Purchasing a C230 Sedan...tips?

Well I went into one dealership with a cost list of what they pay and what they charge me MSRP. I did not work at all. They earn $3100can off the top before any options. They earn money from the options too. I asked for them to sell me some options at their cost and they dropped the cost of the car $100 (wow, not). So it depends, do they need your buisness bad enough, in most cases no. The only time I hear of dealers giving deals at mercedes is if they need to move more product out the door. Why would they give us a deal on something thier sure to sell in a few weeks anyway.

Good luck, it's worth a try.

One thing that the dealer can give you is the rebate from the main office.
Like recently which I also missed the chance is MB has a rebate in Feb, 2003. Probably it is a short month, and the ecomonic is not in very good shape. That's why they has such "program". The bargin range they have is much bigger. However, since it is in very short period, and they don't said it to public. So you might not know of.

If you are not good at bargin, maybe you should find those salesmen without so much experience. So that they won't play too much "game" with you.
If you are in Bay Area, California USA. There have one MB shop just opened in Oct, 2002 in South Bay, their showroom is still in contruction, if you would like to have the address, I can email to you, cause don't want to like I am advisement for them.

Get 2 dealers and play them against eachother....

Worked for me. I ended up getting the car for invoice and a special order at that. Actually both dealerships were willing to do invoice the only difference is that one salesman was a d*ck. His loss. I also didn't walk in there with the printed invoice. I just did my homework with the numbers and acted like I knew my stuff.

Best of luck!