You know, I got the 2018 Dealer Ordering Guide and frankly, I am underwhelmed. I like the idea of the more advanced autonomous driving features and the 9G transmission, but that's about it. The only two colors I really liked, Palladium Silver (what I currently have) and Verde Brook are no longer available and none of the interiors are interesting/practical enough to get me to switch from the black Exclusive Napa that I have. Lastly, I much prefer my 18" wheels over the current offering and I just put on a new set of Bridgestone Serenity Plus conventional tires. Since I ordered my car, it is exactly what I wanted, with an MSRP of $116K.

So, I checked my lease. It ends on 12/31/17. The residual is $57,746.00. It has just under 30K miles, always garaged and has never been hit, painted, etc. it really does look just like new. Kind of seems like a no brainer to just pay it off, buy an extended warranty and keep it--at least for awhile.

And, there is an underlying factor: As much as I enjoy driving the 3 MB cars we have, I resent the way MB is marketing their cars and manipulating their customers these days. Those of you who have read my posts know the hot button issues for me: Pano Roof, RFT, no spare, no PLACE for a spare, IMO poor exterior/interior color offerings, etc. Anyway, if I'm reasonably pleased with what I have, why should I reward them with a new car purchase? Also, before I do get a new big sedan, I'd like to see & drive the new A8 and the new LS500--I know, I know.......

So, what do you guys think? Should I buy this old girl or what?

 

In principle, not a bad idea given your personal preferences. There is nothing wrong except the residual, but that can be easily re-negotiated.

MB will likely drop the price on request by at least $10k at a the end of your lease term as the last thing they need is that car back.

Since you have to wait until the end of the year anyway, check out what the MY18 year end deals look like; push MBFS hard and see what looks better to you.

Good luck!

 

Great looking vehicle and you know the history. There does seem to be some advantages there.

 

With all the complaining you do I am quite frankly shocked you'd want to keep it.

 

If you will recall, my complaints were specific and did not apply to the overall experience with the car. And, at the end of the day, if one is to be a realist, you need to consider the alternatives. Unfortunately, with these technological wonders, warranty coverage is a must, so that topic alone limits me pretty much to the here and now when it comes to vehicle choices. Willing to spend, let's say up to $150K, for an ultra comfortable, big sedan, what are my choices? Really, not that many, so keeping what I have seems to make sense.

Since you bring it up, let me take this opportunity to share my list of greviences with some of our newer members who may have missed my earlier rants, which of course, are merely my opinions:

1. The 2013 W221 I had was a much more attractive car. I even preferred the overall interior design and function to that of the W222. Too bad I can't buy a new one!

2. Run flat tires should be optional. How difficult would that be?

3. The lack of a jack & spare is ridiculous. For MB to have purposely removed even the SPACE where one could store a spare, should one wish to do so, is asinine and a slap in the face to anyone who thinks logically. They are intentionally trying to ween us off the idea of a spare and everyone on this board should be furious about that.

4. The Panorama Roof should be optional. Tesla offers the choice of a plain, painted roof, a traditional moon roof or an all glass Pano Roof. MB should offer the same.

5. The current exterior color choices for a flagship sedan from a company the caliber of MB are disappointing. What shade of black would you like? There should be several more, varied choices and there should be a published, easily ordered, semi-reasonably priced option to have the car painted most any color a customer wants. I'd say $10K would be a reasonable price with an additional 3 month wait. I'd do it in a heartbeat.

6. Some of the current interior color choices make no sense to me and I find most of them unattractive. Again, for an extra $10K, one should be able to mix & match the various areas of the interior, from a set selection of leathers & materials, similar to what Bentley offers. I'm sick of pretty much every interior "color" choice being either mostly black or of a color so light that it is completely impractical. For 2018, THREE of those Silk Beige combinations--all so impractical, but not one nice, practical, all "saddle tan" choice. Does this make any sense to anyone?

To sum up, as I have said many times before, true luxury is having something just as you would like it. However, with MB trying to be everything to everybody, in every part of the world, even their big luxury saloon customers are forced into accepting the S Class the way MB feels we should have it. With just a little bit of imagination, they could make our ownership experience SOOOOO much more satisfying, but they continue to make it less so. I truly believe that they are leaving money on the table by not catering to customers who are willing to pay more, for just a little bit more in the way of choices. Between MB & Bentley, there is this gigantic dead zone with nothing in between. I believe MB could & should fill that void. $175K for a new S560 the way I want it? Sign me up right now!

Enough!

 

Thanks, Wolf, I'll do all of that. However, knocking the residual down by $10K? Really? Other guys here are reporting their buying of a CPO 2015, maybe with a few less miles, but with the Sports Pkg and paying in the 70's. I was thinking my residual wasn't bad, but I will give them a shove.

 

My buddy just purchased a 2014 S550 4Matic Sport Pkg. CPO loaded, $146K Sticker 31K on the ticker for $78k AutoTrader.

 

Streamliner, I purchased my '14 SL550 at the end of the lease by bringing it to my dealer. MB would not negotiate with me. The dealer negotiated and purchased it from MB and then sold it to me. The dealer gained a small profit and credit for selling another car, and I gained a 22k off the residual value on the lease.

