hundolots

Need some advice. I was about to pull the trigger on a ruby black metallic S560 with literally every option I want, perfect interior, the whole 9 yards. After three weeks of wearing them down on the price I waited one day too long and lost the car. Someone bought it.

Next day the dealer located a very similar vehicle one state over. But it has a spoiler and 19 inch rims. I want no spoiler and 20 inch multispoke (attached pic is the car I missed out on). The dealer is now telling me they can’t take the spoiler off for me, nor can they swap out the wheels for anything less than $7,595. I think they’re getting tired of me , tbh. I appreciate their time, but this is getting ridiculous now.

The other option is an even more accurate (compared to the missed car) ruby black s560. It’s clear across the country. So it’s $2500 on my dime to reach me. It has the right wheels, but a spoiler again; they still refuse to take the spoiler off. It’s a lease.

Their lack of flexibility on these issues seems bizarre. I have 3 cars from them (2 currently) including an S class. For the original car I had them down to $1480/month for 4 years. Car was $121k but this figure includes trade in and a sizable discount worked out.

I seriously don’t know what to do. I should’ve gotten the original car. Now I’m essentially trying to recreate it but it doesn’t exist.

What is this absolute OBSESSION with spoilers and 19 inch rims with all weather tires on an S class. No offense to anyone but that stuff is just not for me.



The prices I've worked them down to

Venom-AMG

3 weeks of haggling? I dont believe you really wanted that car to begin with. Good luck to the next dealer you want to buy from lol

hundolots

Yep. Three weeks but I nearly got the price I wanted. It was effective. But what a difference a day makes. You learn more and more with every car you negotiate, or deal in general. Sometimes you get the timing just right.. sometimes you mess up. This time I messed up. The natural climax of the arrangement was noticeable but I ignored it to get another $50 per month off. It felt wrong at the time. I went against my better judgement.

But had it take any less than three weeks the numbers wouldn’t have been where they are.

Now i I have frozen the discount on a similarly priced car (this was $121k) and the trade in value stands for the moment. Therein lies my dilemma. Especially because the car I’m trading in has been without warranty since last month, and it had recent suspension issues. I’m tempting fate whenever I drive it.

I could either:

1- go for the ruby black nearby with the 19 inch wheels and spoiler I don’t like, or want.

2- get the car from cross country, pay the freight and have a higher payment anyway. Plus it still has a spoiler. Good wheels though.

3- go with another color car that has no spoiler, 20 inch multispoke rims, AMG lines, rear memory seats. But I won’t be in love with it. Plus it’s surprisingly hard to find these specs ... evidently.

Wolfman

Lesson learned. Next time make your best offer and if they don't bite, move on. There will always be other ones...

Since you didn't post any details about the car or the deal, not sure what input you expect here. But if it's a ruby black 2018 S560 with Mahogany/silke beige exclusive nappa interior (typically around $125k new) there have been hundreds around as it was the unofficial facelift launch model for the S560.

hundolots

I am looking at 2019s. All with 9-16 miles. Silk/beige or porcelain black. Brand new. There are 5 in the country and only 2 with the wheels I want.

I guess im just torn on which way to go. Of those 3 options above.

Lesson definitely learned, but sometimes in negotiations our instincts are off a bit.

places

Lesson learned is right. Three weeks? I can't imagine taking that long, I'm sure the dealer was thrilled to have unloaded it to someone else after three weeks of being haggled. You took the risk and lost. Like Wolf said, make your best offer and move on next time.

chassis

One option is to pay the asking price in cash for the car you want, pay cash for the car to be transported to you, and pay cash to have it modified (remove spoiler, change wheels) to your requirements. Is that a viable option for you?

A strong automotive market, as things are today, means sellers (dealers) don't need to be flexible. Flexibility from the seller's perspective means expenditure time and effort, which may not be required for the seller to generate commission revenue in a strong market. Sellers have a book of buyers in various stages of buying readiness. Buyers who require flexibility are prioritized behind buyers holding out fistfuls of cash.

hundolots

No, that’s not an option — as is the case for most people. I am a long term customer (3 cars, same place) in perfect standing which gives me the leverage I’ve had thus far. Also, few people are holding out fistfuls of cash at this dealership. Maybe manhattan, nearby. But not here.

