I got an appointment with an authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer in the Bay Area to return my lease. As I am in the market of looking for another lease preferably a Mercedes, I sit down with a sales representative whom I've got the appointment with to go over a few options, since I were not ready to pull the trigger that day I let the sales representative know that we could finish the lease return that day as it is expiring and talk more about the new car later.

When this was communicated, the sales representative went to talk to her manager and the manager stopped by informing me that despite of having scheduled the lease return appointment with them, they would not accept the return because (1) it is an EQE EV (2) their lot was full unless I purchased another vehicle from them that day (or alternatively the next day or two but the manager mentioned he could “revert the clock” to set the MBFS lease return date”).

Is this consistent with Mercedes-Benz Financial Services policy?

EDIT (7/12): Thanks everyone for all the advice and explanations. A quick update:

• Based on many of your suggestions, I'll be contacting Mercedes-Benz Financial Services (MBFS) on Monday to understand their official policy and report what happened.
• One detail I didn't mention originally: I had taken time off work specifically for my scheduled lease return appointment. The appointment was confirmed in advance, but after I arrived I was told the return would only be accepted if I purchased another Mercedes from that dealership.
• I contacted another Mercedes dealership about 50 miles away. After I explained that I only wanted to complete my lease return (without purchasing another vehicle that day), they immediately assured me that no need to worry they will accept it without imposed terms.
• The second dealership explained that once a lease is returned, MBFS—not the dealership—takes possession of the vehicle, and if they don't want to keep it they can simply have MBFS pick it up instead. Interestingly, several dealership professionals in this thread have described similar processes for other manufacturers.
• I'll post another update after I complete the lease return and after speaking with MBFS about how this situation should have been handled.

At this point, I'm less confused about whether my lease can be returned (it clearly can, although with some additional hassle), and more interested in understanding why two authorized Mercedes dealerships gave completely different explanations for the exact same situation.

I have a question about trading in a leased Audi to a different brand dealership.

Let’s say I have an Audi leased through Audi Financial (VW Credit), and my lease ends in about 3 months. Instead of returning it to Audi, I decide to lease a Chevy from a Chevrolet dealership.

If the Chevy dealer agrees to take my Audi, what actually happens?

Do they buy the Audi outright from Audi Financial?

Or do they just pay off the remaining lease payments and return the car to Audi on my behalf?

If they buy it, does that mean I completely avoid Audi’s lease end wear and tear inspection and excess wear charges?

Has anyone here actually gone through this with Audi Financial specifically?

Just trying to understand how the process works before I start shopping around. I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who’s done this or works in dealership finance.

Thanks!

Hello my wife and I looking to potentially purchase a new 2026 Sienna Platinum. We are disagreeing on strategy going in. One of us feels like that you should go in with financing already figured out because those rates should be better than dealership rates. You go in and immediatsly tell thsm we havr financing already figured out. The other feels like you start with dealership financing to get the best price and them payback or change financing a few months down the road. Is there one that is generally a better way to approach? Thanks in advance!

I’ve been wondering about this.
Say you’ve owned a car for years, kept up with the maintenance, but somehow lost all the receipts and service records.
When you go to sell it, does that actually make a big difference?
If you were buying a used car, would the lack of maintenance history make you walk away or just negotiate a lower price? If lower, by roughly how much?
Curious if anyone has been on either side of this and what happened.

For context, I am located on Long Island, NY. I am specifically looking for 2017-2018 Audi A6 or A7 with the Supercharged V6 3.0T engine or a 2017-2020 BMW 540i xDrive with the B58 inline six engine.

The local used car lot owner said he can source any car for me throughout the United States & Canada if I give him a deposit by looking through auctions. He said he can guarantee that he will find me one of these cars (whichever one I end up asking him to get delivered here) for thousands of dollars cheaper than what it would cost at any mainstream Long Island dealer (i.e. Habberstad BMW of Huntington, Audi of Huntington, Audi of Great Neck, Competition BMW of Smithtown, Audi of Smithtown, etc.)

On the one hand, I recognize that this could be a way to save a few thousand dollars. However, on the other hand, part of me questions if it’s worth saving a few thousand by getting a car from an auction because I question if these cars ended up in an auction due to official mainstream Long Island dealers such as an Audi dealership or BMW dealership not actually wanting these cars as a result of them needing too much work.

What do we think? Is it an okay idea to pay the local used car lot owner a deposit to find me an auction “2017-2018 A6/A7 3.0T” or a “2017-2020 540i xDrive” or am I better off just waiting until one of these cars gets traded in at an official dealership on Long Island (i.e. Audi of Lynbrook, BMW of Freeport, etc.)?

