new E350CDI Sport Cabriolet 125 Edition - 'Massive' dealer discount, perhaps not...

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AbbieCadabra

Active Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2007
Messages
334
Location
in the Middle...
Car
E350CDI
following on from a few recent threads of mine, we had our test drives today & we're 99% set on buying a new E350CDI Sport Cabriolet.

the sales guy found a car with the desired colour/trim combination, an E350CDI Sport 125 Edition (a special edition from last summer that comes with Nav50). i've just checked the spec. list against the current model & the only difference seems to be that this one has the 7g plus transmission & the current spec. just states 7g. (265bhp & everything else is the same).

so, OTR price for the available car is £44,630 & we get a price to change amount that means they're offering a discount of £3,295 - in capital letters at the top of the deal "MASSIVE DEALER DISCOUNT OFFERED" :rolleyes:.

ok, it's a starting point, however, this discount is subject to us taking finance out. we were going to buy outright, but would consider a small amount on finance if it made sense.

the first deal was for three times the amount we wanted on finance & over a longer period, so that was 'no'. he quickly came back with the amount we'd originally said would be ok, & over a shorter period. it was stressed that this would be the minimum amount they could do that would still enable the discount to be activated.

£3,295 discount less finance charges = £2,827, really not good. it gets even worse when i query the figures as it appears the £3,295 includes the amount currently on offer from MBUK, a discount of £2,035 (which is really a free upgrade to a sport). take this into account & the dealer is actually offering a discount of £792 ! :eek:

"thanks, can't make a decision now & we'll think about it & be in touch" as we walked out...

am i expecting too much from them or do they think we're muppets with money to burn? :dk:

(well done if you got through all that, hope you've got some popcorn left :D)
 
I've just checked' Drivethedeal.com', and they are offering £5,600 discount off the E350CDI Sport Cab.

It's usually a good site for assessing the benchmark for the maximum discounts available.

A few weeks ago, the local dealers were offering almost £10K off pre-reg E Cabs
 
I'm amazed you can't get a large discount on one of these in the current climate.

I recently went into our local Audi dealer to look at the A7 (before I realized it was too wide for my garage door) and was offered £10k off a desirably specced £55k list new car, without even asking for a discount!
 
Hello

At the end of the day its the price to change for you, so initially the £3200 discount sounds low, but if you are part xing the current car and they are giving you over market value then all good.


Try another dealer or even a few and they may offer more off the new car but give you less for yours?


Other options, try drive the deal at the end of the month when the stealers need to fullfill targets, some cracking deals.

Are you bothered about a new one, almost new or wait for March? new plates (I forget now)


I would have thought some cracking deals to be had currently, Even look at the leasing deals?
 
If they're using finance to sweeten the deal, how much would it cost you to repay the finance agreement off early?
 
If they're using finance to sweeten the deal, how much would it cost you to repay the finance agreement off early?

Don't let Dieselman read that:rolleyes:

Abbie, try another dealer or a broker who should be able to get you a new one with big discount.

Would you consider a pre reg/lightly used car etc.

Or you could forget the whole thing and lease a C63. Everyone is doing it:eek::rolleyes:;)
 
yes, all good points & i'll give another dealer from a different group a call tomorrow & see what's said. i'd got a drive the deal price for the spec. we were interested in before we went & know my target price for the car ;)

leasing/pcp doesn't really suit us, which i think throws the dealers as a lot of people are just interested in the monthly repayment, as shown by the salesman heavily pushing this figure today. no thanks, different deal required with us please.

i agree it's all down to the price to change in the end, the px on ours was only a few hundred less than i'd guesstimated, so no big differential there. it's all in the new car price & we're a good few £1,000 away from a deal at the moment!

paying back the finance early would mean they'd claim back all the discount offered, salesman made sure this was clear to us. no idea how that would work in practice but i'm sure it would be in the small print somewhere.

i think the salesman got a little carried away with his spiel whilst out in the C250 as he said something along the lines of "don't discount having some finance, even if you only have a small amount it will mean that dealer support kicks in, on the C class if you had say £3k finance, you'd get £4,500 discount so it makes sense in the long run". but when it actually came down to the numbers on the E Class, we ended up with the paltry amount of £795. how does that make sense? (there's a couple of current offers from MBUK on the C class but they're only equal to £1,700, so most of that £4,500 must be dealer discount - why so much less on the E class?).

i'm more than a little peeved that if i hadn't done my research & known about the current MBUK discount of £2,035 - i might have been suckered in thinking £3,295 was reasonable...for 2 mins at least!

we're fortunate that there's absolutely no rush to change at the moment & we're quite happy to walk away if the deal isn't right for us. there'll always be another car in the right colour/spec. along at some time...
 
It's so unfair on decent customers who shock horror, can actually afford a car, to be treated in such a contemptuous manner. Discounting a car to make it cheaper on finance in my book is under hand and fraudulent and disadvantages a good honest cash buyer.
 
End of March is quarter end. We're in January now, they can be hard nosed as they've got over two months to hit qurter targets at present.

Try chatting with them in week two of March when thay are half a dozen cars short of tartget or the next manufacturer kickback level and there will be some deals ont he table then.

Also try a non franchised dealership, see here a list of all Mercedes Owned outlets:-

Mercedes-Benz Retail

I've always found better deals direct from factory dealers rather than through a franchised group.
 
