Said no prior MB SUV driver about their new Hyundai SUV ever.
The Hyundais and Kias have become much better though for sure.
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And that makes you financially more savvy than most. 
I grew w/ MBs, and other members in my family still drive MB. They’re nice cars, but the gap has shrunk so much that I personally do find them worth the money. I’d rather spend that $ updating my condo or going on a nice vacation.
But my roundtrip daily commute is also only 6 miles So, even if an MB were “much” better (however you want to define that), how much am I going to enjoy that superiority in 6 miles??? For the way I use my car, I def enjoy my VW Golf Sportwagen much more overall than I did my W204 C-Class.
But other people have other priorities.
At any rate, to get back on topic, GLS’s don’t lease well.
Yeah Hyundais and Kias have gotten much better because they keep benchmarking Land Rover and Mercedes hah.
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What’s wrong with that lol. As long as they don’t get ideas about reliability from these brands, better for me. Gives buyers more options.
I got a discount on one (3% off MSRP) but the lease was still atrocious. $65k to drive the car for 3 years.
The issue is the 2024s are hard to find. I hate that dealerships now advertise cars as “in transit,” which in Los Angeles, means they’re sitting at the port in Long Beach. It’s manipulation of the market. I want dealerships to just go out of business. Let’s just buy directory from the manufacturers. Dealerships have had enough protections over the years.
Derek still hasn’t sold that 2024 Alpine Grey GLS… you all in WC have sold like 20 loaded 2024 GLS so far hah. I’m telling ya… it’s because of the blurry azz photos they have on the $100k+ MSRP car haha.
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Yeah yeah yeah. Still not selling out of the market
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Market will correct their prices and discounts. They are stubborn, but that stubbornness costs them a lot of money. They already have dozens of cars sitting on their lots for 144 days or longer, at least here in MD.
Re: in-transit: I think you could still buy the car from dealer, knowing that it’s already built and will arrive to dealership at last (if there is no fire, force majeure, mass strike of transportation workers, another pandemic and etc.). I don’t know how dealerships operate, but I would think it should work in their favor if they can sell the car before it hits the floor. No time wasted trying to peddle it, and it’s guaranteed it won’t be sitting there for the next 260 days. In return, you can ask for discounts. More discounts than for a car on the floor. May be that won’t work, may be they would rather discount the car on the floor that was sitting there for a while, I don’t know. And this being such a rare find, as you say, they may not discount it at all.
MBs are just very difficult to work with since summer 2021.
If you are dead set on the car, do nationwide search, find it anywhere in the US and send your deal proposals to as many dealers as you can. Who knows, some dealership in rural area in Utah may have the car sitting since June and desperate to get rid of it. it never hurts to search and try to contact the dealers.
I don’t know if ordering cars directly from factories would be to our benefit. If they do that, they may set one retail price (no longer suggested, but a firm, dead set price) that everyone will have to pay. I think Teslas are marketed like that, you pay the same price no matter who you talk to and how their sales are going.
So you would prefer 0% discount versus the atrocious 3%?
Pretty sure it’s just the way their inventory systems work in that they link to their websites and there is no nefarious intent. Not sure how advertising cars in transit would be a manipulation of the market anyways.
Wow you guys sold the alpine grey GLS and the AMG EQE? Someone over there is pulling some mega commissions…
$800 on AMG EQE and $900 on GLS
There’s no slider for % over a certain dealer margin? Selling these at MSRP (or more?) is huge. Like the holdback alone on each is probably > $800…
25% of the front gross - $685 pack
What… front gross on a $102k loaded GLS450 is like at least $12k. Less the pack (that got you all some blurry and crooked ass photos plus auto trader listing) x 25% should be around $3k.
Stop, lol. There is MSRP and then there is invoice.
Yeah MSRP less wholesale dealer invoice is about 12% minimum on these mega SUV’s. And that doesn’t reflect the holdback.
No, no way. The car is about $102,045. Invoice is about $98,575. So around 4.25%. Just the rough estimate, but you are way off.
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I know this is an old thread but just trying to get some input from others on what is the current discount % on the GLS450 right now since we are now in end of year stretch.
Let’s all chime in guys! @oarfish18 @cbergman
So, my GLS450 is currently at MSRP. And we keep all our GLS450 in our area. We aren’t shipping it outside the states, unless he’s the owner’s friend.
However, I gave the local customer $500 discount on last Saturday, just to make him feel happy.
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Check the Marketplace