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Greetings from Texas. I recently bought my wife a CPO S550 (our first MB) and while at the dealership I test drove a used 2012 SL550 and loved it. My current "fun car" is a 2012 Boss 302 Laguna Seca, which I will be trading in. I've loved the car, but I'm turning 50 later this year and my track days are over. I'm excited about the refinement of the SL and view it more as a true Grand Tourer and less of a muscle/sports car that my Boss is. My wife and I love road trips and the Boss is too uncomfortable for them now. Other than limited trunk space, I expect the SL to be a great road trip car.
I found this forum and want to ask advice as I shop for the right car. Are there specific things I should be looking for, known issues or problem areas? I've found a couple cars local, a 2011 and a 12. Both have 40k miles, both black on black. The 11 is 31k and the 12 is 34.5k. Were there any differences between the two years? No warranty on both cars of course, is there any reason time buy the 12 over the 11? I'll probably keep the car for 3 years or so. I doubt there would be much difference in the value of the two years at that point so it seems the 11 is probably the better deal.
Thanks for any inout. I look forward to learning more and sharing my experiences.
Are the cars from a dealer or private party? Personally I'd rather get a used car from the latter.
they are both at Dealers. The 12 is at a Mercedes dealer and the 11 at an independent dealer. To buy from an individual I would need to sell my Boss first and then find someone selling the exact car I want.
they are both at Dealers. The 12 is at a Mercedes dealer and the 11 at an independent dealer. To buy from an individual I would need to sell my Boss first and then find someone selling the exact car I want.
People may disagree with me - but I would never buy a car like a MB from an independent dealer. Just my .02.
There is no difference between the MY2011 and MY2012. in fact, from MY2009-MY2012, the SL is the same. As for choosing an MBZ dealer vs. independent (or other brand)) dealer, vs. an individual, it does not matter to me. MBZ delaers tend to be more expensive, and could offer a CPO warranty, but otherwise, they are just car dealers. Used cars are commodities. You can always pay and MBZ dealer for a PPI, and tools like Carfax to get an idea of the car's history. If you see that most services were performed at a dealer, that's good, but don't discount indy shops or even diligent DIYers.
I just bought my SL500 from an independent dealer two weeks ago. They were asking $12k. Book was $11.2k. Drove it off the lot for $9k cash. Cash talks.. Do your own DD because and independenf is just a reseller that doesn't know anything about the car. For that matter, don't know that a Merc dealer would know anything more than the CarFax either. I have a buddy that owns a dealership selling diesel trucks. He ran a pile VIN's through CarFax for me. That was a huge help. If the prevoius owners had the car serviced at a Merc dealer, it'll show up on the CarFax details section. Mine showed the full clean history down to every part that was repleced, which is why I chose the one I did. I probably know more about the car than the dealer did.
Last edited by Blazeracer; 12-27-2018 at 07:34 PM.
Just an FYI, often paying cash for a car does not get you the best deal. Most dealers get kickbacks from the finance companies, so by paying cash, they lose out on that extra revenue.
Well, according to my buddy that ran all my CarFax reports, selling price is selling price and has nothing to do with financing. He doesn't know anything about these mysterious kick backs. Having to spend half a day helping someone get a loan and deal the lien paperwork is not time well spent. He'll gladly sell for less to a cash buyer.
When you buy the car, it's front-end money. When you finance, it's called back-end money. I can see why they would give you a better initial price if you financed through the seller but that is often at the cost of a higher interest rate or an interest rate where you may have paid cash.
The backend money available for financing depends on the size of the dealership. A new car dealers selling hundreds of cars a month will have finance companies beating their doors down to give them business. Small used car dealers that move a dozen or so cars a month probably won't get much.
For dealers large enough to get backend finance money, it can be significant. Most will get at least $500 per deal, often more depending on the relationship with the finance company. Of course there will be some extra paperwork involved, but not $500 worth. On top of that, the dealer can markup the interest rate and make more money. This usually isn't done for "tier 1" buyers with excellent credit, as they usually know what sort of rate they can get and may be pre-qualified, but for mid-tier and "credit challenged" buyers, the dealer can markup the rate a few points and make that on top of the back-end spiff. It's the way the industry works.
Here are a few examples. When I was shopping for my SL, I went to the bank that carried my last car loan (BB&T) and got pre-qualified at 2.9%. They told me that if the dealer was a BB&T reseller, that the rat would be 4.9%. Why? Because they don;t want to "compete" with their own dealer network. I ended up getting the loan at 2.5% through a credit union that the dealer used. I am sure they made money selling me that loan, but it's fine with me as I got a better rate.
A few years ago, my father bought a new Ram pickup truck. He was paying cash. The dealer told him he could discount it another $800 if he'd borrow money to buy it. So he made a loan for something like $12,000, paid cash for the rest, made one payment (required for the discount) then paid it off after that. It cost him something like $30 interest for that month, but it saved him $800 more as the dealer basically gave him some of their back-end money.
When I worked for the local MBZ dealer, I had a credit-challenged customer come in to buy a $50,000 CLK. We could write him through Chase, who handled our high-risk lending. They required him to make an $18K down payment, and the rate they quoted was 21%. Our SOP was to mark that up to 28%, and we'd make another 7% on the deal. As it turns out, our finance manager (who was training me) saw the deal and stepped in. He had a "come to Jesus" talk with the kid. It was the first time I saw a dealer talk someout OUT of buying a car!
12-27-2018, 10:41 AM
