MB Dealer pocketing fleet incentive?

Ask the Hackrs
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Wondering what kind of funny business is going on here. A prominent broker from marketplace adds $6000-$7000 less a discount for fleet on MB deals, from my understanding this is how they frame the deal

  • if you dont have fleet, the dealer will add $7000 in selling price discount
  • If you do have fleet, the dealer already “bakes in” the $7000 discount to the deal (same deal as if you dont have fleet) and gives you a $500 incentive. Even though from corporates point of view the $500 incentive doesnt exist, only the $7500 one does

Im not going to waste both our time and get a contract to understand where the incentive is being pocketed, just wondering if anyone has dealt with this before. Feels scummy from a general great marketplace from past experience

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Haven’t followed the latest deals this month but yes: fleet only adds $500 net to the universal lease cash available to everyone.

Embedding that money into a higher discount and not a separate line item helps with taxes in many states.

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im also in the market and have the same confusion

some marketplace members add $500 for fleet, some add $7500 (or whatever the car is in the brochure)

these are 2 examples from the marketplace that add the full $6500-$7500 fleet to the deal, on top of the $7500 lease cash

Whatever the true answer is, marketplace brokers are saying different things

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Neither of those show the $22000 in incrntives that would be there if they were stacking full fleet and the dealer cash. What marketplace listing are you talking about?

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HN308 posts $14,000 in taxed/untaxed incentives for an EQE ($7500 EV + $6500 fleet)

Evkingsplus posts $15,000 in taxed/untaxed incentives for an EQS ($7500 EV + $7500 fleet)

nyclife has $7500 in taxed/untaxed incentives, plus the comment “Must have Fleet/AMEX for all or add $500”, so fleet is included somehow

Autoaction has $7500 in taxed/untaxed incentives, plus the comment "Amex/Affnity = $500 — ADD INTO CALCULATOR " so fleet is not included, but also only adds $500 instead of $6500-$7500

I understand its all just hiding in different places (dealer discount i guess) but also it doesnt really make much sense that you add $7500 to msrp without fleet for 2 brokers, and you add $500 to msrp without fleet for 2 other brokers. I agree with OP it feels like somehow the dealer is taking a chunk of the fleet

in other words 2 brokers show that fleet and lease bonus cash fully stack, and 2 show that it only stacks $500

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If OP is shopping the SUV there’s much less dealer cash available vs. the sedan. I think total for the 450 sedan variants is $7,500 EV, $13,500 dealer cash and $500 fleet. For the 450 SUVs it’s $7,000 dealer cash plus the others.

The $13,500 (or $7,000 SUV) is what is wholly or partially “hidden” in the dealer discount in my experience. If you’re shopping brokers on a model, you can do a ratio of effective payment to MSRP if you want a value comparison on similar models.

If you’re going to build your own deal, just know to call out this untaxable dealer cash as a separate item from the “dealer discount” you’re expecting in your offer.

As @max_g said, in a state like mine (NY), not paying tax on the sedan’s dealer cash amounts to roughly $48/month saved on a 24 month term, and that’s uncapitalized. So it’s very beneficial that the “end recipient” of this cash is the dealer, but it allows for games on the discount. You just need to know how to spot them.

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Some brokers include Volvo lease cash in their discounts and some don’t(?)
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That’s kind of the point. Dealer discount and stackable rebates are two entirely different things coming out of two entirely different pockets.

You want to maximize both, independently.

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I thought the complaint was that some were stacking lease cash and the full fleet, not that some are shoeing the lease cash in the discount vs in the incentives?

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