2016 Jeep Compass lease offer $289 a month. Is this good?

Ask the Hackrs
1

Hi,

After reading around here, I did my best at negotiating on a 2016 Jeep Compass High Altitude lease.

The sales guy didn’t know the residual or MF - but he said that the MSRP was $28,065

residual - he didn’t get from his boss

money factor - he didn’t get from his boss

invoice - discount close to $2000 (he just said “invoice discounted”)

incentives - $2500

He said he would also take care of my $600 Mercedes disposition fee. I live in Los Angeles so including taxes drive off and everything rolled into my monthly lease payments the monthly payment would be $289 (including everything). For 36 months and 10,000 miles a year.

Is this a good deal? I was hoping to find a Compass at $250 a month - but I need leather seats (I have dogs that shed), automatic transmission, and it would be nice to get power seats (I need power windows). Truecar said that they could quote me at $23,190 for my ‘configured vehicle’ - which I guess means if there is a car that I configured that exists - correct?

Thanks so much for all of your help here. I need to save money so bad and this website has been a huge help!

2

Salespeople love to talk about payments. And you seem to be playing straight into their game. Tell the guy you checked with your financial advisor and you need the following information to decide how you’d like to proceed:

Purchase Price of Car
Money Factor
Residual Value
Amount of Cash required for drive off

Clearly the guy has all of this data at his fingertips and he’s blowing you off when you asked for it. Blame it on your financial advisor saying that he requires it.

Pete

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3

Thanks Pete.

I was very clear with him there would be zero drive off and all of that would be rolled into my payments. I was the one that kept asking what the monthly payments would be. I am sure that I can get the additional details if I need to…

Does the Money Factor, purchase price of car and Residual Factor have a huge factor in the lease payments? I will be honest about my focus being on monthly lease payments.

We talked about the MSRP and the $4500 in discounts I’d be getting so that I would be getting close to the price of what Truecar quoted …

And I really don’t think he was blowing me off. He didn’t hard sell me at all - I told him I wasn’t going to get anything and just wanted to test drive, since my current lease isn’t up until May anyway. He tried to get his boss to pay for my last 2 monthly payments and the monthly price went up to $299 that way and when I said no, he said “honestly I’m sure that he is going to regret it and come back and tell you ok at $289 in a few days or weeks. I am sure that car isn’t going anywhere.” I like this sales guy actually.

But I did just email him and ask for it anyway :slight_smile:

4

Usually the residual is not negotiable, other than the fact that the lender publishes different residuals depending on the length of the lease and the number of miles. The purchase price, is, of course negotiable. The Money Factor probably is negotiable too as some lenders allow the dealer to mark up the money factor for extra profit. Perhaps someone here on the site can tell you what the base factor is and whether there are ways to get a better money factor. So, to answer your question, yes, all of those data points matter. They don’t just have a “huge” effect on the payment as you asked they ARE the payment. To better understand leases take a look at the post I wrote in this thread (I think it is post number 24) and you’ll easily understand why this data matters:

5

Thanks Pete. I know that at some point all of this will finally click and I’ll go “ahhh ok I finally get it”. But it’s still so confusing to me!

I’ll wait to get his numbers and post again. I just wanted to even know if getting this car at $250 a month lease price is possible so I can keep looking for it. I talked to a broker yesterday who said he works with a Jeep wholesale person and that “the lowest I could get is $377 a month. Your numbers are way off.” So I am not sure who to believe on this. I do think the $289 sounds like a good deal but want to be sure and would ultimately like to only have to pay $250 but I just don’t know if it’s possible yet.

I will read your post and try to understand :slight_smile:

6

Hi lrlr,

Consider checking out the VW Tiguan S. It comes standard with leatherette seats, which is probably just as nice as the leather seats on the Compass, if not nicer.

A number of readers have reported getting a good deal one. Figure $200/month, including tax, with $1,200 or so total due at signing.

7

Thanks Michael. I actually got an offer for a Tiguan S at $230 a month, including taxes and fees and drive offs all rolled into monthly payments for 36 months with 10,000 miles and they will pay my lease disposition fee. I just really liked the Jeep Compass a lot better and was looking for realistic numbers on that lease…

8

Whoops! Just saw your other post. $230/month, $0 drive-off is excellent.

