids have ruined the carpet in the middle...

mitaka

Congrats. Nice Ride. Enjoy...

mkaresh

Interesting that so many people were after this vehicle, when they haven't sold well as new cars. At the right price...

TPAbnz

Sorry to be contrary, but price seems really high. These aren't selling well, even new.

R. Reyes

That's funny. There are 4 in my neighborhood. I'm still trying to track the neighbors down, so I can put up a pic, and I can't drive down the road w/out seeing an R now a days.

nathanyork

You are somewhat right. I have talked to a few of my highline used car dealer friends and they will not buy them unless they have pano roof and good colors even better if it has good wheels. Because of this there seems to be a huge gulf in prices. I noticed it at the auction. the tan and blue ones without much options traded in the very low 20's even with low mileage. The silver and black ones, some with equipment went for mid 20's and mine that was pretty well loaded and black/tan a very rare color combo sold for $30k. I did pay at the top end of wholesale, but it was exactly the R we were looking for, which up until that time was the only car that came close in options and color after 3 months of searching even in the retail market. I do think that they are selling fairly well on the second hand market though, as all the ones I had been tracking in good colors with decent options, often were gone fairly quickly. People seem to be much more interested in them when priced at $20-$40k. I think that MB is sending pretty stripped cars to the dealers now, making the new ones cheaper in the short run, but I think much less desirable. We personally wanted a luxury hip alternative to a minivan for our small family. why buy one with vinyl interior, no rear entertainment, nav, back up camera and ugly wheels at $45-55k new? It seemed the last ones that were fairly well loaded were 07's and 08's. All the 09's I looked at with several new dealers were not optioned well.

TPAbnz

Good deal for your 'hood! The MB sales figures speak for themselves. R-class sales off 74% with 190 units sold nationally? Sorry, but I'm sure your car is really nice but it's a huge disappointment for MBUSA and yes, IMHO I think the OP got caught in auction frenzy and overpaid. But, if he's happy, that's the most important thing! No need to seek price validation here.

Mercedes-Benz USA April 2009 Sales Overview
Model Apr '09 Apr '08 Monthly % YTD 2009 YTD 2008 Yearly %
C-CLASS 4,274 6,850 -37.6% 16,304 23,991 -32.0%
E-CLASS 1,795 3,208 -44.0% 7,645 11,774 -35.1%
S-CLASS 1,159 1,775 -34.7% 3,391 6,571 -48.4%
CL-CLASS 122 275 -55.6% 522 1,073 -51.4%
SL-CLASS 502 518 -3.1% 1,405 1,651 -14.9%
CLK-CLASS 999 1,110 -10.0% 3,801 4,534 -16.2%
SLK-CLASS 305 504 -39.5% 1,082 2,049 -47.2%
CLS-CLASS 255 706 -63.9% 1,245 2,678 -53.5%
R-CLASS 192 735 -73.9% 1,094 3,542 -69.1%
M-CLASS 1,838 2,582 -28.8% 6,221 12,089 -48.5%
G-CLASS 50 70 -28.6% 191 347 -45.0%
GL-CLASS 1,205 1,938 -37.8% 4,213 7,619 -44.7%
GLK-CLASS 1,869 - 7,685 -
GRAND TOTAL 14,565 20,271 -28.1% 54,799 77,918 -29.7%


Copyright © 2009, Mercedes-Benz USA

AsianR350

Thanks for the update bro.

That is good. Sales number will not bother me and I do not care how many Rs they have sold because mine is keeper and drive until it dies.
What i do know is they do better than U.S market (About $130.000 U.S dollar) over Southeast Asia like china.
The less MB USA sales for the R, it makes mine more unique on the road.
I still love my R. It rides and the handling are superb for its size that carry seven and beats most mini vans and SUVs.

TPAbnz

I agree; I test drove one for a week. Definitely a ride that rivals the S-Class.

rosswell

A sweet palestinian sales girl at the MB dealer shook my hand and told me the R is the most comfortable driving car there is in the line up (key word comfortable ... hmmm . Anyway Mine too is a keeper for "in the family" use when I'm done with it, and I WILL get another MB - when the kids move on. Maybe an SL 500.

You can always get a good deal on factory wheels used in the States since there is low demand for those - but I do Like the factory designs of four wheel types - the AMG 19s, the '09 R class 19s, the original 5 twin spoke (or ten spoke 18s), and the "Alanz" .

Smart to buy one with the options you want. It's a b**tch putting them in afterwards - I now have my foglights done - just need the dealer to activate the things afteer $500 bucks in parts or thereabouts (installed myself).

R. Reyes

Oh, I'm not saying that from a Manufacturer stand point the sales are indeed disappointing and depressing. I'm saying that in the "FAMILY" group, the car in indeed really starting to make a dent (most say that price-point is the main factor) in the family/older that still need to carry 4+ group. A lot of the R owners I'm speaking to have purchased their R CPO and were at least 1 year old and approx. $10-25k off of new sticker.

R. Reyes

Agree. I thought I would simply add what I wanted ala BMW cars. Very disappointing. However, my R will be a long-term car, kids are small now and sometimes room is at a premium, but as the kids get bigger 10+ the car is going to shine like no other. My R will for sure be a 100,000+ mile car.