captlst

In case there are any lawyers on the board the American bar association has the same discount as AMA. Usaa's program is a little different because it is discounted off of the sticker price. AMA and ABA discounts are based off of your negotiated price.

vdubpower

who does it represent?

rory breaker

Any of these programs joinable by Joe Consumer? IE not working for a company signed up in the program, don't need to be the third son of a retired police officer that speaks Swahili, etc.

335X-ray

Unfortunately no easy way to get in many of these programs unless you work for a company with fleet privileges or or a doctor (AMA), dentist (ADA), lawyer (ABA???) or active or former military (USAA).

Sorry,

X

ace10

USAA is a certificate program. You negotiate your best price with the dealer, log into your USAA account, click on the car you want, and then print out the document. It's not tied to sales price.


They also offer a car buying program, but the fleet discount is not contingent upon using that service.

ace10

USAA eligibility requirements:

https://www.usaa.com/inet/pages/pub_...kredirect=true

Thrilla

Great info in this thread. Can you combine usaa with AMA discounts?
I've been with USAA for a long time, but didn't know about AMA. As someone said before, it might be finally worthwhile to join.

335X-ray

Nope, one or the other.

otakki

AMA represents revenue, thus AMA's VIP is the federal government. Along the way, AMA does a bunch of hocus pocus. That's why only less than 1/3 of all physicians are members of the AMA. See this link to get an idea:
http://healthblog.ncpa.org/who-does-...lly-represent/

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is what physicians need. BTW, AAPS has finally filed an official lawsuit a month ago against ABMS over MOC. Shortly after that, ABMS kicked out this chain e-mail to try to convince everyone that wasting money and time for this snake-oil MOC is supposedly good for patients.

Sorry for going here.

Topsupra

Can the AMA discount be combinded with the Mercedes Benz $4,000 cash back? Also can you please confirm the discount the AMA is providing.

My dealer is telling me its one or the other, but he wasnt to sure. Also he told me the AMA discount was $2,500

From what I have read it seems like both can be combined.

Thanks
Jay.S

335X-ray

I hear ya brother. I only joined for the discount and gratefully only paid a half year fee. No renewal for me.

X

rory breaker

MB discount....is that $4k trunk money on the new E's?

Topsupra

Im not sure what trunk money means but:

For the month of November Mercedes Benz is offering a rebate to the dealer for $4000, I believe it's a part of the Mercedes Winter Event. If you check some of the ads on cars.com some of the dealers are posting the rebate as a "special". I have read on some of the ads that it's good thru Dec 31 but my sales person told me it's only good until Nov 30 and for December they will run another program that they will disclose in December.

Im just wondering if the AMA discount can be combined with the Mercedes Winter Event discount.

Jay.S

camv10

As a USAA member picking up a new E63s wagon this week, I was excited to see this thread. The deal as of now is $2500 fleet OR you can use the buying service and get $4000 off of MSRP. You can use the $2500 fleet in conjunction with any negotiated deal. You cannot use the $4000 in conjunction with a negotiated deal....it only is applicable off MSRP.

ace10

This does not correspond to any of the past four deals I've done on MB's using a USAA certificate. Including the E63 purchase in September.

Are you being told this by USAA or the dealer, or both?

In September there was a $3500 fleet discount. I printed my certificate, handed it to the dealer, and had that entire value deducted by from the negotiated sales price.


Right now the USAA site is showing this information:

"E63 AMG WAGON
USAA Exclusive IncentiveThis special incentive is available exclusively to persons eligible for membership in USAA’s Property and Casualty Insurance Group. Incentives subject to change. See dealer for details. (Expires 11/30/2013)
$4,000"

camv10

Per USAA the current USAA fleet discount certificate is $2500. I have one.

Per USAA AND the dealer the current $4,000 "special incentive" is available off of MSRP. The fine print is a little ambiguous but somewhat supports this.

If you have any concrete information or contact that can dispute this, I and others would greatly appreciate it.

ace10

I don't have anything to go on other than my experience and what I see currently on the USAA website. I haven't clicked through to get another certificate, but I don't see anywhere that calls out a $2500 number prior to that point.

So, I guess they've changed how the program works...

camv10

I may have been incorrect and ace10 may be right. I called USAA again and spoke with another representative about the "EAB" program. The EAB program is different than the "Fleet" program and also different from using the "Car Buying Service".

I now have a USAA "EAB" certificate for $4,000 off of THE AGREED PRICE for all 2014 E-Class. I then called the Mercedes USA fleet department toll free number and spoke to the person who approves various discounts available to corporations and associations. He confirmed that the discount is valid and can be used in conjunction with the negotiated price. I've also called three dealers to verify this.

However, my dealer has been far less than helpful and still maintains that USAA deals are off of MSRP only. After a difficult conversation last night with the sales manager, he finally agreed to look into the validity of the EAB certificate.....but he can't check until Monday! Meanwhile, my ordered car (E63s wagon) is sitting at the dealer......more on that later pending the outcome of my potential deal. Long story!

6G Schnell

Sorry to hear and hope it all works out for you soon....

ShocDoc79

Your salesman is full of it. I had two dealerships that agree to add another $3000 to the USAA discount of $4000 for my 2014 E63S order. Cars are plentiful, end of year, take your business elsewhere.

otakki

Indeed, I would just go somewhere else if I were you.

ManhattanSpin

For what it's worth, I just got $8500 off MSRP with united/fleet credit. So your dealer is wrong.

camv10

My sales guy is actually OK. This is the manager of the dealership! The thing that bothers me is that these types of programs are funded by Mercedes. The dealer isn't out of pocket anything that I know of. There may be some processing fee but I doubt it.

It seems to have become a personal issue with the manager. He has continued to make statements like "This just isn't the way I make $100K car deals." "I won't be bullied!" "We are making hardly any money on this car. This deal will not cost me one more penny." and, "I've been storing the car since the beginning of November."

The car came in earlier than the estimated date and I was on a 2 week planned business trip that he know about. Since returning, I've been trying to get clarification on this USAA deal. Why am I doing all of the work? All I want is to be able to take advantage of authorized and legitimate deals. If I treated customers this way I wouldn't have any.

ace10

Sounds familiar. You're not in Arlington, VA by any chance?

There's a right way to do things and many wrong ways. Apparently, your dealer is all about the latter.

Sucks.

keyserS

Tell him any idiot can sell one car. How many 100k cars does he want to sell you and friends? At this point, I'd tell him to eat his bullied money losing car and buy one wherever they were nice and would service it. He's got 12% in it with holdback, and USAA costs him zip. so screw him doing you favor, manager or no. No car or dealer worth that BS.