First time trying to negotiate a car lease. I’m curious every time I mention things like residual rate or money factor the communications from dealerships seems to stop.
Is my approach off or something? I live in Colorado and I have noticed that it seems like “deals” are few in far between. One car I was looking at was 8% below MSRP and that seemed just OK, but again I mentioned money factor and then nothing.
Am I supposed to say nothing until I’m at the dealer? Just curious on people’s thoughts on the matter.
Your approach is not off you are collecting information which is part of a (leasehackr) shopping process. The dealer figures they won’t be able to hose you, so they stop responding.
What car are you looking at? I’m in Colorado and might be able to point you in the right direction. Oh I see Toyota. You’ll need to email every dealer in town and just weed through all the BS. Maybe even make a phone call once you get a quote that seems somewhat transparent. None of this is easy. If you don’t have the time to play the game just get a broker, there’s plenty around.
I’ve had pretty good experiences starting off with a quick phone call and then negotiating though email.Only show up at the dealer to sign and pick up the car.
I’m in Fort Collins, I’ve talked to Pederson Toyota and Mountain States in Denver so far. Pederson quoted me sticker price, Mountain States quoted about 8% under MSRP.
I don’t expect huge price drops, its a 2019 Rav4 XLE I’m looking at.
Just thought they’d send me the info for the lease rather easily, seems like not, but I’ll keep working on it, I’m in no rush.
I’m having the same issue here in Los Angeles. Looking to lease a Durango RT AWD and all the dealers were quick to talk numbers, but it all stopped when I asked for MF and RV.
Can anyone working at a dealership enlighten me as to why the sudden drop in communication?
Thanks
I assume it’s what @Wonks20 said above. If you’re asking for a breakdown of the deal, the dealership assumes (prob correctly) that they’re going to make less $ off of you. So why not spend the time with a less well-informed consumer where they can make more profit?
Oddly enough, the last dealings I had with Mountain States, they gladly sent me the residuals and MF. I have found (although I could be wrong) that Mountain States and Boulder Toyota are the only ones using Bellco CU. Everyone else is using TFS. However, the dealings with any of the dealerships in this area has been nothing but frustrating. If you are not getting what you want, try another channel.
Leases obviously have lots of moving parts if the dealer doesn’t want to give details, why not just get the numbers for edmunds, calculate a good deal in the Calculator and then negotiate on payment and amount due at signing and just let them adjust all the numbers?
Most salesman you are dealing with do not have access to the MF and residual, they will have to ask a sales manager. And when asked, the sales manager would probably not provide that to the salesman so the conversations stop there.
At the end of the day, just focus on the MSRP of the car and shop the monthly payment. I wouldn’t focus too much attention on the money factor and residual because I would know one of those factors are high if the monthly payment is not close to 1% of MSRP with just drive offs.
As much as I love trying to find deals I also hate it. It isn’t easy. It’s a numbers game and you need to contact as many dealers as possible. Just make sure you know all the key info and utilize that info to help you.
So the consumer should focus on one completely non-negotiable variable (the MSRP) and another variable that is so susceptible to “manipulation” that it ends up being a nearly completely figure?
I mean, if you said, “Focus on the MSRP vs. monthly payment with a true $0 DAS,” that would make more sense (IMHO)…
I just shopped a lease recently and this worked for me. I got the lowest selling price from all the dealers in the area for a lease, make sure you tell them because some dealers were giving finance prices.
I walked in and hashed out the rest of the numbers from there. Done in one hour. They did try some MF mark up shenanigans and tried having me put down 92 dollars (wtf) - but I pointed them out and it was fixed. Matched the lease calculator down to the penny.
