DiamondK

Hi all,

Looking into getting an SLK55. Thinking about using a car broker. Does using a car broker help at all (in terms of price) for high-end cars like AMG's?

One broker I'm looking at is cartelligent.com. Anyone with experience with them?

ndabunka

Most brokers simply are a direct markup to the price you would normally pay. When a car is hard to find, paying someone to find it for you may be worth it but you will not generally save money using one UNLESS you can get one to take you into a auction with him (As I have done in the past). Even that is not a perfect scenario. The broker was a friend of mine and had two other buyers with us there at the Manhiem auction in Orlando. Both those guys flew in and stayed in the car (outside the gates). On the other hand, he listed me as a delivery guy on his staff and I was therefore able to wander the lot in search of what I wanted. He marked up the regular client's cars by $2 or $3K each but I actually stood there while we neogtiated for the one I wanted (after it did not sell when it went through the line. I ended up saving around $5K over what it would have cost on the street from a private sale. Note: These were all BMW 740iL's selling on the streets between $40K and $50K at the time. I paid $35K for one with 27K miles.

DiamondK

Thanks for the reply.

Actually, I was planning on buying new, not used. Also, I don't know, maybe I used the wrong word. cartelligent.com calls themselves a car-buying service, I don't know if that's exactly the same thing as a "car broker"...

dinko

I'll be your broker. And I'll only charge you $1000.. What do you say?

Dinko

lennyr

I used Robert Hammer at Hammer Auto in Palo Alto CA. He is the biggest broker in the country. I didn't save money (paid MSRP + brokers fee), but that wasn't the objective. He got me a one month out build slot for my '55, when the best quote I got from a dealer was three months out (and I didn't really believe that). Good experience with him and his people. Several friends of mine have used him for multiple cars, and needless to say (since they were repeat customers), they had good experiences too. I have heard good things about cartelligent, but have no experience with them, and don't know anybody well who has used them.

'55s don't seem to be as scarce now, so you may not have to resort to a broker to get an earlier build slot, but then again, the broker may save you money.

DiamondK

lenny,

thanks for the reply. i'll check out hammer too. seems like a similar operation to cartelligent. i've seen cars around with temp plates from both.

is below msrp even a possibility for a new SLK55? or are most people here just ordering custom builds from germany at msrp from the dealer?

oh yeah, one more thing. with the one-month build slot you got, what was the total time from when you called hammer, to when you picked up your car?

Dozer42

Car brokers can certainly save some money, but you can save the money yourself by doing a good bit of work.

After having a very very bad experience with the MB dealership in San Francisco I decided to do some shopping around when I was ready to order my SLK55.

Emailed pretty much every MB dealer in California and just got a good price war going. The winner was MB of Oakland, $1700 off MSRP, they found a build slot that was just days away from being unable to changed, and I took it.

Ordered the car at the end of August, 2nd week of Sept was the build, took delivery of the car this afternoon and for some reason I'm having trouble sleeping tonight. (My brain wants to go drive).

I'm sure you could probably talk them into $2k or so off MSRP now, as winter is upon us. The salesman was extremely nice and totally went out of his way to earn my business. He even offered to drop the car off to me in Foster City (about 45 mins from Oakland with traffic), but I just couldn't wait and the moment I heard the car was in I hopped on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and got my *** over there.

If you're in Cali, give MB of Oakland a shot. Heck, even if you're not in Cali you can have it shipped over, or at least have a solid quote in hand you can whack other local dealers over the head with. alocke@oakland.starleads.com Adam Locke 510-287-8503 650-888-1059

DiamondK

Hey Dozer,

Thanks for the reply, that's really great, helpful information. Exactly what I was looking for.

Congrats on the new car, enjoy!

Got a follow-up question for you. The people you contacted at these dealerships across CA, were they sales guys, or fleet managers, or somebody else?

lennyr

As Dozer said, you can do better than MSRP now. The demand seems to have slacked off a lot lately. It's interesting that he had such a bad experience with MB of San Francisco (as did I) and a good one with MB of Oakland, since they have the same owner. Speaking of bad experiences, the Marin dealer is also awful.

I ordered my car in early June, and got it at the end of September. This was mainly because it sat on the dock in Germany for a whole month for no apparent reason, and took two weeks to get from the dock/VPC in LA to the dealer in Torrance to Palo Alto where I picked it up, with most of that time spent in the VPC.

One thing you should also bear in mind is that when you use a broker like Hammer, you'll be buying your car from a dealer that may be quite a distance from you. Mine came from the dealer in Torrance (who were great). This resulted in a $350 trucking charge, which I hadn't anticipated when I signed up with Hammer. I'd still do it again (and will probably use him for my next car), but that cost was unexpected.

Dozer42

Yep, I had problems with the Marin MB dealership too. They flat out lied to me and said to come on up to test drive an SLK55. Once I got there (an hours drive each way) they said, 'Oh! We don't test drive these vehicles!'. Then I asked if they could even match the price I was getting from other dealers, 'Nope!' So I went with the other dealer.

Maybe MB of Oakland and SF are owned by the same guys, but the Oakland guys are pretty cutthroat. They give the best deal off MSRP on the SLK, get the car fast, and then if you try to finance it elsewhere they get cutthroat on the financing and beat the outside guy. Saved $1700 off MSRP on mine and then another whopping $70/month on the lease rate for 36 months, which is another $2500 or so.

And they didn't lie to me once.

With the wife's Infiniti M45 Sport we just picked up, the only dealer that had it was in San Diego. Negotiated $2500 off MSRP, flew down there and drove it back the same day. Good way to put some break-in miles on it as long as you vary the revs and speed along the trip. Great way to get familiar with the car too. =)

In car sales, with the first numbers they give you, there's 'always something left on the table' to negotiate down. Even on an SLK55.