Quick question. I’m considering a Mercedes vehicle that’s in another state (I’m in KY, dealer is in MA). Most dealers are now making efforts to allow purchasing a vehicle without going into the dealership by sending the documents to sign via fedex or some service. I have a dealership that has initially told me, I have to go in to the dealership to sign leasing documents. Has that been your experience? I’m going to contact the general manager of the dealership to get the real scoop, but I would think that dealers would be making every effort to sell cards during a pandemic easier; and how do you purchase a car out of state if they are suggesting you have to go there? What has been your experience?
This all depends on the dealer. In this day and age most have no problem with out of state sales (including docusign and/or shipping documents, etc.), however some still won’t do it for a variety of reasons.
I personally wouldn’t bother contacting the GM. If you’re an out of state buyer that plans to purchase a car 100% remote, and the sales manager is insisting that you have to sign in person, then just thank them and move on to another dealer.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m initially confused because the car is listed on carguru and they have listed it as “Contactless purchase: Pay or finance this car completely remotely—either by phone or email. Paperwork will be delivered to you.” So either they are not applying the same process to lease deals and just not declaring that in their advertising or the sales associate doesn’t know the dealership policy well. I was just wondering what others have experienced. I’m assuming the general manager will clear it up for me.
Thanks for the feedback. I’ll probably get to that point, but I want to make sure that is in fact their policy as that feedback was not from an actual sales manager, just an associate.
If this confusion is based off nothing more than what a sales rep said then I would take that with a grain of salt. Oftentimes sales reps just don’t have a clue, especially about a specific dealer policy or process that falls outside of their usual SOP.
Just an FYI, if you lease from Massachusetts, you may have to wait a while to get your car. Massachusetts doesn’t allow temp tags, so you can’t take possession of the car until you get your permanent KY tag, so the time that you’ll have to pay and not have the car will depend on both how backed up the KY DMV is and how efficient the tag company used is, too.
SLC300. It is brand new, but obviously with Mercedes retiring the model, all the cars that are left on the lot are officially a year old now. I’m hoping to take advantage of that fact as many dealers are ready to get rid of them. With MA being slammed with snow, I was hoping I’d seem like an oddball looking for a roadster in the middle of winter. lol. Dealer seems to have a decent deal to start with.
I assume they want a buyer who will not backout since there at the dealership, and maybe buy some addons at the finance office. Multiple ways you can work with the dealership on that depending on the value of this particular deal.
Most important is be clear and firm about why you cant do the deal in person. Usually reasonable folks understand, and will accommodate. (fedex documents, dealer will get shipping or contactless delivery).
yeah. tbh, it feels like a red flag to me. Like they want me in the finance office to edit numbers or throw on extra stuff and don’t want me to have too long to review the deal thoroughly if it was mailed to me. That’s just a gut reaction I have to it.
While that may or may not be true, at least talk to them before assuming the worst. Again unless this deal is an absolute unicorn, you should not be that concerned if they say no
Keep in mind many dealerships have been the victims of fraud when doing out of state / non in-person deals. Perhaps the risk tolerance is too great…just b/c a dealer website says something, I wouldn’t go chisel it in stone.
I haven’t got lease numbers yet, or I definitely would. All I have is price of the car and then I asked about shipping (which they are fine with) and signing remotely. I still have to work that part out. But at any rate, it’s a 2020 SLC 300, advertised price $55,370, has the driver assistance package, the smartphone package and the premium package. I wasn’t planning on bothering with numbers if they weren’t willing to mail me the lease docs to sign.
