04 December 2023

Pre-registered new Mercedes still exist under its agency model, a practice that was supposed to have stopped with the new retailer agreement.

Cars advertised as “nearly new (pre-reg)” with 100 miles on the clock can be found on price comparison sites. Registered cars with less than 100 miles can also be easily found on new and used car classified websites.

Under the agency agreement, retailers cannot pre-register cars, according to a Mercedes spokesperson. Mercedes does not view these nearly-new cars as pre-registrations, instead simply as used cars.

However, the presence of so many nearly-new Mercedes has led to brokers offering these cars at significantly lower monthly payments compared to the new cars being offered by the manufacturer. These discounted prices are also being advertised alongside new car lease rates.

Mercedes has been running a sale over the past few months with deals on its electric cars through its own website. The lease broker websites are now offering even lower monthly payments.

Agency agreements were supposed to eliminate fast-turn, low (or negative) margin sales.

Tags: agency, Mercedes Benz