All the planning, research, and knowledge wont matter if its not the right time and place.
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Well, part of the job is to ensure that it is the right time and place beforehand. What you’re describing are market variables.
Do you let them know on first contact that you are looking to lease? For example, I’m looking at a Toyota Highlander, but it seems (from the fine print) that there are in fact different incentives for buying vs. leasing that affect the sale price. Is Toyota a special case, or should I always work towards the sale price before indicating that I want to lease?
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Absolutely! I’m always very upfront with them and let them know right from the git-go that I want to lease. In fact, the first words out of my mouth on contact is something like this… "Hi, Jennifer, I’m interested in leasing a Volvo V90 XC T5…Stock # VE53841 etc. …
And, you’re right! There often are different incentives for buying and leasing. I make myself aware of them and make sure my discount adequately covers them. Market conditions dictate how much off the MSRP I’m able to discount (9% off, 10% off, etc) predicated on supply and demand. If I know I’m going to be leasing in a given model year, I begin collecting incentive data for each month during that year. I also collect the base money factors and residual factors that provide some indication of a depreciation time line that should parallel actual depreciation. I check inventory of regional dealerships to gain some perspective of supply. Based on all these variables, I’m able to derive a discount value. I don’t just pluck some discounted value out of thin air without having done my homework as I may have to defend my sell price. In fact, the first question I’m asked after they receive my lease proposal is how did I arrive at the selling price. I tell them as little as possible… I don’t want to get into a long-winded explanation or an argument. More often than not, they seem satisfied and are ready to negotiate. More importantly they know they’re dealing with someone that has done their homework. So, I already have a very good idea of the sell price before I even talk to the dealer.The only thing I might not know is the dealer doc. fee. If it’s too high, I’ll adjust my sell price downward to compensate for the excess. As a general rule, I allow for a doc fee of no more that $200. After I’ve confirmed and vetted all my numbers, I’ll submit my lease proposal. I know that when the dealer does all the calculations using the input data in my proposal, they’ll arrive at exactly the same payment, residual, and taxes that are in my proposal. This actually seems to impress them; not intimidate them. They may not like it but, at least they respect me.
The research is a lot of work but well worth the effort… at least for me. Not only have I increased the likelihood of getting an exceptional deal, but I’m educating myself in the process… I’m always learning so I can help others lease their vehicles.
The bottom line is that, regardless of make, model, trim-line, etc., the process is always the same… at least for me and, the best part is that it seems to work.
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Are you lucky enough to be able to desk your own deals?
Always. I always let them know I’m looking to lease for that very reason.
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Unfortunately, not anymore.
Someone made a mistake and it was over for that.
There’s always one guy that has to ruin it for everyone 
In a nutshell I:
- Research MV/MF on the car(s) I am interested in. Edmunds is perfect for this.
- Research available incentives I qualify for.
- Research what others in my general area are getting the same vehicle for. One thing I think people tend to overlook is geographic influence when trying to replicate deals. What’s possible in NorCal/SoCal or NYC metro area may not be possible in other areas of the country (SoFla for example).
- Establish a target of what I feel I can get the car for, usually using the lower end of TrueCar, KBB, NADA, CarGurus, etc. I usually even go a little lower to leave room for myself to come up if the dealer balks at my response.
I have an Excel workbook that I use to model payments based on different dealer discounts using base MF, appropriate RV, and no add ons so I know immediately if a dealer’s initial and subsequent offers are being inflated due to a bumped RV, exoribtant doc fee, etc. When dealers ask the inevitable “how did you get that #” I send them my workbook which details everything down to the penny. I also don’t start off with blasting every dealer in the tri-state area for that brand. If the first dealer I reach out to comes back with #'s that are respectable and it’s just a few turns of the screw to land the deal I want I’m not going to reach out to another dealer only to be told “no” or they’ll beat it by a few hundred dollars…diminishing returns and all that stuff 
.
If you’re prepared before you even start the process then you should already know what constitutes a good, great, or hackr deal and recognize when it’s time to agree to terms. If I get the feeling the dealer isn’t really going to play ball, I move on to the next one and the next one if need be.
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pensfan83
4h
In a nutshell I:
Research MV/MF on the car(s) I am interested in. Edmunds is perfect for this.
Research available incentives I qualify for.
Research what others in my general area are getting the same vehicle for. One thing I think people tend to overlook is geographic influence when trying to replicate deals. What’s possible in NorCal/SoCal or NYC metro area may not be possible in other areas of the country (SoFla for example).
Establish a target of what I feel I can get the car for, usually using the lower end of TrueCar, KBB, NADA, CarGurus, etc. I usually even go a little lower to leave room for myself to come up if the dealer balks at my response.
Wow! For what it’s worth, I really like your approach!
John
Thanks but I don’t think it’s a big departure from what many people here do. Some may do a few things differently like email multiple dealers at once or negotiate in person vs. email, but in general I think the the key is to know all your numbers, how those numbers work together to produce a payment, and being patient if you’re trying to hack.
Delta, this is terrific. I don’t suppose you would mind sharing your Excel workbook?
Unfortunately, I can’t share it because it’s proprietary as I use it to negotiate leases. It’s very elaborate having spent several years perfecting and updating it and I wouldn’t want a dealer or broker to have it. I know this may sound like BS but, it’s the truth.
I’ll be happy to run lease numbers for you if you like.
This commentors information is one of the best and a very good thought starter…I accidentally found this same thing out 2 leases ago.
Thanks much, Delta. I’ll take you up on that in about a month!
I like the concept of controlling the deal by making a proposal. I’ve had excellent results by simply emailing a few dealers proposing basic terms (duration, mileage, drive-off, monthly) with reference to a specific stock number vehicle chosen from their online inventory. The dealers that respond with “when can you come in to discuss” I ignore. The ones that respond with a specific acceptance of my proposal, or make a specific reasonable counter proposal, I work with.
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I’ve only leased two cars, but it still seems like overkill to me. to abuse a metaphor, you’re just trying to buy a sausage, not make the sausage yourself.
[quote=“altfuelcarguy, post:56, topic:52529, full:true”]
I’ve had excellent results by simply emailing a few dealers proposing basic terms (duration, mileage, drive-off, monthly) with reference to a specific stock number vehicle chosen from their online inventory. [/quote]
That’s pretty much what I did and it worked well.
Now, that being said, after getting a quote from a dealer, I asked to see their lease breakdown, one of the numbers seemed funny, and after hand calculating
(thanks leasehackr!) I realized that they were accidentally rolling a fee into the lease amount, and leaving it out saved me a hundred bucks or so.
so knowing how the lease is broken down is useful, I just can’t see myself leading with all that info first.
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That’s essentially what I did to get my S-class yesterday (I posted a thread about it), but it wasn’t anywhere near as complicated.
Here is the exact email I sent my dealer:
"I just got the MF/RV August numbers on the 2018 S450 RWD, and they are 0.00034/51% for a 36/12 lease in our zip code.
With the premium 1 + driver assistance package, this car’s MSRP is ~$98K, but truecar suggests a very good (but still reasonable) deal at ~$90K, and that’s without incentives like loyalty, USAA and such. You can run the numbers yourself at this point, but with autopay and a couple of MSDs they do end up somewhere in the low-mid $1200s (with tax), on zero down (~$1700 driveoff).
I will want the prepaid maintenance though, so that stuff probably cancels out.
Do you want to have a look and tell me if this is something you want to work out?"
And that’s about the deal I got. So it worked exactly how I would have hoped it would.
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Nice and sweet 
…
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will you consider negotiating a lease on behalf of a private individual?