I think how the car is optioned is very important. I'll give you my opinion on the options for you to consider when evaluating one car against another. I don't think comparing MSRP's alone will tell you which car is better.

Distronic Plus / Blind Spot Assist / Parking Assistance - This is a fantastic option and a must have. I am so amazed by how much better this makes the car. I now use cruise control all the time. I never used the standard cruise control in my previous Mercedes. The Blind Spot assist will change your everyday driving. Although not much is said about parking guidance, it really does work quite well. As a bonus, this option gets rid of the ugly circles in the bumpers.

Multi Contour Seats - You'll be thankful you have these on every curve. I will never have another Mercedes without these.

Keyless Go - love it - but I didn't think I would.

ipod interface - it's not worth the money - awkward interface that doesn't connect to comand and is already obsolete because it uses the old firewire pin-out. I bought it and almost never plug-in my ipod.

Rear Camera - Find it very useful - very nice to have but not essential.

Parktronic - I still haven't gotten to the point of trusting this system. Lots of yellow and red lights that go off - but sometimes it's not clear what they are beeping at. I would keep parking assistance and the rear camera and drop this feature.

Pano Roof - it's nice - really nice. But not a must have. On the down side the side plates are made of plastic

ABC - I don't have so I can't say. Historically it has more problems than the regular suspension. It's expensive. People who have it do seem to love it, but whats not to love about the regular suspension.

Night View Assist - I doubt anyone who has it actually uses it. Definitely not worth the money.

AMG Sport package - I honestly don't think it makes the car look better, the lower air dam is prone to be damaged as are the rims with those hard-riding low profile tires. $5,630 for bolted on plastic and hard riding tires? No thank-you. But many people will disagree with me on this.

Rear Window Shades - had them in my last S and they were used maybe three times.

Designo - I don't think any color looks better than 040 black on the outside of a big Mercedes. There are some merits to the interior upgrades, but if as I did you upgrade to premium leather, purchase the rear seat package and the wood/heated steering wheel, its almost as good.

 

The guy with the Designo S550 also has an SL63 for sale. It's black with 300 miles on it. He's asking $145K. Said the MSRP is $180K. PM me if you want his e-mail address. He's selling for his sister who transferred overseas.

I'd say sell the S550 4matic if you can get $85K for it.

I've decided against the designo S. Even if he were to sell for $70K, I don't think I could get in the car everyday and look at the matte wood and be happy.

 

brand new these cars r going for 19k off new, i dont know why somebody would pay 85 for a car with 7500 miles on it

 

Thanks for all the great advice.

I pulled the trigger last night on a new 2008 S550, package 3, AMG, Ipod and wood wheel. MSRP was $101,630. Got $22,655 off list for a sales price of $78,975. It took a lot of pushing to get the that price. The deal almost fell apart in finance when I was presented with an "optional" $28 fee to cover "electronic DMV registration". I was ready to walk over the principle of being nickel and dimed on an $80K transaction. They ended up lowering the price of the car by $28 to make the deal happen.

Car drives fantastic; so much better than the leased E350 I was able to give back three months early and not have to pay the termination fee or for a set of new tires (which after 24K miles it really needed) was just the push I needed. Had to finance $15K with MB to qualify for the lease accelerator deal, but I plan to pay that off when I get my first payment notice.

Neil

 

Major congratulations. That was an incredible deal.

 

hey neil i'm looking around for a deal like urs i want to change my s430 do u have any info that could help out?

one more thing what happen with the use one

 

sounds amazing! photos!

 

I'll snap and post some pictures tomorrow. The car is silver with gray/dark gray interior. I had a chance to play with the night vision system this evening. It works well, but the headlamps are so effective that I'm not sure it's necessary. Also, it's hard to watch the screen for something you don't know is there while looking straight ahead. But it sure has the wow factor when showing off the car!

Gomdomin, let me know how I can help. I've got two dealers within 6 miles and both had about 5 2008 S550's in stock. Both dealers had exactly the car I bought. Dealer number one, offered $10K off via e-mail. Dealer number two offered $15K off. I followed up with dealer numeber two stating I could get $22K off in Southern California and he said he would match the price. I went in and test drove the car and then spent a couple of hours negotiating another $640 off the $22K offer. Was also able to get them to throw in a bluetooth adapter, two keychains and a nice pen. Having two dealers both wanting to sell a car really helped. I was surprised I had to wait over an hour to get into Finance. Both finance guys were with customers. I also figured the finance guy would try really hard to sell extended warranties and paint protection. Got a lot more pressure when I bought my daily driver (Toyota Prius).

Neil

 

Congrats, excellent deal. Now that's what I call wheel and deal! Pics!

 

You saved enough to buy a Honda Civic as a beater

 

they were do u a favor on selling the extended warrantie i would have take it because after 50000 start giving problems thats why i want to trade mine
if i get a chance to trade it i would buy the extended warrantie on the new one.

 

I considered the extended warranty. But with a list price of around $6K for the full three year extension that's a lot of money even on a complex, expensive car. Everything about the 221 series seems to be better, and very few issues are discussed on this forum. I also had a 2001 S430 that had it's share of problems. Replaced it with a 2005 SL500 that MB ended up buying back under the CA lemon law. I'll see how reliable the new S is and will consider buying the warranty before the 4/50K base warranty expires if I get nervous.

The dealer where I bought my S had a nice 08 S550 4Matic at a healthy discount. It's a $106K car marked down to $84K. Here is the link:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/ctd/890427916.html

Also, if anyone is interested in the used 08 with 14K miles, this car can be had in the low to mid sixties


http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/893453634.html

Neil

 

Awesome! Great deal especially since the 09's just went up by $3600!
Yup - this type of stuff happens everywhere not just at the Hyundia, Ford and Toyota dealerships. Sleaze bags everywhere even at "awesome upper crust luxury" dealerships like MB. I had the exact same experience at Ewing in Dallas except mine was about 2 times worse. Quite possibly the WORST experience I've EVER had buying a car. Total slime ***** over there. They added like 3-4 "doc prep/courier" type fees and since I drove from Austin I was too tired to haggle.

 

i hate that kinda stuff, they are already getting a ton of money for a car why do they feel the need to try to sneek a extra $30 out of you =/

 

They try it because in most cases the client either doesn't notice, doesn't realize they don't have to pay or just keeps quiet because it is a small amount.

I went by the dealership today to pick up the books for my car and work the sales manager over to give me a gift certificate for the accessory store rather than the bluetooth module and two key chains he promised as part of the deal, (don't need a keychain and already had a bluetooth module). Anyway, while the sales manager was "seeing what he could do" the salesman confided that MB actually pays dealers a kickback equal to the difference between MSRP and invoice after the car has been sold. This is in addition any incentives, in this case the $10K. So the true cost (assuming there aren't more incentives or kickbacks) is as follows:

MSRP $101,680
Invoice $94,715

delta $6965 times 2 is $13,930
plus the $10K incentive
Total potential profit assuming no markup of $23,930

My purchase price of $78,975

Profit of $1225

Minus $450 gift certificate for parts and accessories

Profit of $775

 

hmm i see, random question, is your benz dealer as tacky as ours is? in the "accessory shop" in ours they sell fake handbags, Coach ones with a G rather then a C, imitation Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Chanel. its really quite pitiful to see that stuff right next to a S65....

 

No, I didn't see any fake handbags. They mostly sell MB branded items; stuff out of the MB catalog. Everthing is priced high though. So my $450 credit won't really buy $450 in parts.

I've attached a couple of pictures. Hopefully they come through.

 

very nice!

 

That is horrible, I have never seen that anywhere. I would bring this up in GenBenz.