Any luck lowering the end of lease purchase price?

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Uscrules1

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2015
Messages
5
Has anyone had any luck negotiating a lower end of lease purchase price? My lease is up in 4 months and I see used BEDs online for around $15K but my end of lease purchase price is $22K.
 
One forum member, just one, reported successful negotiation of end of lease payment with dealer. My dealer asked me what I would pay and only promised that he would see what he could do. When I said $15K, he said, no. Many dealers won't even try as they would rather you lease a new car from them which is what I ended up doing.

There is no question that they get rid of our cars at auction at around $15K or lower as I saw my old car on cargurus.com listed for $18+K. If you know someone who knows when the auctions happen, you can try to buy your leased car back then.
 
Talking to MBFS they said that they absolutely do not negotiate the residual, but as with everything YMMV. I am hoping I can extend my lease long enough to see about this EQC (lease ends in Oct). I don't know if that will be possible or not.
 
With the gasoline prices going up and the dearth of good EVs on the market I decided to purchase my 2015 B-Class. 28,300 miles and the car runs strong, never left me stranded, battery capacity good as new. MSRP was $49.7k, residual value $22.8k, the dealer will sell it to me for $20.2k.
 
Dracula,

Good on you. Or something like that. I did see my used 2014 offered for $18K by a FL dealer who bought it at auction but months after I returned it to my dealer.
 
Lease up in 45 days, decided to try to extend with MB financial who OK'd for 6 months, told them I wanted to see if MB had another electric car available in early 2019. Then in looking at the residual value on my fully loaded 2014 of $24,178, it was offered to me for purchase for $21,599 by my local dealer. I declined and they came back with $19,995 which I've accepted.
 
wayneslc,

Excellent. I liked my loaded 2014 except mine did not have the range extender or whatever it is called. So I turned it in to get a 2017 with range plus. Got really used to the car and the kids liked the extra room in the second row and my wife liked being up higher but not too high.

Will wait till late 2019 to see what is new and longer legged but always have the option to extend lease or purchase like you did.
 
We also purchased 2 extra years of warranty for about $2,000. I think this car will last at least a decade more. Our original lease was $1000 down and $309/month including the yearly maintenance. So, our outlay for this $52,900 car has been $36,000. If even if we drive it just 5 more years, the cost per month would be $377/month (we have a $9/month bill for electricity due to our solar panels). We've driven most of the other electric cars out there except the Tesla (currently waiting for our Model 3 with AWD-dual motor), and the build quality of the Mercedes is by far the best. BMW I-3 is great but not ideal when taking others in the car or picking up people with luggage from the airport.
 
Wayneslc,

Had not focused on available extended warranty. Can you provide some color on who is warranting and of course if it covers battery and electric motor. Very interesting option as I would consider keeping my low mileage range extended 2017 as it fits my current needs.

Thanks for alerting.
 
went to Bev Hills MBZ to negotiate my end of lease; wanted to purchase my vehicle since it has only 12k miles; buyout of 23k, financial would not negotiate; neither would the dealer
any thoughts or suggestions?

James
 
uclaw73,

This is another case of most dealers not knowing what to do with our B250e. The dealer is going to take a $5K+ hit when they decide not to resell it themselves but sell it at auction. If you want to buy it, offer them the repurchase prices less up to $5K. Tell your salesperson explicitly you want to bridge till new MB electrics come out, that the dealer will lose $5K+ when they dispose at auction, and tell them you will buy it from them and save them the hassle. Point out on cargurus.com, there are 80 used B250e listed, with 60+ offered below the lease repurchase price. Look for yourself.

BTW, I saw my 2014 listed on cargurus.com and the offered price was $19K so that dealer must have paid close to $15-17K for it.
 
Jeff

thanks for response; already tried your approach but they wouldn't negotiate. I made the mistake of telling them I wanted to buy it and they saw the odometer at 12k so they refused

I will wait and see if their response changes; if not then i will pay the full price

too nice of a car to let go; its my 4th all electric

James, Rav4e 12 years;Tesla model 3; 250e MBZ
 
uclaw73,

You can PM the two fellows here who successfully bought car at below lease buyout. If it is true that MBFS will not negotiate, then I think the game is to allow your dealer to buy the car from MBFS and make some money. So if you are willing to split the $5K+ savings like wayneslc did, you might have a deal. I note he also bought an extended warranty which was also profitable for the dealer.
 
Here is how this works:
- MBFS will not negotiate on the residual value of the car - this is something to discuss with the dealer.
- In spite of what Jeff said about the dealer taking a $5K loss, it does not work that way as the car does not belong to the dealer - the car is owned by MBFS which would either sell it to the dealer, or at auction; the dealer makes money whether you buy the car or not.
- Once the dealer processes the return of your leased car, MBFS would show the dealer, on their website, an offer to buy the car based on its inspection report, but also market conditions etc. To this value the dealer expects to add a mark-up of $1-2K - and that is only if you make clear that you would not buy or lease another MB car from them.
- In your particular case, since the car only has 12k miles, chances are the dealer would be offered a price very close to the residual, maybe even higher.

My advice, if you like the car, it make sense to buy it at the residual value and get an extended warranty from Jeff at MB Louisville or other people revered on MB World, who are offering discounts around 40%. Cars you may find on carmax or cargurus often did not have the battery certification performed, and would no longer have the battery warranty.
 
Dracula is correct. In my case, my dealer was/is owned by MBUSA so they had a little more wiggle room. I can only go by my car which showed up on cargurus.com in a FL dealer. It was of course, immaculate, had only 8K miles and was offered at $18k+, well below the lease buyout price.
 
Fellow E lovers
went to cargurus.com but could not find any category of b250e,

been driving e cars for over 12 years; my rav4e had over 100k miles before the battery pack was exhausted, couple of fellow owners tried to exchange the pack but didn't work out so i sold it on ebay to a guy who took it to Siberia of all places

so I will probably buy it for the residual, forget about the warranty; at my age, 76, and the number of miles it is driven, have to share the miles with the tesla; it will surely outlive me.

just hate to pay these cs more than they are entitled but at my age and financial condition, its just not worth the hassle

thought about just making my last 2 payments and see what they do at that time; any further thoughts

appreciate your time and attention

James
 
Jeff

thanks for the link; could not find it myself

are these cars selling?

gave me more reason to bite the bullet and pay MBZ financial the residual; its a great second car for my wife and I don't see anything else, except the Leaf, which I purchased used for my son, for the same price and mileage.

Not sure what is coming in the next year or so, but its likely that I am finished buying the latest and best BEV.

Great forum, thanks for all the support

James
 
James,

I do look occasionally but have not been watching it like a hawk. What struck me is how the prices are remarkably stable in the low 20s. It does not seem that mileage or age impacts asking price very much. I do think these are opening offers so actual transacted price is likely lower like with any used car.

The tricky part is whether the car is in good shape. Kazego seems to have had some back luck in this regard at least at the get go. On the other hand, he now has a car with a brand new motor and warranty.
 
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