Anyway, I hear what you’re saying. But this loss was my fault. And everything is negotiable until a deal is truly dead. This one is not.

1bad540

Great story...

hyperion667

Did you consider configuring one and waiting for it to be built and shipped over? You get exactly what you want that way as you know. I'm not much for haggling myself, but as others have said must be time to move on. It's a shame that loyalty counts for absolutely NOTHING these days huh? I bought FOUR brand new cars from the dealer I used to go to(all configured) and was ultimately asked to leave because of my 'behavior'. But when the service is SH&T then sometimes folks are NOT well behaved.......I though the nearly half a million dollars would have spoken for me but it did not.

S_W222

If it was really your dream, you should have bought it same day, few 100s of even few thousands won't worth it in my opinion if it is really your "dream" car. Don't get me wrong, but think about it, $50 per month that you were negotiating for is almost equivalent to taking your kids and wife for a dinner at any fast food restaurant these days!
Typically the dealership knows the best and lowest price he could offer you from day1, so you should just go for your lowest but reasonable offer on day 1 and then they'll take it, if they don't take it before you leave the door then it means they won't take it tomorrow also or even after 3 weeks. My feeling says that even of you were to come the next day and find the car they would have rejected your asking price again and stayed at their original offer they gave you the day before..... so don't regret anything, you were about to wait for another day or so again I guess...
I didn't take me more than 2 hours to finalize the deal on my W222, I simply wrote the number I wanted on a piece of paper and told the salesman to present it to the manager and say that customer said it's the max he could pay so take it or leave it (no counter offer plz, need YES or NO only, I'l either leave with this car today, or head to Lexus next door and get the LS500 which I already tested). 10 minutes later, he came back and said "DEAL!"

Mitch Alsup

In what way? you did not end up with the car you wanted at the price you wanted.

Thus:: FAIL !

Calling a near success success is tantamount to lying to yourself.

as.thompson

If there are only 5 examples of what you are seeking in the entire country, only 2 considering your wheels, then you never had any negotiating leverage to begin with. Supply and demand you know.....

places

Curious to see how this plays out. Guy's bought 3 cars from one dealer and thinks VIP worthy.

coolcamden

3 weeks to get an additional $50 a month, which is equivalent to a buck seventy a day. WoW!

hyperion667

Maybe not "vip" but certainly worthy of something? It's not his first car, maybe not his last either. I don't understand why loyalty these days has gone the way of the Dodo!

Lanzz

It's tough with used vehicles - who has any leverage on a desirable car? The myriad of combinations of colors, options, miles and condition mean that a nice CPO Mercedes or other high line vehicle creates "scarcity" in many cases... Also - market value more difficult to establish because few used/CPO transactions are the same. In the OP's case, market value looks like it was about $50 more a month than his last offer. I think going new looks pretty good in this case - leftover 2019 perhaps?

PNBLWZD

Well that must have hurt to do the daily online check of dealer inventory and saw it missing, but let’s face it 3 weeks was more than enough time to make it happen. Don’t beat yourself up over it, move on.

Looking forward; if I were you I wouldn’t write off the 19” wheels, they probably ride better and honestly look just fine. I have the 20” multispoke on my 222 and saw an S560 at the dealer last week with 19’s and I’d be fine with them.

Also why hate the spoiler? They probably don’t want to be hassled with removing one for risk of paint damage since it’s held on with double stick tape I think. I have the spoiler on my car, and when I see ones that don’t it looks like something is missing.