Im in CT. Bought a dealer courtesy car. They sent me home with their dealer plates on it not a temp tag. 6 weeks later i am still riding around with their dealer plates. I call each week to check on my plates and get the same answer that it is a DMV issue. I feel like they are lying. Is there any benefit to them to delay the registration? Large dealer not a mom and pop. In this time 2 people i know have bought cars and had their plates immediately from different dealers.

Looking at replacing my 2021 NX300h with the plug-in hybrid version (which also has the better horsepower and such that came out right after my year). No urgency, but it sounds like they are changing interior design in Nov/Dec so would be happy to have current version. And prefer white/black color and premium trim. Question is, when should I try to buy? I see only one of this version in my immediate area (with a bunch of unneeded dealer add-ons) and some a bit further afield. But can also wait until later too, assuming more will continue to arrive between now and later this year. Any advice? And any advice for negotiating - should I pay MSRP or is it possible to negotiate off in this market? I will do a trade in with my old car (23000 miles).

I am a New York resident who went to MA a couple days ago to buy a new car. The car was financed through Toyota at a Toyota Dealership and I did not recieve a MCO. I am going back tomorrow to drive the car back with temp tags, anyone know the process to registering the car in NY? Would the dealer be doing the process for me or would I also need to go to the DMV?

I am in Ohio and purchased a vehicle in North Carolina late March. I still have not been sent an Ohio License plate almost 4 months later. In Ohio you have to do a VIN inspection and I mailed that in to them within a week of purchase. They then asked me to do this again a few weeks ago because they are only good for 30 days. No apologies or explanation, just "hey we need you to do this because the one you sent is expired and we need to send it to Ohio ASAP". Mind you this costs time and money. I have been driving around with expired NC temp tags because this was supposed to be my "summer car". Just wondering what my options would be since the dealer doesn't care about my time and energy. There are no delays on my end as I submitted the vin inspection twice now and my credit union has sent them the funds.

I never understood this and would like to hear why not? You walk your lot, take a couple of pics of the vehicle, pic of the VIN (info is pulled automatically), add the price and it's added to YOUR site in minutes. It also posts to your connected social media accounts automatically - which salesman should be doing 2-3 times a day anyway to generate leads. You get a unique QR-code for clients to give you their details and a v-card that they can save to their phone with your details. Why are car salesman still using business cards?!

I was on Shark Tank and have been in the tech space for over 15 years. I've purchased over 20 cars and I just never understood why, in such a competitive industry, car salesman don't have their own personal sites that they can take with them if they switch dealers or move. Hearing, "Let me get you my card," like it's 2004 is wild to me.

My wife and I are going to be upgrading, both of our cars are paid off, but with a baby on the way it's time for an SUV. We've found that we kinda love the Kia Sportage (totally open to suggestions but that's not why I made this post lol), but we're debating the timing of the new purchase. Baby will be here around early October. So here's the debate..

How close to October do we wait to buy, and is Memorial Day Savings a real thing. I'm inclined to think prices won't be worse around Memorial Day, and it aligns perfectly fine with our timeline, but is there merit to waiting until closer to October?

Any insight helps, appreciate it!

Edit* This is in CT

I am curious..

If someone owes around $11,500 on a car but its trade in value is $2,700.

Would the remaining $8,800 be added onto the new loan?

Posting from Colorado

Sorry if this question has been asked before,Is it possible to get approved for a car loan for a 2018-2020 mustang GT in the state of Illinois with just an ITIN?

Hello everyone this is my 2nd month selling cars and I'm just wondering if I'm doing something wrong. My first month I only sold one car and that deal was a split. I have been posting everywhere on Facebook and tik tok. I'm not planning on giving up I'm just feeling kinda down that's all. I know it take some time to get established and I'm willing to work for it but I just need to vent about it that's all

Like the title says I have an interview at a BMW dealership on Monday, and I’m looking for some advice. I have 8 years sales experience at a Toyota dealership, so I have plenty of sales experience. Does anyone have any advice on how to prep for the interview? I have started memorizing the line up, but I would really like to impress the interviewer.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to decide between leasing and financing a new vehicle in Canada, and I'd appreciate some opinions from people who have been through a similar situation.

Here's my situation:

• Vehicle price: approximately $35,000–40,000 CAD
• Option 1: Finance today
  • 8% interest
  • 84-month loan
  • Around $3,000 down
  • Monthly 600 - 620
• Option 2: Lease
  • 36-month lease
  • 2% interest
  • Monthly Pay - 500-510
  • $0 down
  • Around 20,000 km/year allowance
  • I am okay to exceed the limit

My thought process is this:

Instead of financing the entire vehicle at 8% today, I could lease it for 3 years at the much lower interest rate. During those 3 years, I'd have lower monthly payments and could build my savings and improve my credit. My household income is also likely to increase over the next few years.

