Hello Experts - I need your advice. I live in Texas and have been trying to get the $7500 discount on leasing a GLE450e. I went to three different dealerships in the last two days. No one is willing to forego the Money Factor even if I pay the entire lease amount upfront.
I got these lease offers:
MSRP 81890, 3years lease, one pay amount $54449.23 (this includes the $7500 discount) , Residual value 43401.7
MSRP 79525, 3years lease, one pay amount $54449.23 (this includes the $7500 discount) , Residual value 39763
The third dealer didn’t have any vehicles in the color that I’m looking for. So no numbers from him…
As you can see it’s ridiculously high to lease and then purchase. Apparently TX charges sales tax on the entire leased amount upfront and also on the resdiual value when you make the purchase. It’s like douple dipping. So by the time you own the vehicle you would have paid close to 97k.
As the leasing option is stupidly expensive I asked the salesmen if I can use the $2500 Bank of America, $500 Sams’s club and $500 AMEX rebates. I’ve a small buisness and have been banking with BoA for more than 17 years. It seems the BoA rebate is not available for PHEVs. Is that correct? All three salesmen at three different locations said the same thing so I’m believing that it’s the right information.
At the third dealership I found a GLE450e with specs very close to the one we are looking for. The MSRP is $81525 on it. As I kept negotiating with the salesman on various options he finally offered me the vehicle for $78000 (a $3525 discount) for a cash purchase. He said they usually don’t discount these vehicles because they are very few available in the market. According to him, his manager is willing to offer this discount because they have to hit their numbers for the year. I thought it was a pretty good deal given the experience I have had with other dealers so I went ahead and put a non refundable deposit of $1000 on it with an agreement that I would take the delivery on Tuesday (after Christmas).
After walking off of the dealership I’ve been having second thoughts. Should I have negotiated a little harder to get more of a discount? If this is indeed a great deal, are there any gotchas that I’m missing? I would really appreciate if you guys can provide some insights into this. This is a huge purchase for me and I’m thinking that I walked into it too soon without doing enough homework.
And no one ever will. That’s not how one pay leases work. You get a reduction in the money factor, but you don’t get to wipe it out. This is set by the bank. The dealer has no say in the matter.
Amex and sam’s cluh are not different rebates. They both are ways to qualify for fleet. You only get one fleet incentive, no matter how many ways you qualify for it.
Thanks for the response. I’m unable to start a new thread. Is it because I’m a new user? I tried pretty much every link that is available on this page to kick off a new discussion about this deal but couldn’t find an option to do so.
In a double tax situation the e doesn’t make any sense. In like 48 other states everyone can lease to buy, and buy it out for effectively ~7k less than you. Why would you want to buy something when you’re paying 7k more than everyone else?
Forget about the e and choose between the 350 and 450 gas versions.
My wife looks at the aesthetics whereas I focus on functionality and finances. She somehow doesn’t like the sporty looks of X5. She thinks MB is elegant. I like X5 and Porsche Cayanne. She’s the one that’s going to drive this car the most so X5 is ruled out.
