Hey guys - RX350 / RX350Ls are leasing well in Socal this month. Base MF is very low (.00025, equivalent of 0.6% APR) and there’s a $1750 lease cash incentive. I put the deal specs below assuming $0 MSDs first, so someone casually looking at this can understand the base deal.
2018 new Lexus RX 350L - base Premium trim (NO navigation, NO luxury)
**MSRP: $49,998
**Selling Price: $43,207 (13.6% off MSRP) excluding incentives
**Monthly Payment: $414 + tax
**Cash Due at Signing: $0
**MSD: 0
**Incentives: $1750 lease cash (additional to MSRP discount above). Combined, it would be $41,457 (17.9% off)
**Months: 45 (45 is the cheapest right now. We’re only doing 7500 mi, so thought it would be ok)
**Annual Mileage: 7500 miles
**MF: .00025
**Residual: 51%
**Region: SOCAL
**Acq fee: $795, doc fee: $80.
I put the deal specs above excluding MSDs, so people can see the base deal. I actually put down 3 MSDs (they each reduce MF by .00008), so my actual deal specs were:
MF .00001
MSDs $1350
Drive-offs: $0 (other than MSDs)
Monthly payment: $398 + tax
I am happy with $398+tax. For anyone trying to replicate this payment, please note this is for the non-navigation model. I think the MSRP for the navigation models appears to start around $55k.
The two most competitive dealers pricing-wise were Keyes Van Nuys and Glendale Lexus. Both were willing to go substantially lower than any other dealer. I ended up buying from Keyes, but if you’re going to contact them, PLEASE READ THIS SECTION because they tried to switch the deal terms on me at contract-signing. At Keyes - I worked with Karina Maciel and Sam Santoso (assistance@keyeslexus.com). At Glendale - I really liked working with Shaw (shaw@lexusofglendale.net). I think buying from Glendale would have been a smoother process, but have never bought from them so don’t know for sure. If it will be helpful to give them my name so you can refer to my deal, I’m happy to share it over PM.
For Keyes: they e-mailed me a printout that gave all the terms we were agreeing to, including the vehicle selling price of $43,072 (13.85% off MSRP). They initially only insisted that 2 MSDs were possible, and only after repeated questioning did they agree to 3 (that should have been my first yellow flag). They had also told me that the payment total would be $436 incl tax and that the vehicle had 4 miles on the odometer. They also pressured me to come in within 24 hours of agreeing to terms or else the deal would be gone (second yellow flag). I asked them to send me a photo of the contract in advance but they were “too busy to get to it” (third yellow flag).
When my wife showed up near closing time, they tried to rush her to sign it because the finance guy “had to leave” and apparently got super-annoyed that she wanted to send a photo of it to me to review. They had raised the vehicle selling price to $43,608 (~$536 higher than agreed). They insisted that we’d agreed on a payment of $436 incl tax, and $0 down, but that there was no such thing as “$0 drive-off” and that “$0 drive-off” means that you have to make the first monthly payment before driving off.
I argued with them about this over the phone until finally they agreed to remove the first monthly payment. That brought the vehicle selling price down to $43,207. Note that the original quote to me was $43,072. I think my correct payment should probably have been $435+change, but they padded the cap cost to get my payment up to $436.99 and expected I wouldn’t notice. I didn’t have the exact figures for the payment because the printout they e-mailed me was before I requested the MSDs be applied. I let this go because it was still a good deal and I felt bad arguing with them about this at 8pm on a Sunday, but it annoyed me, particularly in combination with their argument that there was no such thing as a true $0 drive-off.
Furthermore, they had told me the vehicle had 4 miles on it. They wrote in the contract that it had 50. When my wife turned it on, it had 120 miles on it, because it had been driven in from Oxnard. So they took another 70 miles from us. This may have just been an oversight because it was near-closing time, but also annoying.
*** Anyway - at the end of the day - I am happy with the deal I got. My wife liked Karina (Keyes) in person and did not want to make things more difficult for her, so she did not want me to argue about how they padded the vehicle selling price by $135. Once you subtract the residual and spread it out over 45 months, I think it only made a difference of $1.47 in our monthly payment. But if you go with Keyes, please make sure to be prepared for these tactics.