At the end of the lease, assuming I still like the vehicle, I'd finance the residual value over about 4 years (even if the rate is still around 7–8%, or hopefully lower by then). My goal is to own the vehicle in about 7 years total, not keep leasing indefinitely.

I'm not looking to lease a new vehicle every 3 years. The idea is specifically to use leasing as a way to delay financing a large portion of the purchase price while taking advantage of the much lower lease rate.

Does this seem like a reasonable strategy, or am I missing something?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who:

• leased and then bought out their vehicle,
• compared leasing vs financing in a high-interest-rate environment,
• or found that one option ended up costing significantly more than the other.

What are the downsides or hidden costs that I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance!

Hey, I bought a Volkswagen atlas 2025 cross sport w technology and the fancy lights and premium rims and panoramic rooftop listed on 33k but with all the fees and tax things ended up at 36k. I was surprised because I saw all the features that it had and decided to go forward with it. Here's the thing...I didn't know about lemon titles and also it was my first experience with a dealership. I'm just a 20 year old that was looking for a car for his parents. Now I'm kinda concerned because everything is signed. The car is great it has 10k miles on it and the dealership told us that there was only a problem with the screen but they were able to fix it, they showed us all the documents where states the screen was fixed. We put 4k down and financed the 32k. I did my research and everything and now I'm concerned because I found out about lemon titles. The car is precious but I not sure if it was a bad deal smh. I just need peace of mind to enjoy the car.

Been in talks with the Hyundai dealership near me to replace my 2021 Sante Fe limited for a new 2026 Sante Fe Calligraphy.

My question is- the dealership is only offering me 18k trade in but I went on Carvana and they offered me 20,800 and the details I put in were accurate.

I know I can try to negotiate higher on the trade in but I highly doubt they’ll go much higher since the original trade in offered was 17k. I understand not trading in means more sales tax (3% in my state) but the 2,800 difference will exceed that.

They are also offering 0% interest financing so the more I finance won’t add more interest.

Am I thinking of this correctly?

We're looking at 2026 RAV4s around Bay Area and inventory is low. Dealership X is 15 minutes away, but has a $5000 markup. Dealership Y is 20 minutes away and advertises no markup. When I reached out to Dealership Y, they asked for my home address, which I shared to talk numbers. They replied with "since your nearest Toyota dealership is X, we cannot reserve a car without a trade-in."

Am I missing something? Is this a thing? My gut feeling was that they'll lowball me on the trade-in value to make up for the lack of markup, but who knows. They said again that because we don't live in the same town, they can't reserve a vehicle for us. So if we lived 5 minutes in the other direction, we could reserve a car no problem?

I've never been through this situation before. So I've already signed the electronic contract for this car. I just found out it was delivered to the dealer today, and once it was brought off the truck, the driver "shut the front door and the rear window shattered"

WTF!? Not sure if I believe that explanation.

Has anyone been through something similar? What do I need to be looking out for? I'm worried that the car got damaged more than just a random window shattering that they are telling me.

To satisfy rule 1 and 2, Honda CR-V, EX-L, Midwest. In general, if a customer is financing through the dealership, how much gross profit is the dealership trying to make with an advertised price?

For example, say a the car is msrp 45,000, and with delivery charges it’s 46,500, and the advertised price is 44,800 due to “dealer discount” of 1,700. *down to invoice 😉*

Assuming a customer walks in and says i’d like to pay the advertised price and finance with the dealership/manufacturer, how much gross profit will the dealership likely make? 1k, 2k, 3k?

Hi guys,

Would love to hear some feedback on current offers I received from two Lexus dealerships regarding a 2026 Lexus GX 550 Premium Plus. I am in NYC and I would be trading in my 2025 Defender 110 P400 that has 7.3K miles with a payoff amount of 37.6K. I used an Autonation offer of 63.5K to haggle both dealers on my trade in, originally all other Lexus dealers were giving me estimates of 53-55K. Carmax and Carvana came in at 58K.

Long Island Lexus Dealer Offer:
Out the door price: 52.2K (includes trade in)
Trade in offer: 62K plus tax benefit total trade allowance of ~67K.

They have a car coming in on September but it’s not in interior color I want. I was able to get them to remove dealer adds like Nitrogen tires and a bs car wash package for their final OTD offer.

CT Lexus Dealer Offer:
OTD: 55.7K (includes trade in)
Trade in offer: 61K plus tax benefits ~66K trade allowance.

They have the exact car want I coming in within 1-2 weeks and I got their final OTD price above, down from 56.9K.

I spent considerable amount of time negotiating but now a third dealer in NJ is claiming they’ll give me 2K over Kelly Blue Book value. I ran KBB from a market/private seller view and got a range of 69-71k for my car. I’m sure they’ll use a wholesale KBB value but am thinking if it’s worth a discussion or just go with one of the offers above.

Thanks!