Hi everyone, I am looking to lease a 2019 or 2020 S450 4MATIC. I currently live in NorCal but going to move to the NY area around August.
What would be a good time to lease this car and do we expect dealer to discount this car considering there are still many S-Class models on the lot. I presume sales will be less for luxury cars considering COVID-19.
There is also some news about a newer S-Class being released in 2021. Would that help in getting a good deal?
Where would it be cheaper to lease this car? I’m open to learning more. Let’s say CA vs Tristate area.
I was thinking a good deal could be total lease cost for 36/10 = ~ 28-30k. Would appreciate any help from you all! Please forgive me for my lack of knowledge and please correct me if i’m wrong.
Where are you getting these numbers from? I just searched the forum and there’s a lease transfer for $1050/month and someone else posted a quote was $3500 down, $1050/month plus tax. So total cost of less than $30k is not exactly realistic.
You’ll have to look into how taxes will work when you move, if you were to lease in CA and then take the car to NY, since CA taxes on the monthly payment of the car but NY taxes upfront on the total of the lease payments.
Hi Jamie, Thanks for your comment. Here’s a link to good deal last year. Considering the current economic situation I was wondering getting a similar deal wouldn’t be impossible. I could be wrong.
Also, you are right about the taxes. I wonder what people do when they move their cars from CA to NY. But great point I completely overlooked.
We’ve seen an increase in sales on ultra luxury stuff, and a slowdown on the cheaper part of our model line. I don’t suspect COVID will net you a unicorn S Class deal. In fact many stores (including mine) are nearly out of cars to sell.
Thank you @mllcb42 and @ethanrs for educating me. I respect your opinions.
Currently, there are over 400 S450s sitting in lots nationwide that have been there for over 80-90 days. This is according to Edmunds. I am new to this but wouldn’t dealers be motivated to move all this stock.
Would you say there’s a slim chance of finding demo cars?
If you look at https://media.mbusa.com/releases/mercedes-benz-usa-q1-2020-sales-chart
S-Class sales are down 25% just this quarter, whereas, overall sales are only down by 4%. I will assume the trend will only get worse or remain drastically lower unless dealers discount the car. MB did predict a 10% downtrend for S-Class sales based on 2018 numbers and launched more SUVs as they sell better in the US.
Also, overall around 1800* S-Class models sitting in lots country wide with MSRP below 120k.
You’ll want to look into what lease incentives are being offered this month, along with confirming buy rate MF. Then, if you’re actually ready to sign the lease soon, start reaching out to dealerships for quotes.
Most of your assumptions seem to come from the “traditional” biased mindset of leasing myths.
As stated previously, you’re going to struggle quite a bit to find the deal you’re looking for.
A BMW 7-series lease at 7,500k miles may be much closer to what you’re looking for. Even the Audi A8’s with their trunk money wouldn’t be that attractive.
Try not to compare what you can possibly get in August to a loaner deal from a year ago. Lease programs and incentives are vastly different and there wasn’t an economic crisis.
Based on data sets and points from these forums, high dealer discounts are getting fewer and fewer. This may change by August, but looking this early may not yield you the results you want.
80 to 90 days is just under average time for a car to sit on a lot so don’t expect a unicorn deal from existing inventory.
This is all about expectation management. If you go into it thinking you’re going to get a unicorn (you are asking for a unicorn deal) then you may walk away disappointed. If you go into it just trying to get quotes and keep an open mind, you may find something you find acceptable.
Once you do the research here and determine what good discounts/RV/MF should be, start sending out emails to sales managers across the country on S450’s with your offers. Only one way to find out if a dealer will accept an offer!
Demo’s are out there but you will have to put in a lot of leg work to find them.
Your best bet will be to search on sites like iseecars and look for new, used and cpo listings with less than 8k miles. Sometimes dealers list them for sale as used or CPO, but they can also be leased. You can call the dealers to confirm, though to set expections, probably 80% of the time, they are in fact just for sale, so expect to make a lot of calls.
Also check the Marketplace section. Finnish Line has an S560 demo on offer, if it interests you.
2019 Mercedes Bens S560
$117,xxx
36 months/10k miles per year
$3000 Due at signing
$899 plus tax W/Loyalty
Thanks @Trato for the support. Yes please…take this car off of my hands. I need this bad boy gone. I’m very sad to let it go but, I am making a “business decision” on it. Just take over the lease. NO money out of pocket. I have a two year maintenance plan on it as well…not sure that I mentioned it? 1860 local miles.
we have serviced at the local dealer for 10+ years with multiple cars and some non-mb as well, typical loaner is an e class, worst I have gotten is a cla250 and the best I have gotten was an s63 executive demo(only 1100 miles and dealer was out of loaner cars and I threw a fit) which was after the big bodystyle change, stroke of good luck, but they do exist out there… however they are almost unicorns themselves.
