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So, I have a 2011 Mercedes C class. The lease is up, and I'm unable to find anything that I like or can afford. The car has only 30k miles on it. A friend suggested I just buy out the lease since I need a car, and I hope to get a decent monthly payment with financing.
I would plan on keeping the car four more years before trading it in, and I only put about 10k miles a year.
So, I have a 2011 Mercedes C class. The lease is up, and I'm unable to find anything that I like or can afford. The car has only 30k miles on it. A friend suggested I just buy out the lease since I need a car, and I hope to get a decent monthly payment with financing.
I would plan on keeping the car four more years before trading it in, and I only put about 10k miles a year.
Has anyone ever bought their car off lease?
Why not lease another new car that you can afford?
Probably better payment compared to purchasing, drive the latest and no worry about repairs...
I have done this with a car I absolutely loved. Just calculate your lease payments and your potential loan payments (or purchase price) to see the total price that you will be paying for the car. This will help you figure out how much money you will pay versus if you had purchased it outright and also versus leasing another car. Then you can figure out whether keeping the car is worth it to you financially.
If you've already done that, the actual buyout process should be easy. Your lease paperwork should have the details. My buyout was as easy as a phone call and the signing of some paperwork. Never regretted it either -- neither the original lease nor the buyout itself.
I would keep it well after the 4 years you plan on keeping it. Mercedes has horrible resale value so you might as well get every penny out of the purchase. And find a independent MB shop to maintain it. There are some good ones.
Why not lease another new car that you can afford?
Probably better payment compared to purchasing, drive the latest and no worry about repairs...
I'd recommend never keeping a Benz or BMW after warranty period up and this is coming from someone who used to own a BMW. Maintenance costs and repairs are astronomically high.
I have a friend who had an e350 diesel. When his lease was up he asked for a quote to buy the car. It was outrageous. He let the car go. It turned up two weeks later on the same MB dealer lot that he turned the car into, at a lower price than the buyout, with an MB CPO warranty. He bought the car, it still paired up with his phone and all his favorite radio stations were still in the radio!
Bottom line, based on one datapoint, MB buyouts are at the very top of the price range. You might be better looking around if you really love that model...
Calculate the buyout versus buying a similar model and see what the difference is.
My jeweler asked me the same Q when the lease on his 1990 560SEl was up. It was the last year for that gorgeous body style and it was immaculate. He bought it out and still drives it, the car looks new.
If you really love it and the buyout is the same or less than buying another like model with same mileage, then do it. You love it, you know the service history. Enough said.
I have the same dillemma coming up with a 2012 C300 I am leasing. M-B offered to extend the lease 6 more months, which I am doing simply because I love the car. Only have 20K miles on mine.
Residual Value was about $27K. When i did the math on what i leased for, and then did some ballpark numbers on my payments if I purchased the car, I ended at a number I really wasn't happy with in terms of total cost of the car.
Overall it's been a pretty cheap car to maintain. I've done the two service packages myself which was nothing more than a glorified oil change and inspection of various parts. Future maintainence costs has me worried though and I researched some common failures and priced out repairs and just didn't want to take the risk.
Another, probably bigger reason for giving the car back is that I'm a single guy and it's one of 3 cars I have.
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