The Mercedes GLE 450E is one of the most polarizing cars on this site. Whenever it comes up for discussion, things usually go sideways. I think the main reason people have issues with the car is the relative expensive cost of it. Even if you choose to lease the vehicle to get the $7,500 rebate, then buy it out as soon as MBFS lets you, the car is still somewhat expensive.
Leasing it will incur $1,095 of lease origination fee, a few months of expensive money factor payments, and possibly an early EV lease exit fee. You’ll want to read the lease agreement before you sign.
So what ends up happening is that people on LH think you could save a ton of money by getting a Volvo XC90 T8 Recharge, a dedicated EV like a Kia EV9, or just stick with a basic ICE SUV like a Toyota Highlander.
Anyway, if your intention is to buy things out as soon as possible, I think a reasonable approach now will be to avoid putting any extra down-payment now in case something bad happens to the vehicle (it gets lemoned or gets totalled).
Then in a few months, find a credit union that will give you a good interest rate and come in with your down-payment money then when you get what is basically a used car loan from your credit union.
Here’s an example of a GLE 450E thread that ended in disaster. I think if you want to avoid a similar disaster… you may want to just work closely with a trusted MB dealer on this site and keep things in PM instead of discussing things in the general forum.
It doesn’t matter if you are going to buy the lease out immediately. Mercedes allows it and you get the to keep the $7.5k lease cash so this all makes sense.
As a side note, I flipped a GLE 450e (thanks to extra state incentive that applies in my case) and in the two moths that I owned the car, check engine light came on multiple times. Once the car was no longer running on pure EV mode, transmission had all sorts of issues. Rough shifts at highway speeds especially when downshifting, immediately followed by the dreaded check engine light. So my brief experience with the car was pretty negative but maybe you will have a better luck with it…
Yeah, but they’re still just buying out the vehicle at the first opportunity (I forget what is MB’s specific rule, but I believe a few months have to pass). Lexus Financial was requiring 3 months for a TX PHEV (at least, before the stop sale).
Thanks for the advice here. Sounds like you’d only know the exact early buy out details after you own the car? Or you would learn that from the exact lease term?
Another Q: 48m lease would bring the monthly payment down a bit further (47% residual), in the scenario of early buy out, would that be beneficial at all? The MF is same for longer lease term.
The 0.00355 money factor implies a fairly expensive cost of funds. Your primary plan should be to enter into the lease on the vehicle to get the $7,500 rebate from Mercedes Financial. Then, at the first opportunity, secure a 60 or 72 month loan from a credit union to buy out the lease.
You’ll want your sales person (or friendly LH Benz broker/dealer) to provide a copy of the lease agreement that clearly spells out when you can buy out your PHEV lease and still keep the $7,500 rebate.
Interest rates for Tier 1 borrowers from credit unions (usually 770 FICO-8 or higher) is around 6.25% today. A 0.00355 Money Factor implies a ~8.5% interest rate.
