- #1842 of 2062
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Re: Lets get some 2007 S550 owners talking! [blckislandguy]
by mikespopworld
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Sep 26, 2006 (9:07 pm)
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Replying to: blckislandguy (Sep 24, 2006 5:27 pm)
Buying crossed my mind, but I was not ready to drop over 90k in cash to buy the car outright, and in my mind, even without doing all the math, the lease deal appeared subsidized enough to make leasing the way for me to go and honestly my motivation was really to get a state of the art car for a year or two and then flip into the next newest state of the art car. Ideally if I could have gotten away with a "good deal" on a one year lease I would have done that, but no one offers what anybody would call a reasonable one year lease. With my lease at the end of 27 months I'm out around 44k all in, including all taxes, for a car with a negotiated price of around 93k. So let's say I had the sack to drop 93k in cash on the car and bought it outright - doing the basic math, and using the 7% tax rate here in NJ, that's 93k plus 6.5k in taxes: 99.5k all in - now, let's say 27 months passes and I sell the car, and here's where we have to be realistic - I just checked '05 S500's on ebay and there's about 15 of them and not one is bid over 55k and that bid is for an '05 with 10,000 miles on it with an original MSRP between 85k and 90k, so in my mind the real value of these cars after 27 months is around 65% of the original MSRP at best and more than likely lower(high 50%'s to low 60%'s) once you put 20k-40k miles on the car, but for arguments sake let's use 65%. So say I paid 93k cash for the car (MSRP close to 96k) and using 65% of the original MSRP I get a car worth 62.4k after 27 months, which means I'm out 30.6k (93k-62.4k) PLUS taxes 6.5k(7% NJ state tax on the purchase price of 93k) for a grand total of 37.5k I'm out all in if I sell the car for 62.4k after 27 months - so in this case it beats the lease by about 7k...hmmm. But other things to consider...change the 65% to 58% and you now have a car worth 55.7k after 27 months and that brings your all in costs up to 43.8k, about the same as the lease! Let's face it, nobody knows what the car will actually be worth 27 months from now, could be 68% of msrp, could be 58%, and I'm leaving out the money made by investing most of the 93k instead of spending it on a depreciating asset which is thousands of dollars over 27 months at current short term rates, but in my mind by leasing I took out all the WORRY about depreciation and the HASSLE of selling a used car and MIGHT have gotten a good deal to boot - to be determined 27 months from now when a 96k MSRP '07 S550 with 22k miles goes on Ebay!
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- #1843 of 2062
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Re: Lets get some 2007 S550 owners talking! [mikespopworld]
by blckislandguy
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Sep 27, 2006 (6:15 pm)
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Replying to: mikespopworld (Sep 26, 2006 9:07 pm)
Nice analysis. I can't imagine anything more difficult than trying to privately sell a 27 month old S Class at anything above wholesale. The portion of the "secondary market" for an S Class that would even consider a non-dealer sale aren't the kind of people I'd want coming to my house for a test drive.
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- #1844 of 2062
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Re: Lets get some 2007 S550 owners talking! [blckislandguy]
by mikespopworld
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Sep 28, 2006 (4:45 am)
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Replying to: blckislandguy (Sep 27, 2006 6:15 pm)
I didn't even mention how much financing adds to the total "all-in" costs. If you finance just over half of the 93k, say 50k at 6% interest, that adds over 7k to your all-in costs which makes leasing look even better...
You are right - can you imagine the hassle of trying to sell the car on your own? PASS! I didn't even mention that only 2 or 3 of the 15 or so '05 S500's on Ebay had bids! Not too much demand...
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- #1845 of 2062
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Re: Lets get some 2007 S550 owners talking! [blckislandguy]
by leaseexpert1
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Sep 28, 2006 (7:11 am)
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Replying to: blckislandguy (Sep 27, 2006 6:15 pm)
The 27 month lease is a good deal if you want to drive the car for a couple of years and then get something new. Or you can drive it for a couple of years, turn it in to MBZ and let them own it for 70K and turn around and lease a 2008 preowned from an independent dealer or private seller and let them take the big hit. I have a friend/customer that I got into a S550 Sport about 6 months ago. He has leased 13 vehicles from me over the last 2 years. Has never driven a sedan more than 1 year. He will not give his S550 up. I have not found a person out there that does not LOVE this vehicle. There are going to be a lot of people kicking themselves when their 27 month lease is up and they want to keep a vehicle that they owe 10K more than the book value. Most people that are spending this kind of money for a vehicle should be looking at the long term costs of the vehicle. What I am hearing most people say is "How can I save a hundred or Two dollars a month?"
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- #1846 of 2062
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Re: Lets get some 2007 S550 owners talking! [leaseexpert1]
by blckislandguy
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Sep 28, 2006 (6:19 pm)
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Replying to: leaseexpert1 (Sep 28, 2006 7:11 am)
Sure, the traditional way is the smart way: buy it, drive it, and then in four or five years years do it again. (How big of a hardship would it be to drive and be seen in an '02 or 03 S Class, anyway?). But the poster's goal was to only lease/own it for a short time while he awaited the next hot thing to come along.
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- #1847 of 2062
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service/repair manuals for 1997 s320
by wmalange
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Oct 04, 2006 (12:17 pm)
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Anyone know where to find literature on working on these cars? I only have 50k miles on it and thins are starting to give me trouble (seat cushion bottom leather is only $2400 at the dealer!) Thank you.
wmalange yahoo.com
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- #1848 of 2062
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press request
by kirstie_h HOST
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Oct 12, 2006 (10:10 am)
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A reporter from a large daily newspaper is looking to speak to Mercedes-Benz owners in the Washington DC area about the expectations you have with the car when you purchase it and any problems you’ve had to deal with. Please provide your daytime contact info to ctalatiedmunds.com no later than Monday, October 16, 2006.
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- #1849 of 2062
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Good Deal?
by mickyl
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Oct 13, 2006 (8:17 pm)
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I am about to buy a MB S550 brand new with the sticker price of $92,300, for $89,000. I am getting $3.3K discount off the MSRP. Good deal or no?
Any comments welcome.
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- #1850 of 2062
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Re: Good Deal? [mickyl]
by mikespopworld
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Oct 14, 2006 (6:12 am)
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Replying to: mickyl (Oct 13, 2006 8:17 pm)
Sounds "fair" to me at best. I 100% guarantee you that if you live in the ny/nj area you can shop that deal and easily beat it by 1k or 2k. If you are not beholden to some specific option package and don't need the rare option(night assist) or the exclusive option(amg package) I would advise you to shop around and if you are willing to go the extra mile, call out of state dealers like I did - there's hundreds of s550's available within a few hours drive from my house in nj - and i'd be willing to bet real money that 5k off a 90k-95k sticker car is a certainty within the first four dealers you call in your area - it's all up to you - be a tough negotiator, and all that takes is sticking with your offer and being willing to walk away and call the next guy.
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- #1851 of 2062
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Good Deal?
by mickyl
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Oct 14, 2006 (7:51 pm)
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Thanks for your advice. In fact, I did call around quite a bit and found that there are about 100 MBs with the color combination that I want (i.e. black and black).
I shopped around and I think the shipping cost will add at least $1K on top of the negotiated price if I were to buy it out of state. But what really got me off a wrong foot was that there was someone (private seller) who tried to defraud me. For $2 to $3K difference, I don't really think it makes sense for me to take a risk on that.
So, I bought the S550 today at the price that I asked earlier.
Thanks for your comments, anyhow.
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