2017 Highlander - feedback appreciated!

For Indiana, you can go through Centra Credit Union (via O’Brien Toyota or Jeff Wyler Toyota). For Ohio, you can use Glass City FCU (via Yark Toyota) and get a great MF, Directions Credit Union or Telhio are also in Ohio and have slightly higher MFs but still below TFS on Highlander. All those listed above will be able to beat TFS on the MF for Highlander (as well as Tacoma, Tundra, 4Runner and Sequoia).

Your best bet is to contact a credit union above and see if they can provide you a list of Toyota dealers that are signed up with them. Also find out if you are eligible to become a member of the credit union before hand. Some credit unions are only open to a segment of the population (i.e. employees of a large corporation, school system, municipal workers, etc.) but many are open to anyone who live in a certain area.

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Thanks rvguy. That is valuable info in Toyota leases

For most people the distinction is irrelevant. Think of the non-subvened standard as a high default MF that the company has on its books, like the .00210 quoted here. When a Highlander is .00140 or something below the standard, that is sub.

Nowadays almost all models have a low, sub MF to make their leases attractive and competitive relative to others. We almost never talk about standard, non-subvened MF except in this one instance where MSD could not be applied (in Illinois) to a standard MF. Which is strange to me since I was able to get MSD applied to a sub in NJ.

For most people this is all irrelevant. All that matters is whether Toyota or a Credit Union can offer a better lease deal.

Thanks @RVguy.

In researching the above credit unions, they all seem to be restricted to residents of specific counties in the immediate area (Indiana/Ohio). Any chance there are similar deals in Illinois? I’m a member of USAA as well - not sure if there are options with them?

Sorry, I don’t have anything else yet. We are working hard to find a national Credit Union to open up the option for everyone.

So another point of confusion for me…

I have Dealer #1 offering the following: MSRP $41,487; Selling Price $37,165; 68% RV; Money Factor 0.00128; $0 Down. I plug this into LeaseHackr calculator and I get monthly payments of $350 (incl tax) but my sheet says this equates to $410/month. LeaseHackr says score should be 10.4 years - but something funny going on that is driving the monthly rate from 350 to 410…

Dealer # 2 offering: MSRP $41,169; Selling Price $37,500; 68% RV; Money Factor 0.00158; $1999 Down. But they are showing monthly payments of $308 (LeaseHackr showing $309 + tax so close). This deal shows score of 9.4 years. If I remove the $1999 - it goes to $368 +tax.

So my question is - on paper, Deal #1 seems to be much better, but for whatever reason there is something going on driving the monthly lease rates higher. Discount to MSRP, Money Factor, etc. is all better with Deal #1, but Deal #2 offers a much better monthly payment? What gives?

Thanks!

Probably a lot of accessories and add-ons that aren’t residualized and therefore you are paying 100% of their price.

Get Dealer 2 to match price and MF

I live in the northeast section of Ohio, and these credit unions are in the northwest section. I also checked their membership requirements and I don’t live in any of the counties they list.

If I could find a deal around $350.00-$360.00 with Ohio 7% tax included, I would go with it. Nothing close to that deal so far on the east side of Cleveland.

Thanks for the information RVguy and max_g. I’m learning something almost every time I visit this site!

And the lease padding adding to Cap cost consists most likely one of the following:
Wheel protection package
Extended wear and tear
Paint protection scheme
Sealant, rust proofing, simoniz etc etc etc

Just received my new 2017 Highlander XLE. Here are the details of the lease.

MSRP: [$42,117]
Selling Price: [$37045] 12% off MSRP
Acquisition Fee: [$650]
Trade-in: [$0]
Months: [36]
Annual Mileage: [12,000]
Security Deposit: [$0]
Total Due At Signing: [$1326] (breakout below)
Monthly Payment (incl. tax): [$326]
Breakout of fees due at signing…
$0Cap cost reduction
$400 Registration Fee
$75 DOC fee
$525 sales tax
1st payment $326
Total $1326
Zip Code: [07005]
Residual Value (68%)
Leasehacker Score of 11.5 years
Toyota Financial Services

I couldn’t use MSD’s because I went through the Honcker App which currently doesn’t allow it. They are currently investigating with the developers if it can be done in the future.

The car came from Island Toyota in Staten Island. They delivered the car and I signed all paperwork in my dining room.

I emailed many dealerships and none of them would go that low on the MSRP. I think I got a pretty good deal minus no MSD’s.

