Not trying to troll or be facetious but a serious question:
I’m starting to do research on a new lease and I’m seeing Mercedes C300 loaners for ~$400/month in California and I’m wondering if that is the case, why would anyone go for a Toyota or Nissan then when they are maybe only ~$50/month less?
I guess insurance and gas would also be a bit more expensive? But it seems like the Mercedes would be a much better “deal” no?
Are they aware? So many people assume that payments go up more or less linearly with MSRP in my experience
Another variable in your equation is maintenance. MB does not have “complementary” routine maintenance for XX months like some luxury manufacturers. The cost to service a MB is going to be quite a bit more than a Toyota/Nissan.
Also, some people just don’t care about the luxury brand. They see it as ostentatious.
Also as @max_g said above. I’d say the vast majority of people think that the MSRP determines the lease payment. They have no idea that MSRP is only one part of the equation when determining a lease payment/deal.
Honestly I’m a lot more comfortable showing up to work in a Chevy than I would be in a Benz.
The best thing MB ever did was introduce those 13 month leases… who cares about maintenance if the lease is grounded after 12 months? (pull ahead enabled by lease loyalty).
Not everyone wants a Benz. Theres the ones that shop by car and the ones by payment. Imo if i had to own the car and keeping it for 8-10yrs me personally ill choose a toyota/honda over a benz.
Those deals take some leg work and knowledge about how leases work. The vast majority of people have no idea how to go about getting a C class for $400/mo. And if those people walk into a dealer and ask for a quote the dealer will likely tell them it’s $700/mo.
What were the mileage terms for those $4xx/month MB lease deals? 24 months @7.5k miles per year? I am pretty sure those deals also included money due at signing.
Maybe for a base C class loaner.
No, there were some Pinnacle 62-65K loaners that went for a song. Thing was that they were priced almost same as base cars in low to mid 50s. But that was back in March. Is there even lease support for 2024s in April?
OP may want to look into i4 or 3 series as they still lease support for 2024. Also plenty of loaner 530i’s all over So Cal but they will probably cost more (never looked into those or saw anyone hack one). Check Marketplace .
Gas, def. Insurance, possibly not (since I assume premiums are based, in large part, on loss data, which is not solely a function of MSRP).
Premium vs regular 
I doubt there is still lease support for 2024 models.
And Camry is (true) hybrid only. 
MBZ extended EQ support, don’t think extended it for ICE unless something’s changed.
BTW, two things to consider re BMWs:
1 - scheduled maintenance is included (and they give you free loaners);
2 - they offer their own insurance now a-la Tesla, presumably based on their proprietary data. Haven’t priced it out yet, so no opinion on the worthiness.
Ah, I miss the old LH days when we were pulling $60k E class loaners for $300 a month. I’m sure the deals are out there, we just have a much higher proliferation of other brands these days so the brand’s ICE cars get less attention.
I am actually hoping BMW offers some sort of fire sale to get rid of 330is within the next yr or so b/c, if so, I’d def be interested (and I think I’d prefer a 3 to a MB C-Class).
besides brokers advertising, how do you extract best mf/rv/term value–just random plugs into calculator? usually with bmw, 39 months = cheaper payment and then just transfer the vehicle if bored or wv. with MB obviously can’t do that.
RV, Tax, Title, License are not negotiable. It’s set by the lender and government (respectively). No input into a lease calculator is “random” except for how much money you want to put into the deal on the front end.
Random input of numbers = random output of numbers with no basis in reality.
Correct, I understand the things you mentioned as not neogtiable. A better way way for me to ask my question is:
-how the heck yallk now which vehicle is hot. For example @HersheySweet starting the EQS frenzy. Is it vehicles that individuals have personally been following/keeping a close eye on the market vs. brokers advertising hot deals and then using that as a lead vs. a combination of both?
My eqs came from drinking beer on a couch and saying, I wonder what I can get an S class for, what about the EQS, and texting an SM I knew with an offer.