I know they exist, I was answering his question - They exist, but as executive demos as opposed to a courtesy loaner.
The relative loss you’d take on a loaner CLA is drastically smaller than what you would take on a loaner S450.
Yeah I get that, i was just throwing some data points so op could get an idea.
Mostly I see c’s and cla’s, even the e class is hard to get. That was the only time I got an S class. A few years back they set up a pickup program for repeat customers so pretty much now they just come to the house and pick up the car, service it and bring it home, not sure if this is dealership exclusive or if mb offers this but it took a lot of hassle out of servicing multiple cars around the same time.
I am being told that Mercedes engineers their premium vehicles (like the S-Class) in a fashion that suits the primary buyers of these vehicles. Supposedly a vast majority are leased so Mercedes only engineers these cars to survive 3 years of use before they start having expensive mechanical problems.
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I generally get an S450 loaner when I service my GT, GL63 or maybach.
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Must be nice to be rich…
I am an internet billionaire.
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hulu? wild guess lol
S-class, 7-series, A8, Jaguar XJ, etc have been less reliable since way before leasing became popular.
Right, reliability isn’t their selling point. Being able to flex status symbol more like a sales point😀
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Very well said and I do agree with what you say. Definitely, my lack of knowledge manifests itself but my point was to learn from people like yourself. So thank you!
That being said, I have always analyzed macro level trends and this has always helped me especially in my investments but car leasing is new to me. BMW 7 series is definitely a better deal. The MF and RV for S450 isn’t bad. It’s all about the dealer discount. With BMW’s its not uncommon to see 15% or even greater for some models.
I recognize expectation bias is real and I totally agree with you. This time of the year just felt particularly interesting to me just like early 2006 (W221) and October 2013 (W222) when new models were released. Sales in Q3 have historically always been low and now we need to factor in a potential launch of a new generation in Q4. Of course, we also need to factor in the fact that we are in an economic meltdown with people losing buying power. There is definitely pent-up-demand because of the lockdown so I can see why higher dealer discounts could vanish in the short term. But according to my analysis, MB would roughly sell ~ 9000 S-Class vehicles this calendar year down from 12500 vehicles in the previous calendar year. All in all, I factored in similar assumptions for the economic impact of 2007-9 where S-Class sales plummeted from 26,081 to 17,787 to 11,199.
All in all, assuming model depreciation impact before W223 launch and the current economic scenario, I foresee significant sell pressure in the market for Q3. But as George Box puts it, “All models are wrong, but some are useful”.
Thank you again for sharing your thoughts.
Who liked a Cabarnet Sauvignon after they had a good Bordeaux?
Thanks for sharing. I would love to get this off your hands but your lease terms are higher than what I am expecting. Of course, I could be living in fairy land but if the S450 doesn’t work for me I’d rather go for the 7 series which is definitely a better deal. I only need few miles on it since I don’t envision driving this car around a lot in NYC. Only for long trips.
That being said, I have shared your posts with people I know that would be interested in this. Will get back to you if they show interest 
This is super helpful. Thank you!
I think you have a bad case of leasing Dunning-Kruger here. Before trying to make market level analysis attempts, spend some more time getting familiar with the inner workings of leases.
I get it buddy…thanks so much for considering it.
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Look at lease transfer ads here and on swapalease… 7-series should be more attainable.
This maybe a vanilla vs chocolate type argument, but aside from “seating capacity” I look at the 7 series and S class as very different vehicles. If all you are looking for is “the better deal” it’s most likely the 7 series – although a large part of this equation, given an apples to apples equipped 7 and S, the MSRP on the S will simply be higher. Mercedes has always been pay to play, they aren’t priced for value (some exceptions exists) and they are not a good brand to go unicorn shopping. If you are looking for the end to end experience of an S class, I don’t think you will find it in a 7 series.
Also, FWIW my wife has been driving around in a $80K GLS450 loaner while my C43 has been in the shop for the past 2 weeks (waiting for parts from Germany). When I took my Audi A8 in for service (which was basically all the time) I would get an A8 loaner. But, when I took my BMW in for service I was lucky to get a loaner car at all, when I did get one is was usually a 3 series with that fake plastic interior.
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Gone are the good ole’ days of the W140 and previous W126 S classes…
Be happy to. Point me to the resources. Never said I was right but I appreciate your criticism.
Bmw has always been more flair and sporty while mb is marketed as for the driver, they are usually more luxury oriented than sport and the cars exhaust is very quiet. Just look at amg cars and M cars, there are no CS or track models for mb, on top of that the amg models are very well disguised whereas the M models try to show the extra “sportyness” wherever they can, although this is now a moot point due to M sport and Amg themed packages. But I agree with you that the experiences are totally different, and there’s nothing wrong with either philosophy.
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