BMW, Mercedes Lease timing

[Fuzz]

I'm with Sus on this one. Doesn't matter which lease plan is better. What really matters is the car itself.

If lease plan really did matter, I would never have bought my Alfa 156. Absolutely loved driving that car, despite all the usual Alfa quirks. Same thing goes for my Merc C250 Coupe. Preferred the ride and style over the BMW 320D Coupe. I found the ride too harsh in the Beemer, and for those who drive on Sydney roads, you know you want a more comfortable ride.

I just came back from a trip down the coast (drove down to Moruya) through the state forest and the Merc handled great on those twisting mountain roads. Going 100kph (60mph for those not on the metric system) on those roads was a helluva lot of fun, and the car didn't feel uneasy at all.... though I did on a few corners!!

[TM-US]

I can't tell where the OP is on my phone, so I'll talk about US leasing because that's what I know.

Often, the best incentives are in the late summer, when traffic to the dealers is really low. For the same reason, you can often get a good deal in February, as companies are looking to jump start their sales, as January is very slow as it is the post-holiday season.

That being said, the best deals overall happen between Christmas and New Years because it is the end of the fiscal year for both dealers and manufacturers and they are looking to clear inventory off of their books for the year. Dealers are also looking to meet their sales numbers for the year, as allocations are often based on a dealer meeting its sales and customer satisfaction goals.

Going back to what some people have posted, there is a lot of misinformation here. For example, the Lincoln LS has nothing to do with a Jaguar X-type. It shares its platform with the S-type- both cars are junk, BTW.

As for Mercedes and BMW, Mercedes is much more customer service oriented, as a whole. Their cost cutting measures from '95 to '06 really hurt their reputation, but the LCI W211, W204 and W221 are excellent cars. They have far less issues than some of the contemporary BMWs, such as the valve guide issues with the Valvetronic V8s, the HPFP in the N54 and N55 engines and the myriad of electrical issues with the E60 and E65.

I can find fault with a bunch of Benzes as well, like the head bolt issues with the M156 and the balance shaft issues with the V6 and V8 cars from '05 to '07.

[MountMandolin]

My 2 cents... for whatever its worth...

I was a Mercedes convert, after getting a 2nd hand diesel (arly 70's) and not only driving the wheels off of it, but finding it the easiest car I'd ever owned to work on. I loved those cars... Heck, I even bought a Gaggenau Unimog for an off road vehicle (Oh, the memories of that truck!!)... until...

The early-Mid 90's. I don't know what happened, but their QC went down the tubes. I had to replace 3 waterpumps back to back, the impeller on the transmission galled at the bearing (huh??) and the rear end locked up. (And yes, I follow maintenance religiously).

I then (with trepidation) got a Beemer 5 series (525?)... night and day. That car ran, and ran, and ran... it was like my '71 diesel all over again, but with more speed and power.

As to leasing... I put WAY too many miles on a vehicle to lease anything, and with most stuff out of Stuttgart/Munich/Wolfsburg, what you lose is what you drove it. And then not that much.

OK, serious disclaimer time... I had to get a new car, as the old one burned in a parking lot. I decided on... a Subaru. BIG change for me, but the car handles like my 525, it is reliable like my 220D, it is thrifty like a vespa (OK, not THAT thrifty, but not bad) and they're surprisingly well built. Like I said, I don't lease... I like driving too much to pay the turn in penalty... for me it's like renting a house... but that darned AWD ricebuggy made me a changed woman.

The bottom line is this. Asking about BMW/Mercedes leases... you're comparing 2 totally different platforms. Sure, they're both German Engineering, but honestly, the cars are like dusk and dawn. You need to decide on what fits YOUR driving style, what feels best holding the wheel, and THEN decide on a car. Otherwise, its like comparing a Chevy to a Dodge to a Ford.

YMMV etc...

Sus

I know this is a couple days since this thread stopped moving, but I had a comment and a question.

As to the Mercedes-Benz, I'm not sure how much truth there is to this, but a friend of mine who is sort of a car headhunter (you pay him to find you an excellent car at an excellent price) drives an '87 or '88 (can't remember which) Mercedes SL. He says that that particular year and model is the "last of the great hand-built German M-B's. He said after that model year he has been unable to find an M-B that wasn't, in his words, inexcusably piss-poor. I was surprised to hear that M-B hand-built their cars as recently as that, but the man knows his stuff, so I believe him, minus a smallish grain of salt. He also owns an '80s Porsche 911, coupe of course (torsional rigidity and all that, plus who wants to drive around in a wind tunnel).

Now the question: what model Subaru did you buy? They are on my short list, specifically the STI hatchback. I have been an absolute snob ever since I drove an E36 328i, still to this day my favorite reasonably priced car—favorite would be the great king of cars: the 911. That said, I drove an STI hatch recently and was sorta blown away by the handling, which is what first got me into BMWs (the broad, flat power band being nearly equal). So what model Subaru do you drive, and what's your opinion of the handling, power band, etc.? Also, I have to have a manual transmission, and that's becoming harder and harder to find in the US, which is a friggin shame. Luckily, Subaru has not abandoned them just yet. So ideally my next car will be a 3-series, probably an E46, but if that isn't feasible I'm strongly considering a Subie. So yeah. All that blabbering and what I'm really looking for is your opinion (and that of anyone else around here, of course).

[TM-US]

The last hand-built Mercedes is the S-class that was discontinued in '72- W109, I think? The R107 SLs were definitely not hand-built, they were built on an assembly line like most cars. There definitely is a quality difference starting in the mid-90s- the W202 C-Class and W210 E-Class were remarkably bad- poor rustproofing, a lot of electrical problems, self-destructing engine wiring harnesses, etc.

The STI hatchback they just stopped producing in '14? That car has a very flexible engine in terms of the powerband, but beware that there were quite a few issues with the ECU tuning that caused even stock STIs to blow up with the early '08-09 cars especially. I don't find the power delivery of the turbo Subarus to be anything like most BMWs. The M cars until very recently like to be revved, while the WRX and STI with the EJ257 2.5L have a broad, flat torque curve and don't need to be revved really past 6k rpm.

The E46 is a pretty good car, just beware of the typical BMW issues: cooling system components don't last, eats front lower control arms, rear shock mounts go bad, rear subframe mounts go bad and also need reinforcing. Also, bad pixels in the instrument cluster and radio displays. I also forgot the VANOS issues- if the VANOS filter is not changed and engine oil changes with full synthetic are not done regularly, the VANOS can go bad- expensive repair.

I think overall, the Subaru is a more reliable car. I had an STI, loved the car, no issues at all, but one generation prior. I haven't owned an E46, but currently own an E36/8, which is a maintenance-intensive car (S54 engine).

[Fosgate]

Hand built in the auto industry is a dinosaur for auto industry. Look at the quality improvements companies like Ford, Harley Davidson, Fiat ( with Chrysler) and many others as a result of studying and implementing the Japanese (Toyota) manufacturing process. They are able to cut costs, build a better product while those who still try to hold onto their old inefficient, lower quality processes continue to struggle or fail and wind up being purchased by another company using the Japanese model.