2017 Ford Fusion Energi Platinum lease buyout question

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1

Hello,

I signed a lease agreement yesterday for a 2017 Ford Fusion Energi Platinum.

The salesperson convinced me that the better deal was to lease the vehicle instead of financing because the lease incentive was several thousand dollars more than financing. He said I could just purchase the vehicle in a couple months and pay the $500 fee, and come out ahead.
That’s what I was planning to do, which is why I didn’t care too much about the $3,495 down payment I made or 10,500 miles per year on the 36 month lease.

Does it make more sense to pay off the lease in a couple months and own the vehicle? Or should I wait to purchase it at the end of the lease?

Here are the numbers:

Deal Sheet:
MSRP/Retail: $42,690 (they used the top line of the window sticker, rather than subtracting the $2,000 Energi discount that appears on the window sticker)
Selling Price: $36,275
Total Savings + Rebate: $16,422 [includes $9507 Ford Red Carpet Lease incentive & $500 aged inventory incentive, $6415 discount off the top line MSRP]
Gov’t Fee: $492.79
Proc/Doc Free: $194
Acq. Fee: $645
Gross Cap Cost: $37,606.78
Cash Cap Reduction: $0
Cap Cost Reduction: $9,842.89
Adjusted Cap Cost : $27,763.89
Residual Value: $14,515
With a $3,495 down payment, the deal sheet quoted a $330/month lease payment.

Lease is 36 months, 10,500 miles, .20/mile excess. My mileage varies, but I would estimate about 11,000 miles/year.

For some reason some of the numbers are different on my lease agreement compared to the deal sheet:

Lease Agreement:
Capitalized cost reduction: $11,653.43
First monthly payment: $326.23
Title Fees: N/A
Registration fees: $497
Cal. tire fee: $7
Acquisition fee: N/A under the “amounts due at lease signing” section. This is $645 under the “itemization of gross capitalized cost” section
but $[however they have this in a different
Upfront taxes: $903.14
Electronic vehicle registration or transfer charge: $29
Document processing charge: $80
DocTax: $6.20
Total due at signing: $13502

Selling Price: $36275 (same as deal sheet)
Gross capitalized cost: $36,920
Capitalized cost reduction: $11,653.43
Adjusted capitalized cost: $25,266.57
Residual value: $14514.60
Depreciation: $10751.97
Rent Charge: $147.75
Total of base monthly payments: $10899.72
Base monthly payment: $302.77
Monthly sales/use tax: $23.46
Total monthly payment: $326.23

Purchase option fee: $500

I hope this deal represents a savings compared to financing the vehicle.

Should I purchase it in a couple months or wait until the lease is up?

Thank you for your help!

2

Also, the rate is 0.25%

3

Interest rate is low so your carrying costs of the lease are minimal. It represents an opportunity to decide if it’s a vehicle you really want to keep long term.

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4

I wouldn’t buy immediately because you will have to pay sales tax on the sale price. Because of low lease payments I’d ride it as long as I can. As a rule of thumb I add 8.9 % to the sale price for tax, license and fee plus add what you put down and add it to the price you paid then you’re not saving too much. If you’d wanted to get a killer deal on 2916 Ford Fusion Hybrid Platinum, you should have purchased used.

5

Thank you. This is a new 2017 Fusion Energi Platinum, the plug-in hybrid version. The new Energi qualifies for federal and state tax incentives I believe.

6

Since you leased it, you do NOT get to claim the federal EV rebate. Ford Credit most likely did pass the entire federal rebate onto you though through the $9507 incentive.

7

Bummer. I missed that. At least I can still get the $1,500 state rebate and the all-important HOV lane decal. Thanks.

8

Don’t feel like you missed out on anything. They incorporated the $4007 federal rebate into part of the incentive package, so your price was reduced already.