First post so please go easy. Using info I found on the forum, I’ve emailed some local sales managers asking for the best selling price (not including incentives) on a particular car in inventory.
I’ve gotten a response with what seems to be a good selling price. Is my next step to reply and ask the sales manager what the monthly payment would be for, e.g. a 36/mo, 15k mile lease w/ $x down?
Should I also be asking for MF, RV and dealer fees at this point (and cross-check those w/ Edmunds)? Anything else I need to get right now?
Let’s say you are looking for a 2002 Saab 9.3 Covertible. Go to edmunds forum and look for the following thread “2002 Saab 9.2 Lease Deals and Prices.”
Then post a request that reads something like this:
"Can you tell me the RV and MF, along with any incentives, for the [2002] [Saab] [9.3] [SE] [Convertible], [automatic] transmission at [36 months]/[15]k miles for [90210]? Then wait. Usually takes a few hours and the moderator will reply back with the answer to your question.
I personally like to have the MF, RV and rebates lined up beforehand. This way I can calculate the payment myself and reply with something like "So based on the selling price before rebates that you quoted me, can you confirm that an (x) Month, (y) Miles per year lease would be (z)? They will either confirm, admit they made a mistake (or possibly were deliberately obtuse), or give you a song and dance about coming in to talk about it, which you can go ahead and put in the circular filing bin of your inbox.
Thanks so much for the explanation. So when I calculate the monthly payment, using the MF and RV from Edmunds, should I present a monthly payment to the dealer without factoring in any down payment at first? Or does it not matter in terms of getting a deal in place?
Also it doesn’t look like I qualify for any incentives or rebates according to Autobytel. I assume there aren’t others that I should ask the dealer about?
What car are you looking at? Unless it’s brand new and/or a hot seller, it’s pretty unusual to have no incentives at all, and even then there may be hidden dealer cash available. When checking the Edmunds forums give them the terms you are looking for, trim, drive train (if applicable) and your zip code to find out what’s out there. Quite honestly if the RV isn’t high, and the MF isn’t as close to 0 as possible, you may be better off looking for similar vehicles from other brands that do offer incentives.
Most people around these parts shoot for a deal with as little down as possible, either true sign and drive, or putting down taxes, tags, etc to avoid paying interest on them. Kind of a divided topic, really it’s about what you are comfortable with. Any more money down than that and you risk losing it in the event of a total loss, but the inception fees will always need to be paid again no matter what.
Without any incentives it’s just not a good leasing option. You would need 20% off plus max MSDs in order to get it to a deal that’s close to meeting the 1% rule with zero drive off. I’m not sure what compares to it from similar brands, but I’d definitely try to cross shop it, maybe take a look at some competing cars that have been leased or offered by brokers here lately.
Autobytel and Edmunds are the best resources. The dealers will obviously know too, but they won’t necessarily be up front about it if they believe they can pocket some of the incentive money and give you less of a discount.
This is important. I’ve alwaya struggled to find ALL of the incentives to ensure I was maximizing discount, but always felt as if the dealer was holding out on me.
The Edmunds moderators will often know what lease incentives (which can be different from financing incentives) might be available for a given month (you just need to ask).
I don’t think how well a car sells has much relationship to what lease incentives are available (although it might have some effect on the selling price of a car… if you were to actually buy it, rather than lease it).
From my own recent experience, leasing and financing have essentially nothing in common (aside from you trying to negotiate the best selling price).
You could always just ask the dealer what incentives are available (and then x-check that w/ what you learn on Edmunds).
Makes sense. I’ll ask the dealer for the heck of it. And next time I post on Edmunds for the MF and RV, I’ll also ask for any incentives. Thanks for the help.
The folks on Edmunds are saints, and for the most part usually include available incentive info with the MF and RV, provided that you gave your zip code. That being said, they don’t always have access to EVERYTHING.
