am1996

Precisely, we are on the same page ^

thesilb

Both my and my wife's leases were up; we had got 2x MB platinum Amex and had the $1,000 certs in hand. I negotiated very hard (GREAT prices right now - and great money rates on leases...), got a GL sticker 75,185 dealer invoice 70,684 and negotiated them to 66,684, applied cert for 65,684. Got a GLK sticker 49,226 dealer invoice 46,341 and negotiated them to 43,841, applied cert 42,841

Just want to report that (1) it definitely did work to not mention the cert to the very, very end then they did deduct it from what I negotiated without giving me any grief (I assume they get the $1K back from some central money pool and that it doesn't matter to them...but the same...I was 10% worried about getting some grief after negotiating hard); and (2) having bought many Mercedes over the years, I do think this is a very good time (until Jan. 3).

Then I took our 2x $100 accessory cert to the accessory window and spent them!

All in all this is a great card so far. ^

leonard016

Thanks for sharing thesilb! Glad that the card worked out great for you.

r.brown

So who gets the GL and who gets the GLK =)

thesilb

Get serious...wife gets the more expensive one of course. Its part of our "grand bargain"...if there's a lone F seat and someone goes in C, big daddy gets F!

ma91pmh

Thanks for the tip! My wife has a GL and I have to suffer the "lowly" Jaguar XF, I never thought I could spin this into me traveling in F while she is in C

ma91pmh

theslib - curious what do you think is going to change on jan 3rd?

i get impression mb have a lot of inventory... and with a new gl on the horizon later next year i am thinking there will be lots of good deals on current model... indeed like yours which seems very good

thesilb

The Winter Event ends Jan. 3. I don't know for sure what will happen but the dealer says money rates will go up, and that some end of year dealer level incentives are going away. Whether true or not, who knows. But with the money rates and the prices right now...I bit (plus, my wife's X5 lease was up and my GLK350 lease was up in a few months...so I had to do something...).

thesilb

Alert: Just wanted to report that after charging $12,000 on the platinum card at the dealership a few days ago, I got 48,000 points posted today. I struggled to understand why, there is a line item that says "MB Dealership 5x Points" then lists 48,000. Why not 60,000 - that's 5x? Finally I figured out that this is the 4x bonus posting, and the normal spend credit is coming with my regular monthly bill. Nice that they posted this 48,000 within a few days - heck, my statement with these charges won't even cut for another 20 some odd days! ^

2tall4economy

Not saying it wasn't a good negotiation, but if you go to Truecar.com you'll see that what you negotiated on both cars is pretty much dead on with what the market participants pay for those cars on average, +/- $750 depending on where you live. Might be fewer grey hairs if you just print out the truecar.com report first, slap it on the table, and walk if they say no...

Still, $750 is a couple nice dinners with wine so I can't blame you for pushing.

ma91pmh

TrueCar.com is showing that a GL spec'd out to $75k invoice is going for $73k here in RDU so 66.6 seems a pretty good price to me.

londonfin

How long did it take once you hit the spending threshold to get the $1K certificate in hand? Just trying to figure out how far in advance to need to switch from regulat Plat to MB Plat. Thanks!

ma91pmh

cannot say exactly but it was quick... within a couple of weeks for sure

londonfin

Thanks for the quick reply. Narrowing down our choices but looking like an ML. Once we lock in that is will be a MB am I best to convert my personal Plat to a MB one (don't think I get any bonus MR points this way) or is there a better way for me to do this. CUrrently I have primary Plat AMEX and wife has a secondary Gold on the account she rarely uses and could drop. If we go this route I want to do it in the best way.

thesilb

Same for me, about 2-3 weeks.