Hi,
As some of you may know, i've been deciding on the GL or S550. I've pretty much made up my mind and will go with the S550 4matic next week. I want to hear your comments on the following lease offer:

08 S550 4matic
- PII
- Ipod
- wood steering wheel

Dealer said it's at invoice price. But I couldn't get the invoice price nor the money factor and such yet. The monthly payment is about $1620 for 12,000miles and 39 months. For 15,000 miles, it's about $1660/mo. I will have to pay all the taxes up front. And the total drive-off is somewhere around $7-8K. It'll be leased in New Jersey.

1. Is the lease offer too expensive?
2. Since it's towards the end of January, will I get a better deal by negotiating or should I wait until February and hope that MB will have a better lease rate?

Thank you very much in advance.

 

I would go with 15000 miles /year option. The payment seems fine but I don't think you should have to put down any $$$

 

Is car sitting on lot...or an ordered car? (Expect maximal disct on car in inventory)

Is dealer/salesguy straight-shooting/reasonable re: process? Is dealer known for good svc for custs who buy cars at dealer? Suspect S-Class is available near invoice at many dealers, so be picky re: dealer/salesguy....

IIRC, margin on MB's is 7%...and dealers get some more % pts of profit w/various holdbacks....but "invoice" as they claim is roughly 93% of MSRP....

So, in NJ, on a leased car, one pays ?7% sales tx on entire negotiated price of car up-front? Or is it ?7% of amt financed (e.g., $40K financed if it's a $100K car w/60% residual value)? Is dealer using MB Credit or some bank to underwrite lease? Compare termination fees/early termination provisions on lease....IIRC, some banks have various crappy provisions in lease fineprint, esp in Eastern US....

Be certain none of the drive-off includes any capital cost reduction, i.e., it should be a $0-down lease....

Lease pmts you cite sound roughly reasonable on quick glance....

Is poss that lease pmts/discts will be slightly more attractive in a mth or two as high-end economy is slowing (esp in NYC region as '08 will be a tough yr for investment banks)...but suspect diffces will be minimal if already getting a car at invoice....

Would opt for no. of miles that makes sense for your needs....if will likely drive 12K mis/yr, look at what lease charges for any excess miles (if, for ex., end up driving 13K mis/yr)....IIRC, extra miles on MB leases are fairly cheap...so rarely makes sense to pre-pay for more miles than likely will use....

Good luck

 

Thanks a lot for the replies. It's very helpful.

Sorry that I don't have the detailed information, like money factor, extra mileage cost, etc. It's a good referral from a friend who bought many cars there. They are honest and straightforward as far as we know. But we'll do our due diligence.

The larger pre-paid amount is for the tax. Let's say the car is at $95000 MSRP. Residual is at 50% based on the Jan lease rate. Do I only pay sales tax on (Sales price minus residual value)? And if so, I think I'm paying about $3000 on sales tax and $1300 gas guzzler tax upfront. That's just my guess at the moment. Should find out more next week.

And we will have to pay $795 acquisition fee and first month payment which is about $1600. So my calcuation comes out to be about $6700 without other doc fees and such. so, I don't think there's any cap cost reduction.

And the car is available at the lot now. The salesperson we know well said there's no room to go any lower. Do you know if we can ask them to throw in anything extra to sweeten the deal? And we will try to shop around today to get more quotes as well. And I'm still debating on whether I should wait until the February rates to come out. Will the lower interest rate helps to bring down the money factor for next month?

Thanks again.

 

for $40 more I would go with 15K miles. Also you are better off not putting any money down on a lease. Check to see how much your payment goes up if you have no money down.

Looks like your car is 96K, with nothing down with 15K a year you will likely be between 1700-1800 a month

 

There are alot of web sites on the web that can give you an accurate invoice price. I would start with edmunds.com and price it out with the options you want.

 

I finally pulled the trigger yesterday and got the 08 S550. Majestic black with savanna interior, P2, wood steering, Ipod. Majestic black looks better that I expected. Thank everyone for all the helpful posts on mbworld.

 

Would you mind sharing the specifics on the lease? lease amount; duration, residual and MF? In the market also but the posted MB MF are crazy.

 

Sorry that I don't have the contract with me. My business partner signed the deal for me after I told him the monthly payment sounded about right (I know that's not the best way to negotiate on lease). It's about $1570/mo plus tax for 39 months, 12000mi/yr, no down payment, just minimum drive off.

According to my buddy who got many cars through this dealership, he couldn't push any lower. And we feel that the deal is reasonable and we want the car now. So, we settled on this number.

Hope this helps.

 

congrats!

 

Sounds good, mind posting the dealership and your contact there?