Mercedes lease return options - body damage

Ask the Hackrs
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1

In a time sensitive situation and looking for suggestions/recommendations.

Background:
based in CA (SF bay area), I have an upcoming GLb lease return date of 3/11

Autovin inspection has been completed and four major things were called out:

  1. rear bumper accident - an auto body will charge $600 to fix, so this is on me to fix. Autovin did not provide an estimate to fix (that’s fine).

  2. windshield replacement - spider web has grown and it needs a replacement. I have Geico and am calling them today to get an estimate. will any windshield work or it has to be an OEM? autovin estimated $1200 to replace the windshield.

  3. scratches near the passenger wheel body - my auto body estimated $250 to fix. Autovin estimated $260 to fix.

  4. missing spare wheel - autovin wants to charge $280 or something but I never received a spare to begin with, so that’s another phone call to make.

I’m now considering a couple of options and looking for help
option #1 fix 1 and 2 from above and return the lease to MB and eat the lease return fee of $700 (approx)

option #2 fix 1,2,3 on my own and try to sell the car to MB dealer (call or visit 3 or 4 of them?)

option #3 - Fix 1,2,3 on my own and try to sell to carmax, autonation, carvana. as others have noted, I’m getting wild quotes all over the map.

my payoff amount is approx $27.5k and MBFS has $5K of my MSD’s.

is there another option I’m not thinking about?

if I choose option 3 and buy the car, when i try to sell the car to a carmax or a MB dealer, will I have to pay sales tax on the purchase? if yes, that adds almost 10% to the payoff - trying to understand if the juice is worth the squeeze.

I do not intend to lease/buy another MB.

Thanks in advance - it’s been stressful the past couple of weeks since the car itself was at MB dealership with a cylinder head issue and there was a chance I would not get it back in time to get the body issues resolved. just received the car back from the dealer today.

2

Option #3 will require you to pay sales tax on the residual/purchase price to resell.

3

OP is in California , there’s a 10 day window between Title and Sale that you can apply for a Tax Refund.

However OP, if you do repair those issues using Insurance, it will appear on CarFax and the value will go down fast.

4

Some things to think about:

Is there even time to get an appointment at a body shop and/or glass service before 3/11?

I need to have a windshield chip repaired, and I couldn’t get an appointment at any reasonably-close San Diego-area Safelite location for 2-3 weeks. Is your windshield actually in stock somewhere nearby?

Further, if any parts are needed for the body shop repairs, will they arrive in time? (My mother recently waited 3 months for some parts for the front bumper on her Grand Cherokee, after a minor altercation in a Costco parking lot).

If it needs paint work, how long does the body shop need to keep your vehicle?

5

Option #4 would be to get quotes and try to sell it now to a local dealer without getting anything fixed.

Yes the quotes will be lower with the damage but if you could get close it might be a wash in terms of how much you’d have to eat, and would at least save you the trouble of rusing around trying to get everything fixed in the next 10 days.

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Thank you for the insights.

I was able to do the following in the past few days

  1. able to schedule the rear bimper fix for tomorrow - huge relief
  2. able to get a safelite windshield replacement appt for mid-next week. I have a dilemma here. it’s $250 out of pocket if i stick with non-OEm part and it’s approx $900 additional if I want OEM glass.
    if I end up selling the GLB to an AutoNation or a Benz dealer, will they check and ding me?
    if I end up returning the lease back to benz as per the contract, will they ding me when they see the non-OEM glass? autovin inspector gave me a quote of about $1150 to replace the windshield (FYI)

so, if I decide to stick with non-OEM glass, the car will be ready by the following Wed and I will have exactly 2 days to drive all over town and sell the car to the highest bidder and if that doesn’t work, then on 3/11, simply return the lease.

i don’t know if i should try to sell to carvana and other online dealers since I would only have 2 days of time. on Sunday, when I visited carvana.com, they gave me a quote of almost $3.5K over my payoff quote which is fantastic but i don’t know if the deal would close (and of course, I told them the car was in top shape because I had intended to fix the issues).

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7

cant you ask for a month lease extension?

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8

This car is whacked, I would spend as little as possible to return it to expected lease-return condition (MB should have mailed the lease end instructions and explainer on that by now), and minimize your losses. Meaning, get the cheap glass if you replace windshield, this car is never being resold as a CPO.

I’d see what estimates you can get while waiting for the windshield too.

9

I called MBFS and they said an extension was not possible.

10

to close the loop here - after some extraordinary finagling, cajoling, trips to many shops, the end result - was able to fix all issues with the car and was able to sell to Algo at a 12% premium/over payoff with about 24 hrs to spare for lease expiration.

an exhilarating journey that’s come to an end.

So many lessons learned here but most of all, it’s very clear that my decision-making capabilities were severely out-of-whack and that things needed to change. Feel like a new person in the last couple of days (based on some quick decision-making in so many aspects including life, family, work)- who knew that a simple lease return and the adventures that came with it would have this impact.

Lastly, would like to thank this awesome community for key insights and always willing to help/go the extra mile.

off to my next adventure (buying a used tesla MY).

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