You have received some good information so far. Additional things to help:
Search current year “used” MB at your favorite car classified portal or check the “Courtesy Vehicle” or “Service Loaner” section of the dealer’s inventory.
Anything with <10K miles which has not been sold/registered to a 3rd party can be leased.
Vehicles listed as “rental”, “Fleet” or “Dealership took ownership, etc” are typically available to lease (this is how MB lists their service loaners"
For 2017 E300 loaners, the target was 22-25% off MSRP and leasing at buy rate MF and non-marked up Acq. Fee.
See if dealer lets you apply your Penfed fleet bonus (think its $2k this month). Be prepared for the dealer to state that they cant stack it with their dealer cash, which is already included in the pricing. Since its an either or proposition you will get the larger of the two rebates.
Be prepared to travel if necessary. A one way ticket is $250 to most locations on the eastern half of country.
The issue with loaners/demos is that, at times it can depend on how long they have been sitting. From what I’ve learned over time is that the longer a car sits at a dealership, the more inclined they are to getting rid of it. Dealers have a 30 day, 60 day, 90 day, etc. list of cars, cars that have been on the lot for 30 days usually dont get discounted much, and so forth. (I may be wrong on this, feel free to correct).
No idea what the incentives will be next month, these things changes all the time. It’ll be in the middle of the year so I’d assume MY2019 will slowly start trickling in. Usually July/August/September is when inventory starts getting refreshed for the new year so, there are deals to be had for MY2018’s then. Again, all is speculation, we never know. I would wait though, unless you get a killer price for the E300.
I’ve found that the E300 might be an easier hack then the BMW. Just from my point of view.
I’d also add that the best deal on a 2017 E300 was negotiated in Jun 2017 by @amasih. In general, the qty of decent deals may have improved towards the end of 2017, but those were sub-400 deals instead of the sub-300 unicorn. [I was one of those chasing the sub-300 unicorn on an e300 for several months, then fell just fell inline and hacked a new S90 in the low 300s. A new S90 is easily repeatable this month if you have A-plan]
I think I was confusing the fleet discount with the car buying program… I just found the that fleet discount for a penfed member on an eclass is 2000
Found that info here: Fleet Vehicle Program | Mercedes-Benz USA
I don’t mind waiting… the only thing I’m worried about is that there wouldn’t be a lot of loaners left to lease… When do the majority of loaners go on the market and will they typically be available through July?
Hmmm… I would be interested in an S90… do you know how I can be eligible for A-plan? I am a current government employee if that helps? Would the A-plan savings be very significant or is a good deal still possible without it? Can you provide the details of your deal… was it a loaner or brand new?
Sam’s club member or membership in family is the easiest way now? Not sure if government has A-plan access. There is no centralized list I am aware of, but you can ask your local Volvo dealer if your government organization has access to it. My S90 deal was at the end of 2017 and the programs have adjusted since then. The key with the S90 is that there is an extra $3000 rebate which drives the monthly cost down dramatically.
I would recommend reading through this thread for more recent information:
I got this from Edmunds…
.001 MF and 59% residual but that there would be a residual reduction based on the miles… how would I find out those reduction parameters… (I’ve seen .25 and .20 off for every mile over 3,000, still yet to find a definitive answer)
for MB $0.20/mile for every mile over 3000. So 7000 miles = 7000 -3000 = 4000 overage @$0.20/mile = $800 RV reduction. Divide 800 by MSRP to determine % reduction. So if MSRP is 60k, % reduction = 800/60000 = 1.33%, so new RV would be 57.67%, if original RV was 59%. Also, if the dealer claims you should hurry because the residual is going to be reduced in the future, don’t believe them as RV has stayed strong until lease support has ended. As an example, 2017 C300 has 36/12 RV at 58% now.
I’m not aware of any seasonality on loaners…dealers seem to pull them out of rotation and put them up for sale based on time (leaving at least 3 years on the OEM warranty) and miles (sub 10k) but that’s an educated guess.
I found a 2018 E300 4matic loaner that I would be interested in leasing. The MSRP of the car is 62,200. The RV is 59% and the MF is .001. The car is not listed yet therefore there is no sell price. I found the car by going to dealership and speaking with a sales rep. If I wanted to get the car now, it would take approximately 1 week to get it because it still has to go through the cleanup/inspection process they put loaners through. The car’s “age” at the dealership is about 100 days old.
Given that it has not yet been listed, and that it is not going to be CPO’d, would this mean I can get a better deal because the dealer is saving money on the listing and CPO’ing it?
Looking at previous E300 loaner deals on LH, I see people getting 18% or more off MSRP BEFORE any incentives. I’ve tried negotiating similar numbers to that with other dealers and I had no luck. I made a chart of all the different Lease Hackr calculations for this car varying by percent discount off MSRP.
The sales price on the car in my chart is BEFORE the 2k incentive I get for Penfed. The numbers for the monthly payment and the driveoff include the 2k incentive.
Ideally, I would want 20% or more off MSRP before the 2k incentive but I don’t even know if that would be possible. But, realistically, I would settle for the numbers for 17-18 % off MSRP before the incentive.
How do I begin my negotiation… is it even realistic asking for a selling price of 20% or more off MSRP?
some of the deals with such heavy discounts were outgoing model year, meaning they were 2017s when the 2018s were rolling in and they were trying to clearance them out. You don’t have that scenario currently so to expect a 20% discount on a brand new one is probably not realistic.
also interested in leasing E300, just got offered 13% off MSRP on 2018 model, definitely need to negotiate again, I am targeting at 550 including all taxes for MSRP 63200 with P2. do you guys think 550 is reasonable?
BTW, I am also looking for 2017 E300, but couldn’t find any new 2017 or loaner car for leasing, I am located at San Francisco, if you see one, please let me know, thanks!
