Bought a 2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS 450 a few weeks ago. Technically it’s used because the MB dealership “punched” the car back in October. The car had a couple hundred miles on the odo and still 46 months of warranty left. MSRP is about $77k and I bought it for $60k, so about 22% off. For someone like me that doesn’t drive much (maybe 5k miles at the most per year), buying a used car made the most sense (and in this case this car is essentially new with a huge discount). However, during the process I also noticed an inefficiency that could work to our favor and thought I would at least share/discuss.
When I plugged in the numbers into Edmunds or KBB’s used car estimator, these estimators do not ask for the number of months of warranty left. So everything else being equal, 2 low-mileage CLS will have very similar values even if one has a lot more warranty left. It really worked toward my advantage when I haggled the price with the dealership. Told them that I wasn’t going to pay above the range specified by these used car appraisers. For whatever it’s worth the $60k is actually below the used car range specified by KBB/Edmunds, for essentially a new car.
Anyway, let me know what you think of this information/pricing inefficiency.
There are always going to be lots of minor nuances associated with any given car that an online pricing estimator like KBB or Edmunds can’t take into account.
Remaining warranty, service history, tire wear, maintenance plans, etc.
Not sure I would call it a pricing inefficiency but rather just a prime example of why any value given by a KBB/Edmunds is just a rough estimate (at best) and might not be 100% indicative of what the actual market is.
Getting 20% off a new Mercedes, after incentives, is not uncommon. Especially on aged inventory and/or retired demo’s and/or loaners. I’m not quite sure your warranty argument was as effective as you think. Dealer probably owned the car for around what you paid, so a decent deal for both sides. Enjoy the car.
Right, I assume there was trunk money for the MB dealer to punch the car. I am guessing it’s at least a few thousand dollars as these “4-door coupes” are not nearly as popular as they once were.
I guess what I am trying to say is there’s a lot more than just what you see in Edmunds or KBB’s estimator. They don’t really differentiate between 2019 CLS with 46 months of warranty vs one with 30 months of warranty. Heck they don’t even really differentiate one with 200 miles on the odo vs one with 5k miles on the ODO.
At the end it worked out for the dealer and me. I am sure they still made a profit, and I am happy with the car as it’s literally one of the few 2019s in the country with the color and options I wanted. The fact that this is essentially a new car is a nice bonus as I was originally aiming for a more used car.
Get a quote from Vroom.com or Carvana.com for selling it. Those algorithms which price your car before buying it give a true value of what your car is worth today now that its been registered to a customer.
Compare that with what you paid and you will get an idea how good or bad deal it actually was.
Edmunds and KBB estimates are not really as perfect as they don’t cut a check and buy your car for the value they show on their site.