9

Thanks Michael, that’s good to know in case I can’t get the Jeep. I really want the jeep though. Do you have any idea what a good number with zero drive off would be for a Jeep Compass or Patriot? High Altitude version.

Thanks!

Ps - reading your site here helped me go into the VW dealer and get that deal :slight_smile: on the Tiguan!

10

Hi!

Ok I got the residual value and money factor of both the Jeep Compass and a Jeep Cherokee Latitude -

residual value (for both cars) - is 55%

MF (for both cars) is .00125

I’m in Los Angeles so I think sales tax here is 9% .

I priced out both cars on Carsdirect and here are the numbers they gave me:

Jeep Cherokee Latitude -

MSRP PRICING $26,290
Sales Price $25,235
Manufacturer Rebates ($3,000)
Net Cost $22,235
Priced on 2/18/16 at 08:41am in Zip Code 90004

Jeep Compass Latitude - MSRP PRICING
$25,885
Sales Price
$25,109
Manufacturer Rebates
($5,250)
Net Cost
$19,859

I did the numbers according to your linked bmw post info. (I did the best I could) and here is what I got for the Compass - am I wrong?

  1. $19859 - MSRP according to deal cars direct gave me (including rebates and incentives)

x .55 residual - $10,922.45 (residual)

  1. $19859 - residual value $10,922.45 - $8936.55 lease depreciation costs % 36 (months) = $248.24 lease payment per month.

add in money factor : .00125 = $38.48 month interest $286.72

PLUS sales tax 9% - $25.80 / month

TOTAL LEASE PRICE - $312.52 /month

Is this correct? If so, then it looks like the $289 a month I was originally quoted is actually a really good deal - but it’s confusing since the price of the car on that deal was about $23,000…

So what do I do now? I will reread your posts to get as much info. / direction as possible again … but in the meantime if you have any suggestions that would be very helpful!

I am looking at any term lease, with zero drive off (all costs that are expected at signing to be rolled into my monthly payments) and to ask them to pay for my Mercedes lease disposition fee of $600. and only 10,000 miles a year.

Thank you!

11

You’ve made a math error that is very common. The residual is based on MSRP, NOT the negotiated sale price. So for the jeep compass:

$25,885 X .55= 14236.75 is the residual value

So the math goes like this:

$19,859 Purchase price
($14236.75) residual

$5622.25 is your total depreciation over the term of the lease
divided by 36 months

$156.17 This is your depreciation per month

Now on to the finance charge

$19,859

  • 14,236.75

$34,097.75
X .00125

$42.62 is your monthly finance charge

So your total payment is

$156.17 + $42.62 = $198.79 PLUS TAX

12

By the way, I’m seeing $3250 in bonuses when I look at cars direct. There is also a pretty big list of other bonuses but I am not clear that they are combinable. You’re going to want to find out. Here’s what I see on Cars Direct:

Retail Consumer Cash(Expires 02/29/16)($2,750)

Chrysler US Presidents Day Bonus Cash (Retail & Lease)(Expires 02/29/16)($500)

Conquest Lease to Retail/Lease(Expires 04/04/16)($1,000)

Chrysler Capital Bonus Cash(Expires 02/29/16)($500)

Lessee(Expires 04/04/16)($500)

13

One more thing. The article on this site about Jeep is for the Cherokee. That article says the money factor for a 39 month lease is .00005. You’re talking about 36 months so maybe the figure is different for a reason. I have no idea what’s right, however. Frankly it looks like a typo in that article with too many zeros.

14

Thank you SO much for all of your info!

