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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Mercedes Benz C-Class Prices Paid and Buying Experience
995 messages, Last post on Nov 04, 2009 at 4:11 PM
You are in the Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Forum. Your Hosts are car_man & kyfdx
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Replying to: gotgt3 (Jan 13, 2009 5:45 pm) In parts of the country where snow is a real, daily, unpleasant reality for several months out of the year, the 4-matic option makes sense. Everywhere else, decent winter tires accomplish the same thing at a considerable saving. I don't know where you live, so can't comment further, except to say here in the Portland OR area, lots of people THINK they need AWD, but they really don't, and the local dealer is happy to sell you whatever you want. We get challenging weather maybe 3-4 weeks out of any given year, and my experience is that most of the people using AWD around here don't actually know how to drive in snowy conditions, especially when it comes to stopping, and thus get themselves into more trouble than those of us carefully making do without. Anyway, the car behaves pretty much the same with or without 4-matic, until you get into really challenging conditions. |
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Replying to: gotgt3 (Jan 13, 2009 5:45 pm) Sure driving on icy roads is a skill. But given a person, following is the order of safety (from highest to lowest) as I read probably on this forum before: 1. AWD with good winter tires 2. RWD with good winter tires 3. AWD with OEM tires 4. RWD with OEM tires I am sure some other members of this forum may disagree with the above list, but my personal experience with RWD isn't good. My current purchase preference is 1. FWD (if available, so that I don't have to pay for AWD and the excess baggage) 2. AWD I don't want to buy a RWD ever again. |
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Snow wouldnt be a daily occurence (east/PA) for me, but rain/slick wet roads might. I learned how to drive a stick shift at 13 yrs old...but I won't say I'm as good now as I was back then (lol funnily enough learned how to drive on a benz and recall loving how it felt). They're telling me the car I want doesn't exist (I think I'm the 1% of the population of 100 that does not want wood trim inside my ride). There are some available with that and P02 if I open up to the 4matic...What they're telling me is there is no difference in the ride/handling...as long as the 300 doesn't feel like the 350 (I test drove both and I felt the albeit subtle difference, and I prefer how the 300 responds to me vs the 350) I suppose there is no major difference based on your responses - thanks jrct and smrtdude. LoL...sad but I'm still lookin for my ride eh? |
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This is for a 4matic with p2: 27 month lease / 12,000 miles Monthly payment = $737.62 Total out of pocket - $1,990.67 Residual = $25,106.90 Money factor .00233 Isn't the payment high? I've asked dealers to bring it down but they say they cannot. I thought they have room to play with the residuals etc...any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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Replying to: gotgt3 (Jan 17, 2009 8:50 am) There's no play in the residuals. The MF seems a bit high, but car_man can tell you what the current buy-rate MF is. Then make sure you get there (anything above is pure profit for the dealer). The real point of negotiation is the Cap Cost of the car -- otherwise known as the purchase price if you were purchasing. Negotiate that lower, and your payment will be lower.
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Replying to: soccerandlost (Jan 17, 2009 5:18 pm) Thanks! How do I get the buy rate from car-man? Is there a separate forum? I have negotiated the price of the car, and that number is based on the lowest the seller agreed to. Dealer said the payment cannot be lowered, its based on the MSRP. I asked him if he had room if he played with residuals he said no since those come from the MSRP which won't change. He hasn't given me any reduction in monthly payments...we did come to his lowest on the purchase price/cap cost (or so I thought)....
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Replying to: gotgt3 (Jan 18, 2009 2:49 pm) Car_man is the moderator of this forum. Just give him a description of the car and the lease terms you are looking for (term and number of miles per year) he will provide you with the current lease terms (residual and buy-rate money factor). In terms of negotiating, edmunds is showing an MSRP for a C300 Sport 4-Matic with P2 of $38,465 (incl. destination), invoice at $35,834, and TMV $32,915. While the TMV number is not hard and fast, what it does tell you is that cars are regularly selling for $3,000 below INVOICE -- or nearly $6,000 off MSRP. This is aided to some degree by the fact that MB is offering dealers $2,000 in "dealer cash" -- which is basically a subsidy to sell the car and something you should take into account when negotiating the cap cost/purchase price of the car. I don't know what your dealer is telling you, but the fact is that this is a buyers market and you shouldn't be afraid to negotiate (or walk out and try another dealer). I don't know if this vehicle has any other features (it would be rare to find one with *just* P2), but if the numbers above are accurate then I'd offer a cap cost of $32k and work up from there, with the hope of landing no higher than $34k. In terms of benchmarks, I leased a C300 Sport loaded (P2, Multimedia, AMG wheels, wood trim, iPod connectors, metallic paint, window tinting) for 39 mos at 10k miles/yr for about $2500 out of pocket with monthly payments of $580 (including tax). My residual is almost identical to yours ($25,15x.xx)
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Replying to: soccerandlost (Jan 18, 2009 9:21 pm)
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Replying to: jwilliams2 (Jan 19, 2009 5:23 am) |
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I wanted to share a recent experience in trying to buy a used Mercedes C-class, and am also interested what other reader experiences have been. In December 2008, I started actively looking for a 2005 MB C240 4Matic. I got financing through my bank and started to visit used car dealerships in the Boston area. Being the end of the year (was after Xmas), I assumed dealers may be in a negotiating mood. I was surprised at the lack of willingness to negotiate from the dealers. I seemed to have miscalculated many assumptions, which are listed below. 1. End of the year shopping - dealers didn't seem motivated to sell their cars before the end of the year. Even on cars that have been in their inventory since June 2008. 2. The economy - I assumed there would be fewer buyers looking to purchase a car in this economy, therefore, dealers would be more willing to negotiate with customers. In fact, they gave very little room in negotiations. I couldn't get many dealerships to even get back to me when I called/e-mailed for more information on a car. On average, I have been offering 10% less than their asking price. Is this unreasonable? What is an average markup/profit on a used Mercedes? What is a reasonable starting point for negotiations? 90%? 85%? 95%? I found an interesting trend on eBay. I searched for 2005 C240's and many are listed. The asking prices are similar to what I am finding at dealerships. When I searched for only auctions that ended, I found that approx. 3 out of 100 cars were actually selling. The cars that have sold were much closer to the prices I have been trying to negotiate, other listings seemed very high. I'm wondering if anyone else has a similar experience, or a different one. Is the economy not as bad as I am reading about in the news? What sort of deals are actually being had out there? Thanks!
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