They probably would not have agreed to a sales price of $65200. The rebate is from MBFS, not the dealer. You really don’t want the $3k rebate?
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I think you missed some of the info. That IS what I did. I negotiated the sale price. I wasn’t working off of any advertisement or anything else. They didn’t advertise this price at all. I had seen the car and had gone back and forth about what I was after. I felt I could get this for less as it’s a demo that is leasable and I just need a larger car for two more years. There are many of these exactly equipped GLS within 2-3 hours. So I made an offer. How is it my fault for offering a price, asking for the money factor and residual and accepting those and telling them I wasn’t putting any money down but would pay the upfront costs by either check or deducting from the $21000 they agreed to give me for my trade. I didn’t even tell them I was trading until the car price was accepted. ?
Your assessment is wrong. The OP did get the full $3k rebate.
This car is all over the area and I’m sure there will be deals of less than $65200. And they didn’t have to accept my offer. Or they could have said, we can’t go lower than current listing of $68200 but Mercedes is offering $3000 in rebates which we can apply to your first months payment and fees.
Transparency
if you didn’t expect the rebate nor cared about the rebate and just wanted to make sure that the sell price with residual and MF are all correct then THEY ARE.
When you negotiate the sales price most dealers include incentives. If you have something in writing that said “what’s your best sales price before incentives” than I would of hold them to it before signing any deal. The fact that you didn’t know their was a $3k incentive available you should take as a lesson for future deals to do more research.
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This is why it is best to remove all ambiguity when negotiating
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I am not saying he didn’t. the way dealer applied is way @Jflores14 explained but I’m not sure if OP is aware of the rebate or not and could have gotten the sell price of 65,200 plus the 3k rebate towards taxes and fees and a check for the positive equity of 3,882.
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Everything being said you got a 18% dealer discount. I’m not familiar with MB deals but doesnt sound too bad? If anyone else wants to chime in on that
@susie and @dloco got 25.8% and 24% off GLS loaners recently, so maybe OP could have done better. Should have researched on here first before signing.
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This is why most people like going to the dentist more than buying or leasing a car. It’s not a transparent process.
I have no issue with the fact it’s a business and they have to make money which is why I didn’t haggle over the fees and I actually thought I should have offered lower considering the high inventory and lack of inventory movement.
Most people have jobs and lives and just want to have a straight conversation, get the info they asked for without surprises. I certainly thought I had researched plenty but no, I didn’t see anything about a rebate (and yes, I check Edmunds and other sites for all of that info).
Note to self - don’t rush, don’t assume because you said something (in writing) that they will write it up that way or there won’t be additions you didn’t know anything about.
In truth, I don’t lease and won’t again. Just needed two years but generally I buy and will in the future. Many lessons learned. And I’ll remain a skeptic about the process - that is warranted.
Thanks for all of the feedback.
Curious if you are consumers or industry related? Most people seem to agree with me that it’s a ridiculous process but you all seem way more comfortable. Maybe just more experienced.
Agreed! There is a lot of inventory and 2020 are a completely new model with great reviews. I have to get comfortable driving a harder bargain I guess and taking more time. Holiday rush didn’t work in my favor.
The same things can happen with purchasing as well. You just have to be more informed and educated about the process to understand and catch the things dealers will try to do.
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Car buying and leasing process can both be ridiculous. That’s why forums like this were created. In the case of purchasing you should be able to find a forum dedicated to most brands, most of the time there will be a thread discussing “purchase price paid” within those forums.
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This is what they take advantage of.
This plus research the heck out of the car you want. Unless you really needed a car that minute, you can always wait. They have a higher need to sell a car than you needing one.
Good lesson for next deal.
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There are some people in the industry here, but a lot of us are not. Comfort comes from experience and knowledge. The best way to get a great deal on a lease (or purchase) is to know as much about the deal as you possibly can. There is nothing that went on here that is unique to leasing. The rebate games you see would have been played exactly the same if you had purchased.
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Read up on the Leasing 101 articles and all the different components of a lease deal.
Don’t let 1 transaction steer you in one direction or another.
There are great threads on Leasing v Buying and read thru those as well.
Make the right choice depending on your situation, need and want.
Generally shorter leases are more expensive as the depreciation curve is highest in the initial years (specially with luxury cars). Like in your situation RV for 24 month lease is 54% compared to a 52% on a 36 month lease posted by @dloco HERE meaning you could have got an extra 12 month for 2% of depreciation which would have spread over the whole lease term.
Hope it will help.
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Only difference dloco’s deal was for 12k/yr miles, his is for 15k/yr. So their would of been another 2% difference in Residual
Although you missed out on some additional savings, just put it this way… your deal is probably better than the average. Take it as a lesson learned and do better next time.
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This explains a lot.