On cars direct - it looked like I qualified for all of the incentives that I am about to list below -

This was the cars direct quote for the jeep cherokee latitude, I don’t know if I need that additional $814 safety convenience group (I added it but I’m not sure what it is) - but I know I need leather seats and the dealership said they can add them at about $1200 - $1400 rather than go up to a jeep cherokee limited that comes with leather seats which would cost a few thousand dollars more. The dealer today (sales manager) gave me the money factor and residual for the Cherokee Latitude - $25,060 total cherokee latitude price (without leather seats) .

money factor .00010 residual 52% (on a cherokee latitude)

$25,060 X .52 = $13,031.20 (residual value)

  • $3000 in manufacturer rebates

$22,060 (purchase price)

  • $13,031.20

$9028.80 total depreciation over 36 months lease - divided by 36

$250.80 depreciation per month

finance charge :

$22,060 +
$13,031.20 =

$35,091.20
X .00010

according to this it’s $3.51 - but that doesn’t make sense. I’m actually on the phone with the sales manager now and he is saying that the money factor number is correct - but “it actually comes out to 10%” . So it still doesn’t make sense…

I do know that the dealer said that 'there is no way I can get below $300 on a latitude"

Thank you again so so so so much for all of your help with this.

Once I get the residual and money factor on the Compass I will do that math correctly and re-post.

15

I think you said you’re in California. So the tax is just on the monthly payment, not on the price of the car.

You might want to shop that money factor around…since the article on this site had a factor of exactly half of what your dealer told you . Sounds like a mark up to me.

If you roll your drive offs into the lease just add them to your negotiated price when you do the math. For every $360 you roll in your payment will go up by about $10 ($360/36 months is $10 per month) plus a tiny bit for interest.

I can’t give you any advice about the car as i know nothing about jeeps.

16

Hi again.

So I am making a little bit of progress with being able to do some numbers. However - these salespeople are relentless on the phone with dodging my attempts to simply go over numbers with them and instead continue to respond by saying “let’s get you in here and I’ll show it to you on paper.” Do you have any recommendations how to handle that, as in specifically what to say if they are not listening when I say "I am only going to go into a dealership once I’ve confirmed numbers and that it’s something you can do, otherwise I’m not coming in. " Even when I say that - they just don’t stop responding with “let’s get you in here” and then I just say “Ok I’m going to go now. Thank you.” Any advice on this? I cannot stand how aggressive they are. (I also start off all conversations by saying “aggressive selling will just make me get off the phone. I just want you to know that I don’t do well with it and I’m just trying to get numbers.” The last phone call yesterday unfortunately I didn’t start with that - I did start with just saying “I"m only trying to get the residual and money factor numbers, that is all I am trying to do.” Ugh.)

17

Sorry the late response. Here’s the current Chrysler Capital lease program for 2016 Compass High Altitude FWD:

MF: .00002
Residual: 57% (36/12K)
Add 1% from residual to get 10K mi/year. Subtract 2% to get 15K.

There’s $1,500 in lease rebates: $500 California BC Lease Cash 71LG1 + $500 California Chrysler Capital 2016 Bonus Cash CACG5 + $500 Presidents’ Day Bonus Cash 41CG6A

Keep in mind that rebates for leases differ from those for cash purchases. TrueCar is showing a selling price of about $23,600 (no incentives selected) on a Compass High Altitude (no options) with an MSRP of $25,885.

Plugging these numbers into the lease calculator, I get $239/month (assuming 8% tax) and $745 total due at signing (assuming $300 in registration fees):

MSRP: $25,885
Selling Price: $23,600
Taxed Incentives: $1,500
Untaxed Incentives: $0
Down Payment: $0
Acquisition Fee: $595
Residual: 57%
Miles/yr: 12,000
Money Factor: .00002
Document Fee: $80
License/Registration: $300
Sales Tax: 8%

If you can negotiate a lower selling price (or if you go with 10K mi/year), then the lease payment will go further down.

I’d recommend identifying specific vehicles in a dealer’s inventory and doing this same exercise to find out how much you should pay.

18

Thank you so much Michael!

I am going to try to figure out how this math works out so I can keep doing this for a Jeep Cherokee Latitude or a Jeep Patriot High Altitude…

Thank you!

19

Hi,

I just wanted to update you and let you know (and Michael as well if you both are reading this) that I have FINALLY figured out how to do these lease calculations and it is making things very simple and easy when speaking to dealerships.

Pete - you rule :wink: Thank you!

20

Oh, good! I am glad you got the math. Suddenly the smoke and mirror trick that dealers try will not work with you. They’ll hear it in your voice I am sure which will better your ability to negotiate and/or know when to walk.

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