Looking to lease a new CLE53. Is this a good deal?
10K mileage lease for decently optioned CLE53 ~87K MSRP. Dealer discounts - $5K. Prepaid maintenance - $2,790. $5K down.
Dealer A - MF around 0.00275 / monthly payment of $1,372. 54.7% residual. No equity on my lease return (which is nuts because that was my 3rd lease from them).
Dealer B - MF is 0.00172 / monthly payment of $1,295. 53% residual. Includes around $2K equity on my lease return.
One should never talk numbers with a dealer without knowing what a good deal is first.
Step back, put together a well-researched target deal based on your personal situation, and then make them an offer.
If you ask the dealer how much they want you to pay, they will tell you.
Well, I haven’t signed anything and I’ve been shopping around.
Shopping around and talking numbers without driving the negotiations only serves to erode your position though. Your only value to a dealer on an aggressive deal is to be the fastest, smoothest deal possible. Going back and forth with numbers wastes everyone’s time, lets them frame the starting position, and doing so without knowing an actual target presents you as a customer that doesn’t really know what they are doing. Those are all things the dealer wants to seize on to charge you more.
You have spent a great deal of time lecturing me on how to negotiate without any real info. Clearly I understood it’s at least not a good deal and started discussing with multiple sources to get educated. It’s like lecturing someone who’s starting to hit the gym about how they haven’t hit the gym. Pointless.
Start by reading leasing 101. Then figure out what a good lease for the car would be. Thennn contact dealers with your numbers.
I don’t need to read Leasing 101. I’ve done a lot of reading on leases and have leased many Mercedes coupes so I have a baseline. That baseline shifted with COVID and rates going up.
For your second point… you mean research like shopping dealers with #s and posting on lease hacking forums for guidance?
This is the way.
There are leasing 101 articles that specifically discuss how to put together a well-researched target deal and detailed instructions on how to fill out the leasehackr calculator.
I use the lease calculator all the time and it’s how I reversed the #s on the first dealer that wouldn’t share the MF. What I need help with is understanding the market variables for this specific car i.e benchmarked against other deals. I do not need help in understanding the mechanics of a lease.
Mercedes AMG leases are generally terrible. Their numbers are are about accurate based on what the MF and residual are. Only way you will get a better “deal” is if you can negotiate more off MSRP and from my experience you will not have much more room. You might be better off financing depending on rates.
Yeah that’s what I’m seeing. Bidding dealers against each other to make a quick sale on existing inventory. The dealer I typically work with has only gotten worse. Avoiding the MF like the plague.
The offers you have provided in your first post have insufficient information to baseline against other deals. You can’t look at just dealer discount or just monthly payment. You need a fully flushed out target deal for your situation to normalize any information. That includes sourcing information like buy rate mf from a source other than the dealer. Ratefindr is the easiest way to do that.
Your best option is to scrape broker listings for pre-incentive discount targets after normalizing them for buy rate mf. Use that value along with your qualifications, tax rate, regional fees to establish your target deal. Then, go make offers. Ignore your dealer offers, they’re just noise in your way.
Since OP is in Ohio, I wonder if he’s shopping at North Olmsted 
I am shopping at North Olmsted.
Yeah you’re fucked. Doug Horner is the General Sales Manager there and wears a bow tie. @Bumboola can explain more about Bow Tie Benz Guy.
Doug runs some TikTok reels that while entertaining - show how any customer shopping that showroom will get ripped a new one if they’re desperate for Benzos and signs a deal from North Olmsted.
Then why do you have 2 diff RVs listed for the same model? Is one a loaner?
Two different cars at different dealers. Similar MSRP
I’ve seen him on YouTube but didn’t watch any of it. Not really fucked if I don’t buy from them, which is what brought me here. More than likely going to just keep my existing car (2022 E53 Coupe).
I’m not sure how his videos haven’t tanked sales…. They just paint such an “icky” picture IMO
There are two types of luxury car buyers… ones that try to get low payments (folks on LH). And ones that flex their payment touting their ability to overpay on luxury indicates they’re well off and wealthy.
Doug caters to the later crowd with marked up financing and “one price” that most here think are an overpay.
The problem for you is the CLE53 is a low volume car that will likely only be priced for this same cohort of buyer. There aren’t many LH worthy deals on this car. Even the E53 doesn’t see many deals on LH.