How to find loaner vehicles – is this right?

Ask the Hackrs
1

Since I’m considering leasing a vehicle for the first time, I have spent quite a bit of time here reading through all of the information available on the site. After seeing some of the discounts that people are getting on loaner vehicles, I thought this might be something I would want to look into further.
I didn’t find a lot of info on how people are finding these loaners. After doing a few searches I did find this thread and some tips in some of the E Class loaner threads.

I have put together the steps I’ve been using to search for loaners and was hoping to get some feedback from more experienced users on whether I’m on the right track or not. Perhaps there is a better way to do this? Am I looking for the right things? Any tips or tricks you’d like to share?

I’m a total noob when it comes to leasing so I want to make sure that I’m not wasting my time looking at cars that can’t actually be leased.

I start by going to iseecars.com

For this example let’s search for any 2017-2018 C Class within 50 miles and less than 5k miles
https://www.iseecars.com/used-car-finder#Location=44333&Radius=50&Make=Mercedes-Benz&Model=C-Class&Year_min=2017&Year_max=2018&Trim=&Mileage_max=5000&_t=a&maxResults=15&sort=Price&sortOrder=asc&lfc_t0=MTUwNDcyNTQ1Njg2OQ%3D%3D

Obviously, I am only interested in cars that are at a MB dealer in this case since I want to lease.
After selecting a car that looks good, I scroll down to the area under the images and click on “Full Report”

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In the new page that opens I then scroll down to the Car History section so that I can look at the CarFax
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I click the link to view the full CarFax report and scroll down to the Detailed History section. What I’m looking for here is whether the car has ever been titled to anyone other than the dealer.

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In this case it would appear that this car was used as a loaner at the dealership and would be the type of vehicle I’m looking for. In the Ownership History section it also lists the type of owner as “Corporate Fleet” but I have seen some cars where the type of owner is left blank even though the car has only been titled by the dealer. Are these still OK?
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So, there you have it. Is there specific things I should be looking for that I didn’t already cover? Things I should avoid? Any other advice or tips for an aspiring leasehackr?

Also, what is the best way to find the original MSRP of the car so that I can start putting together numbers for a proposed deal?

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It’s a CPO, not a loaner. They’re not the same thing.

Easiest way to do this is go to an individual dealer’s website and check there. Most MB dealers have a loaner/demo section. The ones that don’t, typically have demos/loaners listed as new cars for sale and if you see one with some miles on it, you’ll know it’s a loaner.

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They’re not mutually exclusive. I’ve seen ex loaners for sale as CPO.

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The CPO designation usually effects the ability to lease the vehicle correct? Or rather it excludes it from the “new” car rebates/special offers?

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That’s my understanding. But who knows?
CPO is a used car. Leasing a demo is leasing a new car.

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They can cpo a demo. I just did one last week, at least for Mercedes

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Yeah but once it’s CPOed, it can’t be leased.

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I think it depends on the OEM. Some brands allow new car lease programs to apply to any previously untitled vehicles.

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OK. I thought we were talking just about MB.
You can also lease used cars with some manufacturers. I know Toyota did it a couple of years ago on Tundras.

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A client just leased a certified '17 p3 e300 last week

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I was told by more than one dealer that is an un-possible act. Oh well, I guess I’ll know for next time.
Was it leased a new or used, ie did it qualify for the new lease residual and MF?

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Thanks for all the replies! So, it sounds like there is some debate on whether a CPO can be leased or not.

I will take Boomba’s advice though and start looking for cars that are listed as new on the Dealer site but have some miles on them.

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Yes it was new mf and residual

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Good numbers?

20char

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Well @nyclife was confirmed that you can and that he actually recently did… not really a debate. Might change from brand to brand but on MBs it is possible and has happened recently.

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Not sure how legit it was, sounded like the guy didn’t know what he was doing. I didn’t go through the main dealer I went through another dealer in the group. Anyways it was 499 w/ 8 in change upfront 6k in msd. Isn’t the best deal but one of the only p3 loaners on the east coast

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For BMW, you can lease a CPO which was a demo.

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For BMW, I think you can only lease CPO Elites (demos/loaners), not regular CPOs.

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Thank you for more detail. Yes, you’re correct!

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While poking around a few of the local MB sites to see what I could find I came across this
https://www.mbzno.com/cpo-lease-specials/

None of the other sites had a CPO lease section. I haven’t had much luck finding a demo/loaner section on any of the dealer sites or identifying new cars that may have been loaners.