ml sport finance offer - should we?

[celticstevie]

My wife has a porsche cayenne v6 which is approaching 5 yrs old. The car handles well etc but we have been thinking about replacing it and called into the merc dealership in glasgow at the weekend and the guys spoke about what looks like a very good finance offer - 6.5k down, 399 / month for 3 years and a min guaranteed future value. Apr 5.9 %.
A couple of questions:-

Anybody moved from cayenne to a new ml?
Has the build quality improved?
Urban mpg got to be better than cayenne (280 diesel)
Any ownership pitfalls?

The deal ends on march 31 and you have to take delivery by then.
I don't want to change until april, anybody with inside knowledge if this deal will continue?.
I guess in current environment not too many buyers?

[ukdavvy12]

Hi

Im afraid this is one of those post where the poster has no information directly relevant to you

However

I have just spent several weeks looking at the 4x4 market and bought a RR Sport

It is new and I got a discount of 25% off a UK car from a LR dealer
Its a diesel not a petrol BTW and also not the engine about to be killed off

Now I know its not a Merc but there you go - bear with me

I did look at the MB finance pages whilst considering an ML
They are not at all generous with a 2500 discount at all, you can do much better
Dealers of all marques, but strangely not BMW, will knock thousands off when you ask politely

Its amazing - you dont even need to haggle at the moment

Having said that the GFV with this offer seems fair under the circumstances
No-one else is offering a balloon of approx 50% on a desirable car, let alone one that is deeply unfashionable

Which under the cirumstances seems about right

I am happy with my own deal
Its a choice between a significant discount and a 25% GFV at 3 years or minimal discount and let MB take the hit 3 years down the line with an optimistic GFV

So to conclude......

Everyone else is discounting heavily with a crap GFV
Or else a middling GFV protected by a high APR to recoup some capital
The Benz offer has a stunning GFV but they are not offering the market rate on a discount

Dave

[celticstevie]

The dealer phoned today and they are offering a 2 year deal at 299 with a big contribution from them. I asked them to try and do something similar for a 3 year deal.

[BAHN-STORMA]

ukdavvy12 said:

Dealers of all marques, but strangely not BMW, will knock thousands off when you ask politely

Chap on the BMW forums here, just got 14% off a new X5 (I would have hoped for more ).

Personnaly, I prefer the X5 and would think it makes a more logical replacement for a Cayenne (handling wise). I drove the new ML when it first came out and whilst much improved on the old one, was no where near the Porsche or the Beemer.

As regards reliability, I expect Pauloh to come along soon and set you straight from his experiences!

Finally, the new ML has been around for about 4.5 years now, has it been 'face-lifted' yet and when is it due to be replaced?

[celticstevie]

Hi - believe the ml has been facelifted as they had an 07 plate parked next to the new one. The car is really a baby mobile, we live down a street that never gets gritted so needs a 4wd and the missus feels safer high up. My requirements are limited as she likes expensive motors. If I could convince her we would buy an allroad but vanity suggests big mobile. We do centerparcs + france for hols and the big cars are useful. I dare say there is some haggling fun in this market. Cayenne is good to drive but fed up with annoying electrical gliches that took a while to sort.

[amg master]

[quote=celticstevie]The dealer phoned today and they are offering a 2 year deal at 299 with a big contribution from them. I asked them to try and do something similar for a 3 year deal.


that seems like a realy good deal 7200 for 2years driving, do you have to put much money down?

[paoloh]

Do not buy a new ML, they are truly dreadful!

[celticstevie]

On the 2 year dealer offer it is virtually the same deposit. We drove an original one years ago and it was agricultural.

I am intrigued on the awful opinion - why awful?

[paoloh]

celticstevie said:

On the 2 year dealer offer it is virtually the same deposit. We drove an original one years ago and it was agricultural.

I am intrigued on the awful opinion - why awful?

Build quality
Build quality
Build quality
Build quality

You getting the picture?

I owned one for 18 months, had over 25 warranty claims. Gearbox was never fixed. Merc dealers are arrogant and once they have the sale, you can fk off. Merc UK didn't even bother responding to letters.

Read some of the threads I started about it and you'll see my views are shared by lots of people.

[celticstevie]

Thanks - will do a search later as on the blackberry whilst on a train.

Edited by celticstevie on Friday 20th February 22:14

[mercGLowner]

I have a GL (7 seater ML ) I love it, never had any problems and the build quality is better than the LR Disco 3 I had before. I would go with the ML offer but haggle for more off the list price, the finance contribution comes from Merc Fianance so the dealer still has some decent margin. I got my GL on a two year PCP @ 4.9% APR, with a very optimistic GFV.

[celticstevie]

Thanks the stealer has come back and said they could look at getting to 350 per month with same deposit. Wifey is getting one for a couple of days to see how she finds it.

Edited by celticstevie on Monday 23 February 19:43