Interesting. I have my C350 Coupe on order, but only after some very hard haggling. I was interested in brand new with as big a discount as I could get, with the lowest APR. I am going for a 4 year deal as that is when my mortgage is basically up and I can get something more 'exotic'. In the end, by phoning around and using a contact, I got a £5,200 straight discount with 5.7% APR. Just about 10% down and I walk away at the end with no more to pay. I do 6-8k miles per year. I think that is a great deal and I just kept pushing dealers by beaing utterly unrealistic and saying 'no' a lot, it's the magic negotiating word.

My local dealer never even called back when I emailed them my decision to go elsewhere, that's how poor a dealer they are. But I knew that anyway; I visited several time over Christmas and it was like the Marie Celeste. The main man is on an epic voyage up his own backside, so I wasn't too bothered about given them my dosh anyway.

Buying new was the only real option too, as there are so few used examples with the colour and spec I was after; 6 available as I type, none suitable. I want the 350 petrol engine, it is a ridiculously good unit. So I went new.

Good luck with your search, I do have a contact who might be able to do something for you. They did for me as they are under new management and are looking to make friends. Yeah, right! But, they may be able to do something superb, you never know. I found them to be very professional and open to a deal.

Michael.

:) :) :) :)
 
Abbie - I used to work in a dealers and have a number of contacts who can give you a wholly better experience - pm me if you would like me to put you in touch - Chesterfield or Harrogate dealerships in particular ( no idea where you are..)
 
Chesterfield

+1

I managed about 15% discount on mine as a new build so it's not unreasonable to expect more off on a pre-spec'd, pre-registered car.

You never go with the initial deal anyway.. let them stew over it.
 
Don't let Dieselman read that:rolleyes:

yes, all good points & i'll give another dealer from a different group

I already had read it.

Most Salesmen are idiots and think that customers are too.

Abbie, why limit your search to Inchcape dealerships, just go global. The car you buy will be the same car, just at a better price to you.
The service department really don't care where the car came from.

If possible try to source a nearly new car from a private seller, that way you get a sensible price, no dealer mark up and still get the balance of manufacturers 3 year warranty.
Selling high value cars privately is hard because most people need finance, which is hard to get unless via a dealership. You intend to pay cash so should get a good deal.
If you do find such a private sale and it's under finance, make sure YOU have an HPI report performed (in your name) and YOU pay the finance company.

We bought Mrs Dm's car like this and it was a steal. The local dealer would have given us more for it cash than we paid...:D
 
really appreciate your comments guys, great info & good ideas all round. :thumb:

30 mins on the phone to another local inchcape, MB retail & Chesterfield - already had 1 of them come back with at least £2k off what we were offered yesterday.

very revealing when i spoke to the inchcape one, they initially said they wouldn't really take business off another dealer within group. i went on to explain that yesterday's offer was so bad, i wasn't happy that the discount was only available if finance was taken, the discount would be reclaimed if we paid off the finance & it was mis-leading that the majority of the discount was an MBUK offer & not from the dealer as had been implied. from her response i think she was pretty shocked!

inchcape have just called back actually, they've beaten the other inchcape dealer, but by less than £1k & that's their final price (no finance tie-in).

the car that's currently available isn't a pre-registered one, i'd be wanting even more of a discount on that. trying to source a private sale will be tricky as it's only really 1, possibly 2, colours that we'd buy & we want as new as poss with very little mileage. i think new is the only way to go.

with the new figures i've got now from other dealers, i'm about £3k away from the price to change i was after (drive the deal price for an equivalent model less our px).

just a thought, if we did wait until March, our p.x. would be worth a little less & as it's new reg. time so surely the discounts would be even harder to get as sales will be higher? if we wait any longer though we'll be into spring & the sun will be shining (hopefully) & cabrio sales increase then anyway?

:doh: :dk:
 
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just a thought, if we did wait until March, our p.x. would be worth a little less & as it's new reg. time so surely the discounts would be even harder to get as sales will be higher? if we wait any longer though we'll be into spring & the sun will be shining (hopefully) & cabrio sales increase then anyway?
Possibly, but...

The trade-in value of your CLK won't drop much in two or three months and as has already been suggested, discounts on new cars are often easier to come by if you're buying towards the end of a sales quarter. As a rule you will get a better discount on a car that's built and in dealer stock rather than one built to order, but you may end up having to take more options than you would otherwise have spec'd to get the ones you really want - which will negate some of the discount.

Ultimately, the best deal you can get is the one you're happy with. If squeezing the last penny out of the deal is important to you then squeeze away, but remember that over 3 years of ownership you'll be loosing circa £20k in depreciation on the car, so holding out for a final £200 of discount is a bit pointless - especially if you spend most of that dragging around the country to find someone who'll do the deal (IMO, of course). Clearly it's worth hanging out for £2k though!

Whatever you decide to do, if you go for a new car then Factory Collection is a great experience, but is only available if you go for a build to order car. All things being equal, if you order now you could be flying off to Bremen to collect it some time in April. You know it makes sense :devil:
 
Out of interest. Have you had a broker price up the same car.

That should give you an idea what you should really be paying
 
Out of interest. Have you had a broker price up the same car.

That should give you an idea what you should really be paying

yes, that's my target price. i'd got my figures for the spec. we wanted if we were to order a new car. i can't get an exact quote off drive the deal for the car that's available as it's the special edition 125 & they aren't showing as an option any longer, it's only a few £100 in difference though so i still know where i am.
 

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