M-B finance = competitive?

[juux]

I'm looking to replace our 3yo VW and looking around it would seem that M-B are offering some stonking deals i.e. £220/mo *less* than the equivalent Passat! (C220CDI Sport Estate Auto vs. Passat Sport TDI 170PS DSG).

It seems we'll be able to pay effectively the same "real money" amount per month (taking inflation into account) for the C220 as our existing Touran, despite the M-B list price being nearly 50% higher.

Apart from the lack of a pre-paid service plan (VW offer a 3 year £349 plan, M-B want £27 a month - ha!), it seems this is too good to be true and we'd have to be daft to consider a VW again, a fact the VW salesman reluctantly agreed with.

Is this typical or just a new thing?

 

[Dryce]

Is this typical or just a new thing?

In itself it's not new - MB have been offering attractive financing/leasing (compared with the list prices) for many years.

However at the moment MB seem to be very aggressive - particularly on basic C and E classes. Looking around recently there was quite a gap compared with deals on equivalent BMW 3 and 5 series.