If the car you can still get local checks all the other boxes I’d say get it, the 2 things you don’t like are not a big deal.

hyperion667

If it's only 50 bux, then why wouldn't the dealer just say it's only 50 bux Sir, sure lets do the deal?

places

Because it's not 50 per month to the dealer. Personally, if you can't close a deal on a car in three weeks you shouldn't buy the car.

coolcamden

Because most likely the dealer already hit their limit and wasn’t gonna go lower, which was reaffirmed by having sold it to someone else. 🤷🏻*♂️

hyperion667

You're not wrong, it takes no time at all. Guess it was a tale of over cautiousness
True words

hundolots

Few responses to you guys:

It was not used, it was new. These cars have between 9-16 miles on them. All the ones I’ve looked at.

It didnt take 3 weeks to go down $50. It took 3 weeks to get down to just below $100k on a 121k vehicle. This includes less than 10k trade in after final 8-10 months of payments are made on my outgoing S550. I was being greedy and the $50/month is what I was holding out on for the final day. I would’ve gone for $25. It likely would’ve happened too — still might — if not for the sudden buyer.

Yes, I f’d up. It wasn’t my dream car to begin with though. I saw one on the drive to work one day in ruby black. Checked the dealership and they had 3 S560s and one of them was this color, but the crazy part is that it had all the features (even the completely frivolous ones) I always look for. It was 100% perfect. Like a fool, I waited one day too long. The salesperson happened to be on her day off that day too, so her warning came way too late. Had she been there, it might have been different. Maybe not though.

I dont expect VIP status for 3 cars in 7 years. But now they’re just being dicks because they think they’ve got the upper hand. And they’re just sick of me. (I’m a typical persistent NY pain in the *** who wears people down. Different strokes I guess). I appreciate their flexibility thus far. But the whole thing is getting weird now.

20 inch rims just look better to me on this particular vehicle. 19s are cool and all, but I fell in love with the rims and tires on the initial ruby car I lost.

Im not celebrating any “near successes” because I know that’s pointless and not real. But it was a near deal, that much I can say. Honestly, if I had texted them first that day I’d have the car now. It was minutes away from being closed. At the time it all seemed so important and significant... but in hindsight it was a huge blunder over irrelevant figures.

I don’t want to customize my vehicle or even wait more than a few days because my S550 just started making noises near front wheels when I make sharp turns. I am out of extended warranty as of last month. I do not want to pay for any unnecessary repairs if I can just move into a new vehicle.

But I don’t want to be in a vehicle for 48 months that I’m not crazy about.

Heisenberg

You can arrange transport for probably half of what you mention. Don't bother with Uship or dealers, use a private broker - Andy at Capitol Auto is awesome - you'll get a better price, faster service, and reliable transport company.

The spoiler is a nothing... If you buy a car with it, give it a couple weeks and if you still hate then any body shop can remove it, you can even do it yourself. They are not bolted on but applied with double sided tape or epoxy that can be removed, usually just requires a heat gun, removing residue with a solvent, and then polishing the paint underneath. Dealers just don't want to be bothered with this type of thing particularly if they're selling the car at a big discount. If you're getting 20% off a new inventory car, that means they are selling it invoice and then applying whatever MBUSA incentives are available. They're not making squat on the transaction so they aren't going to bend over backwards to accommodate buyer requests.

As far as wheels, do not pay full price at a dealer. Get them on Ebay at a discount, any wheel/tire shop can swap the TPMS and/or tires for you for nominal cost. You can sell your unwanted wheels to recoup some of the cost, or keep them as spares or to put back on if you sell or trade-in later.

hundolots

This is all incredibly valuable insight and info. I appreciate this, especially the independent shipment option which I did not realize was possible on a lease.

Regarding the spoiler, I know I won’t get used to it. I honestly hate spoilers and I especially hate them on S classes. No offense to anyone who has one but I don’t believe they belong on a luxury saloon style car. Too sporty. So I would definitely need to take it off and clean up underneath. What do you think that would run me?

also, I don’t think I would be able to find those wheels on eBay. I looked last night but didn’t see anything. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough. Do you see them anywhere? AMG multispoke 20 inch. (See pic in OP)