Searching the forum will answer 99% of your questions
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Not on a MB, but my recent strategy of emailing dealers with the deal I want has not worked. Instead of starting low and going up, dealers are just passing on me.
The better approach would have been for me to go “top down” by asking dealers for their price then playing them off each other to drive the price down. This is in the SF area though where there is a lot of $ floating around so the tactics might work differently elsewhere.
How aggressive are you starting? There are some people that insist on making an unreasonably aggressive initial offer in hopes of going back and forth to a middle ground rather than just make an aggressive, but reasonable initial offer. When you start too aggressively, you’re far more likely to end up with your email in the trash rather than get a counter.
The other good way to get your email sent straight to the trash is to make an offer with incorrect numbers/calculations.
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I started with 12% off. The advertised discount is about 7% off MSRP and LHers are routinely getting 10-10.5% off.
What kind of deal did you end up getting after starting with 12%? I’m asking 10% (on a volvo) and getting nowhere.
Then ask for 10-10.5% off. I just negotiated a lease on a 2020 M340i purely through email asking the internet sales manager of a local dealer for the upper limit (and not beyond) of what I was seeing on LH for that model of 10% off pre-incentive. Had a yes within 12 hours and an M340i delivered (free delivery included in deal) to my driveway a day later. I’m in the SF Bay Area.
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Exactly.
People seem to have this idea that if they drastically overshoot their target, they’re going to go back and forth with the dealer and meet in the middle. Rarely does that ever happen. When you’re trying to walk up to the edge of what’s doable, overshooting just means falling off the cliff on the other side. That’s how you end up with your offer in the trash.
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I ended up at like 10.5% but on a fresh start deal. The times I asked for 12% I went nowhere. I agree it’s best to go to the “edge” of reasonable, but hard to know what that is. I end up over the cliff and in the trash can because I overshoot not wanting to leave any money the table 
Agreed. I think it helps having KBB/Edmunds TMV as reference points to gauge if the discount is realistic even before sending out an offer with a certain percent. Found this to be a thing on the Lexus LS, where only around 5-7% is the norm and 10% is “the best that they can do.”
Hi Jeremi, did you target a high volume dealership as I don’t think you can get near 10% off MSRP on a M340i form a small place. I noticed too that you get the best deals from either fleet or internet manager.
Here is a List of High Volume BMW Centers (Group F) if someone is interested.
I will get the most current list from a friend and post it here on LH soon.
Meanwhile:
2019 Center of Excellence Award Recipients
2020 Center of Excellence Award Recipients
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It was from BMW San Rafael, not sure if that’s a high volume dealership. That said, I’ll keep this list in mind for my next lease, thank you sir.
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I`m reading the thread, and most common suggestion is to name your price after researching whats available. However how does that typically work for say deals like Volvo1? Let me preface the obvious that this was on a purchase.
2020 LS500
Market report from say CD pre-incentive: 8%
LH forum search is nonexistant on previous deals in the same timeframe
Actual Pre-incentive: 12.5%
Without shopping some dealers (possibly against each other), how would one know that their actually exists a 4.5% spread of whats advertised and what can be done?
It’s definitely more challenging when there is less data. One can make some guesstimates based in other vehicles in the same brand; typically the dealer payment structure doesn’t differ that wildly from model to model. Otherwise, you’re left with trying to cast a really wide net and understanding that some interactions are purely there to test the market. It’s also plenty reasonable to have a different strategy when shopping a different market situation. There’s not necessarily a 1 size fits all solution.
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Have you guys tried using the phrase ‘Best Price’ 3 to 4 times in your email?
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Me: Best Price 4x
Dealer: I can do that on the unit parked currently in your driveway.
Me: 
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I just found this and would be happy to help, but be sure to use an @ before a username. Once you have some data, completed research on LS and its leasing programs, and have some responses from offers you sent to dealers, make a thread.
As @mllcb42 said there is an extremely amount of limited data on the LS 500 on the forum, which is why I wanted to contribute my data point even though it was a purchase. However, pre-incentive discounts for purchase/lease should not be extremely different. However, the incentives (more importantly the Lexus cash for the LS) is what matters. For me, it was either $5,000 total for lease and $9,000 total for purchase, to which I decided on the latter being that it was going to cost more to put 20,000 miles per year (with pre-paid miles at 0.20$ per mile and ~49% RV) then buy the car with more incentive and sell reasonablebased on trade-in values for older and higher-mileage models.
The being said, the discount I received was a combination of research and reasonable low-ball offers, which are not recommended if you want a bunch of phone calls and emails to lead to dead-ends (I mention reasonable offers because there is a fine line between a very good discount and wasting people’s time, ask @HondaSoCal). If you want to put in the work, most likely you will find a dealer that will get close. It took me taking the time to send 10 different quotes for different cars and slightly different MSRPs to dealers for them to essentially say “no, but if you find somebody else to do that we will match it” (not a tactic that I like to participate in being that one person put their best price and others just want to leech off somebody’s aggressive offer). Also, the dealer I purchased the vehicle from told me that they are not going to replicate that discount again on an LS.
Summary: It is doable, but requires reasonable low-ball offers and a lot of dead-end communication from dealers.
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I’m pretty new to this site, but I’ve been doing my own independent number crunching recently in the hopes of getting a good lease on a custom 2021 330i this month (preferably before the end of the year). I’ve been reading a lot of posts today and trying to better understand the way many of you are able to get great lease deals on these vehicles.
I’m at the point where I’m ready to start contacting people, but I’m a little lost on who I should be contacting–especially since I’m looking into a custom car. I know the price of the custom as well as the price I’m willing to pay monthly and up front, but I am just trying to understand the best way to go about negotiating and contacting dealerships.
My first real question is: who do I contact? I like the idea of keeping it email-only until the deal is getting better. My second question would be: what are honestly the best things to say in an opening email? I’ve been reading posts but it seems like there’s many options and approaches.
Any help would be greatly appreciated and I’m looking to learn more about this process.
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I have found it hard to negotiate over email. Perhaps it is because I stick to my local metro area (ATL) and the dealerships are pretty high volume. I don’t think most of the Audi and BMW sales folks need to spend much time emailing back and forth.
What has worked for me is appearing to be serious and letting them know that I know the components of the lease. I also try to make sure that I actually get a sales advisor and even the sales manager. I do my research before hand and state the MF buy rate, residual, and applicable incentives. I also indicate that I am open to speaking over the phone. I think it goes a long way in seeming serious and building that rapport.
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In your case you may want to call dealerships first and ask who their custom-order specialists are, if any. Then use either phone and/or email … as long as you have something in writing before stepping in there or putting a deposit down.
Everyone has their own approach, there is no single “best”
But there’s no reason to be daunted. Just pick one and go with it.
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I figured I would share my last email with this particular dealer:
“Dear Shaun,
While financing can be discussed in part over email via price quotes and out the door pricing lease terms are very different due to several factors including your private information which needs to be accessed by the lender as well as the sales and finance team in person when you come in for a vehicle.
Sincerely,
Bryan C
Sales Appointment Coordinator”
Looks like it’s time to move on.