 

That's a very interesting story. I was told by my dealer that all lease return cars go to auction and MB dealers can bid on them. I will try your scenario out on them closer to lease end and see if I can get a better deal. Thanks for the info!

 

btw, I plan to do the same thing with my '15 S550

 

I thought mine was loaded......with the exception of the nannies haha, what are the options? Do you happen to know? That seems like a build with every box ticked.

 

When is your lease up? I'd like to hear how you do, if it comes up before mine does, at the end of this year.

 

for the $ your certainly not getting anything better.

 

Yup... Every option except the Rear Fridge.... The options alone were around 40+K. Oh, and no HUD, it was not offered at that time. Quad Climate, Executive Rear Seating, Night Vision, Bur3D Audio 1500w, Sport PKG, Thermal Glass, Blue Interior upgraded Leather, and on and on.... Basically a Maybach less the V12 and 8 additional Inches in the rear....

One quick way to see what options are in the car, is to see how many buttons are to the left of the Steering wheel... 6 if you have HUD. If you look at photos on auto trader, you can easily look at 3 specific photos to see what the car is about.

Buttons to the left of the wheel. the rear seating and buttons on the door to control, as well as the Tweeters in the corner of the Front door.

 

I tried to re-lease my car when MBNA called,about lease expiring in 90 days, to see if i wanted a new MB.They said a emphatic NO.Buy it OR return it.Curious to see where this leads to in others experience.Mine expiring august.

 

I'm not familiar with the options "Thermal Glass" or "Quad Climate." Are those not standard items?

 

Shop a couple of dealers on the phone with your vin. Tell them you want to land the car with them and ask how much they will sell it to you for. They can quote a price after talking to mbfs.
Less than residual.

 

We did that with our SL600. MBFS said no twice; no interest to negotiate. So we found another SL600 to buy out of state (newer & better, but also a used one so they knew there wasn't going to be a new car sale coming).
That car was a better deal than the ours with the listed residual.
So we figured to call them one more time, told them what we will buy unless they would be interested to make a deal on our current lease and low and behold; they ended up dropping the price by a significant amount.
It's been a while but I think it was between $15-$20k. I was stumped. We bought the car right away because it was a known entity...

There are clearly some variables; a V12 is always a tougher sell and MBFS was going to take a real bath at auction.

But your S550 will look significantly less desirable at auction at the end of 2017 when a lot of 2015's roll off lease and it is not the current model anymore...

 

As some one has suggested it would be good if you could negotiate the residual down further. I always favor reducing depreciation as much as possible. That being the case seems like a no brainer to me. But then I don't travel in rarefied air that you guys do.

 

Streamliner, having read your posts on your concerns, and looking at the changes for the facelift model, I would negotiate your residual and CPO extended to max time and ride out until the next model. For me, I'm also considering buying out my E class lease and going full length CPO being a known commodity as mentioned above.

The 2018 E class Coupe interests me, but your decision is less drastic. If I were you I'd wait to see what W223 brings, or other makes.

 

I just might do that!

Believe it or not, over the next six months or so, we wanted to trade our current three MB's for THREE new MB's, but here's why we probably won't get ANY:

1. 2018 S550: not interesting enough, no good colors, especially interiors. Pretty much whatever I don't like about my 2015 is the same in the FL model.
2. 2018 SL550: can no longer get Mars Red. PLAIN, old red is no longer available on their luxury convertible. Can you even imagine that?
3. 2018 E400 Luxury Sedan: Available in Canada, but NOT in the U.S.

Oh well.

 

This shows the absolute stupidity of MBUSA

 

Would you keep the car or sell it if you owned it outright? Very nice car btw ;-) This to me, would show the underlying truth about what you'd be most comfortable with. The lease aspect is a distraction. I've a 2017 S350d with all the options I wanted and none that I didn't want and it's proving perfect for me after 3 months. I wouldn't sell it in 2-3 years and would therefore buy it then if I was leasing and I'd negotiate the best deal possible.

 

After having two s class with paladium a couple of months ago i got a magnetite black w porcelain fully loaded 2017 replacement. If i had all ur money, streamliner, i would get a 2018 fully loaded in a new color scheme so you feel like a new person with new ideas about what mercedes should do to improve the newest model. Not saying this to be a smart *** just think you need a change.
I ended up buying out the 166 ml i got from u at lease end. It only had 20k milage and i got it thru a dealer for 2k under residual including tags and tax w 7 yr extended warranty. So far no problems but nomdriven much.

 

Hey man, I always wondered how you did with my ML. Nice to hear you still have it. I should have kept that one too! Despite all of my thoughts on the new S, I will probably end up with a new one. I would like a change, but before I just jump into a new S, I've decided to check everything else out first. Just drove the new 7 Series. Next on the list is to drive the new Panamera. Then, I'd like to drive the new LS500, the new A8 and maybe even the Genesis. After all that, it's probably 98% that I'll get a new S560. Oh well.

Nice to hear from you and best wishes to you and your wife.