My exposure will be between 40K and 50K miles on a vehicle that has been trouble free and well maintained. The worst-case scenario is I spend $5000 on the MB extended warranty. Even in this case, the TCO is still significantly cheaper than my BMW IX or I5, with a lower effective payment, no money at signing and no MSDs. I don’t have to make the warranty decision now. Cheapest CPO option was $11K more.
My wife will never go to a gas station again.
We are well beyond the lemon window with a 2-year-old vehicle at over 40k miles. Any factory defects would have surfaced already.
There are probably less then 5 of these unicorn loaner deals possible, at any time, and like 1000 people trying to score them. On the other hand, a new 2024 EQS 580, if you can even find one, is leasing for $1520/mo plus inceptions and MSDs. See @AutoCompanion sheet here
The best point made.
It’s really simply. I make 23 payments, first one 30 days after origination, then return the vehicle in place of the 24th. No other option will make sense, no need to complicate things. However, one downside to balloon is you have to pay tax on the full purchase price, which I avoided thanks to NJ.