Mercedes appears to require/recommend service every one year or 10k miles – an A service, then B service, then A service. So if I do a 36 month, 10k/year lease, and I do not go over the permitted miles, do I have to do the third maintenance – the one that would be due at the time that I return the car – or just the first two?
If I proceed with this lease, I am inclined to buy the prepaid maintenance so that it will be residualized. Dealer maintenance is not worth the price they charge to me – but it is worth 40% of that price. But I need to know whether to buy two prepaid services or three.
One more question: How is “excess wear” measured when it comes to tire tread?
Anyone know? Or, if not, anyone have a good idea how I could find out? I can ask a dealer, of course, but I assume they would just say “do the extra service.”
I am trying to calculate the real total cost of the lease, and this would be a part of it. Thanks!
The prepaid maintenance is a bulk plan, written like a warranty, for a term of x years or up to y miles. Depending on the mileage, and how it’s driven, you might use all three visits, or only two. In any case, to be “safe” you’d probably go in the last 2-3-4 months for the 30k service (at 26k-27k-28k miles) and tell them - I’m planning on returning this car, it has prepaid maintenance, want to use that up before lease end. I never had a problem getting them to do the work a little early and charge it back to the plan (although YMMV I suppose).
A good negotiating trick I learned from an MB salesperson years ago: negotiate everything for the lease without the plan, and then at the end say “I’ll do it if you throw in the prepaid maintenance”.
On tire tread depth: from my last MB AutoVIN lease return pre-inspection report: “Please note that if this is a pre-inspection and your current tread depth is at or near 1/8” (4/32”), you will be charged if the tread depth drops below the requirement prior to the turn-in of your vehicle.”
Whatever you do, save your receipts. My last M-B prepaid maintenance plan (which came with a swapped in-to-me GLS550 with 30k included miles), was a 3 year / 30k miles plan. I made service appointments based on the condition based service alerts in the vehicle itself, rather than annually, and made sure that that last service was during the plan period for miles (I went over on the lease by about 7500 miles as I recall). At that last (included) service visit the tech forgot to re-set the CBS system in the vehicle, and the dealership initially said “hey, your lease return says it is overdue for a Service C” (or whatever). I busted out my PDFs of the service receipts, then that dealership person went back and checked their own service department records, and then they figured out the problem.
I thought you could buy prepaid 2 services or 3 services. They are each at the end of the earlier of one year or 10k miles. So I was not sure whether, on a 36 month lease, I would need to do the third service at all, assuming I am not over the mileage. Because the third service would not be due yet, at the time I return the car (though it might be due a few days thereafter). So maybe I could save some money by buying only two services prepaid?
I have always done the two service prepaid plan on my MB leases. One at 12 months and one at 24 months. The car goes back the 36th month mark, with under 30k miles on the odo and thus no need for the third service.
I just returned my Mercedes at lease end in late January. The only dealer service I had done was a brake fluid flush and an alignment. I did my own oil changes. The Autovin inspection came back clean. I called my sales guy and asked if I needed to show receipts at the dealer turn in and he said just make sure the service engine notice was not on. When I turned it into the dealer they took it with no questions asked and I was out of there in about 10 minutes and I was not re-leasing with Mercedes.
