Without knowing any of the details of your lease it’s hard to say what the difference is. However I doubt it just sales tax. Here’s a breakdown I wrote elsewhere about how to calculate a lease payment and how my payment was calculated. It probably goes into more detail than you need but it should clear up exactly what the difference is:
The math for a lease is all very simple, regardless of what a sales person may say. In a lease you’re simply paying for the depreciation that will occur during the term of the lease plus some interest to the lender for the fact that they are financing the deal for you. So, in order to get a low payment, you want a low interest rate (called money factor in leasing) and you want the purchase price to be low and the residual value (the value of the car as stated by the lender at the end of the lease) to be high. BMW publishes what the residual values are for their cars and with a little asking a dealer will tell you. At 36 months the residual is currently at 53%… However, if you choose a 30 month lease the residual is 59%. The difference of 6% is simply for the extra six months of leasing. As you will better understand in a moment, BMW is not making the residual attractive at 36 months in that the depreciation component per month for a 36 month lease is costing more than for a 30 month lease. The 30 month lease also is the most attractive because that’s the minimum lease term you can get and still qualify for the $2,500 california rebate. Here’s a reconstruction of my lease:
Residual is based on MSRP
$54,895 X .59 = $32,388.05
Purchase Price is based on what you can negotiate. In my case it was 14.5% discount:
$54,895 X .855 = $46,935.25
Other Credits depend on what the government is offering and other promotions you MAY qualify for:
$7500 BMW lease cash in lieu of the Federal Tax Credit
$2,500 California Rebate (note in this deal I will put $2,500 cash down but it will be rebated to me by the State later)
$1,000 BMW Loyalty offer since I already have another leased BMW
$11,000 Total Credits
Money Factor is dependent on your credit score and whether you provide a security deposit. If you want a low payment then you will post a security deposit equal to 7 times your monthly payment.
Top Tier Money Factor with 7 Security Deposits is .00083
Putting it all together:
$46,953.22 Purchase Price
($11,000.00) Other Credits detailed above
$35,953.25 Modified capital cost
($32,388.05) Less the residual value
3565.20 This is the total depreciation that you will be paying for over 30 months
Divided by 30 Months
$118.84 Per Month Depreciation
Now to calculate the interest portion of the payment you are going to do some simple math that seems sort of unorthodox. Without going into the why of it , here’s how you do it:
Add together the Residual and the modified capital cost and multiply by the money factor:
$35,953.25 Modified Capital Cost
$32,388.05 Residual Value
$68,341.3
X .00083
$56.72 This is the interest portion of your payment
So, your monthly payment in this example is:
$56.72 + $118.84 = $175.56 Plus whatever your sales tax rate is in your county.
Total Drive off is:
$925 BMW leasing Fee
$1400 Refundable Security deposit (For this figure BMW rounds payment up to $200 then multiplies by 7)
$175.56 First months payment
??? Your tax rate on the first month payment
??? Your tax rate on the $11,000 in incentives
$580 Approximate DMV/Junk Fees for registering the car including the $80 doc fee that all dealers in CA charge.
$2,500 This is the downpayment that you need to pay now but will be rebated to you later by the State of California if you qualify (means testing starts in March)
Once the state refunds the down payment, you have a zero down lease at $175 per month.