After a few days of digging around and answering questions regarding the 2009 Mercedes E350s, I think we’ve pretty much come down to one conclusion. The E350 is the Deal of the Month. You will not be able to find yourself a car that retails for nearly $60k for around $600 anywhere (with just inception fees). So why is this happening? $10,000 rebate that you can use on a lease. The lease rates are pretty decent too! 48% 46% residual at 10k, 47% 45% at 12k and 45% 43% at 15k miles per year. The money factor is a reasonable .00165, which breaks down to about 3.96% APR. Not fantastic, but good enough to make the deal work. I know $600 and change is a bit steep for most people, but if you are shopping around for any vehicle in the $50k-$60k range, rest assure that you will pay a heck of a lot more than the E350. You got 10 days this time (unlike the super late CLK post I made. LOL. Sorry about that!) Go ahead and inquire with your local dealers about the E350 because you have nothing to lose. So Cal residents, you know you can count on Aaron McCroskey to give you the proper information, so be sure to hit him up for some quotes. Now here’s a quick guide as to what you need to have done BEFORE you call/email him.
- Color and options! If its not in the lot or anywhere to be found, he can’t help you. 09 E350s are out of production already, so grab them while you can!
- Sale price and MSRP. You know how to use Edmunds, so use it. Make sure you have a sale price offer.
- Crunch your numbers! you know the money factor, residual values and you got my calculator. Plug it in and see what you get so there aren’t any huge surprises later.
- Don’t negotiate payments please. sale price, sale price, sale price. negotiate that.
- Inception fees should be pretty standard, if you see something funky, question it. Like the “training fee” I heard about this week…if they can’t explain it, it shouldn’t be there.
Do this with ALL dealers, not just Aaron, Dave, Michael or David. This saves everyone time and agony. Trust me, it really helps.
Other Southwest residents (Las Vegas and Phoenix) might want to hit up Aaron too if your local dealer’s fees are ridiculously high. If you are not within reasonable range of So Cal, you can try finding one using my Yahoo! Autos affliate.
Now, a special treat for those 2010 E-Class fans! The Convertible! Courtesy of WorldCarFans.com
This lease allows dealers to help clients that may have an “inequity” problem as well. It puts them into a new E350 at a fair price although the monthly may go up to cover any negative equity. With Mercedes Finance going up to 120% over MSRP it can take care of a whole lot!
@carguy74. good point. the 10k can absorb a fairly decent amount of negative equity, so its a good way to bail yourself out of a bad lease or purchase. Of course, I’d still rather people not do that since it takes a great deal and makes it into an OK deal.
G-
Can you post the MFs and residuals for all the 2009 E-class vehicles, inclding 36 and 48 month numbers?
Does the 10k lease cash apply to the E550?
@jimbob. i think the 10k is only offered on the E350. The E550 is still being discounted quite a lot though, just not to the extent of the E350. As for the residual, they should be the same on the E350, expect the MF goes up to 0.00165 for the 36 and 48 month term, but you get the $10k discount. I did make a typo on this post though. The 15k residual is 43% not 45%.
Now I’m a bit bummed out. For $200 more a month I could have had an E350 awd wagon instead of my murano. And I can afford the extra bump. I could have been a champ instead of a contender. Oh well, my wife and I can each have 7 grandslams with coffee at Denny’s each month including tip. At least I have that going for me.
@dz. LOL. 7 grandslam’s a month per person?? That’s tough to beat! Yeah you know, its always tricky when it comes to cars because the deals change so much from month to month sometimes you just have to keep your options open. I’m on the same boat with the TSX. I got 9 months left on that lease and the TL is going for soooo cheap right now. It started as a “just for kicks” kind of inquire, but now i’m really thinking to myself, “WOW, I wish I had 3 months left instead of 9 months.”
If you don’t plan to drive a lot, you may want to go for the undisclosed 7500 miles/yr lease instead of the 10k. This should bump the residual up by 3% (IIRC) and save you some monthly payment. For M-B, it’s always cheaper to go for the absolute minimum miles you can live with and buy more miles as you go along if you think you’ll go over during the lease.
Are the residuals listed in this post for a 36 month or a 48 month lease? If its 36 month, what are the residuals for 48 months (or vice versa)?
Also, is there any information available on the 2009 E550 MF and residuals? It doesn’t look like there was a separate post on the 2009 E-class numbers in July.
Thanks for all the great information — this is a great site!
36-month. The residual value for the 48-month term should be the same as June’s while the MF stays 0.00165