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It is good to see people here using the Honcker app. That app is built off of the mGauge API from MarketScan which has the most complete and up to date database of incentives, rebates, MF and RVs. So any lender that is in play in a specific zip code will show up on that app (Captives, Credit Unions, Ally, US Bank and several other tiny 3rd party Lessors). Honkr signs up dealers who submit their inventory with their “buy it now” price on each VIN.

I think you need to submit some info in advance so Honkr can run a soft pull on your credit to see which credit tier you qualify for so they are feeding you real payment details.

@jayneo74 can you confirm that was the case with your experience with the app?

Apps like this are great companions to this forum to chase the best deals at a point in time. I expect the next iteration of this technology will add in some predictive modelling to compare the current payments against historical patterns to notify users if you should buy now or wait a bit. Similar to how some airline pricing sites are using predictive models.

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Yes, they do a soft pull so they can detail the monthly payments to your approximate credit score. Recently, they added a new feature where you add cars to your showroom and they will occasionally give a 24 hour sale price. I added a few of the lowest priced Highlander XLE’s and the lowest I had seen was 339 for only a couple hours. Then this one showed up at 327 and I jumped on it. All the out the door costs are listed and rounded up. So my actual payment was 326.52 and down payment was a few dollars less. Very pain free process. I usually finance my cars and keep them a very long time but I had two cars going downhill at the same time so I purchased one last year and am using the lease to offset the payments. When this lease is up, the car will be paid up.

I apologize for this getting off topic.

Do you get notified if they have the 24 hour sale price?

I just signed up and read through their FAQs and it says that each price is set to that particular user, but when I looked up the 2017 Toyota Highlander XLE, the lowest price was like $414. My credit score is 800+, so not sure why there is a huge gap difference in price (maybe location; i’m in SoCal).

My lowest is 353 right now but I’m in NJ and I also have a 800+ score. The differences must be location. They didn’t notify of the sale. I would just check the prices every few hours and would go into the showroom and move a vehicle out so the prices refresh. For some reason, the prices in the showroom don’t always update. I had the 327 price once, closed the app and it came back at 355. I moved a vehicle out of the showroom and it refreshed back to 327. I jumped on it because my dealings with local dealerships wasn’t coming close to that price.

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The captives and OEMs that I am familiar with (almost all) all have regional incentive programs which include the MF and cash components. The RVs are all nationwide so the real variability in payment structure from state to state will be due to the state specific sales tax and the method that sales tax is applied (just the depreciation portion or the entire purchase amount and when the sales tax is collected upfront or monthly) and then what the regional MF and other lease incentives are. Along with the variability in sales price of course.

When your registration arrives in the mail, you should ask for a refund of the difference. It should only be $289 for 3 years plus a tire tax of $1.50 per tire.

Rich…make sure to try all the lease months…theres a huge difference between 39 months and 36 months on the Toyota.thats why price was higher…check it again!

Just finalized a deal Tuesday night for a 2017 Highlander Limited AWD, Blizzard Pearl with Almond interior. Had all weather mat package and rear bumper protector. It also has the second row bench seat (a must have for us) which was pretty hard to find in this area in either an XLE or Limited model other than the Hybrids which all have bench second row seats.

MSRP 44883.00
Selling price of 9% discount off MSRP 40597.94
Ohio 7% Tax added to Selling price 966.22
Acquisition Fee 650.00
Doc Fee (set by and limited by state of Ohio) 250.00
Gross Cap Cost 42464.16

Cap Cost Reduction 466.87
Title, registration, 45 day tag 33.50
Adjusted Cap Cost 41997.29
Highlander Limited RV 65% 29174.00
Rent Charge 1972.80
Total of base monthly payments 14796.09

Money Factor before MSD (3.58%) .00149
Monthly Payment which includes rolled in tax 411.00
Tax on Cap Cost Reduction 32.68

Money due at signing before 9 MSD 944.05
Money due for 9 MSD 3825.00
Money Factor with 9 MSD (1.85%) .00077

Money due with 9 MSD, 1st payment, cap cost
reduction tax, title, registration, 45 day tag 4769.05
Toyota Cleveland Auto Show Bonus Money 500.00

Total out of pocket not including MSD using bonus 444.05
Total of 9 fully refundable MSD at lease end 3825.00

Charged 4269.05 on my GM credit card to earn 5% GM rewards money towards a GM lease at a later date. Thanks to this forum, I learned about the MSD that can be put down on a Toyota lease. I was only the second person to use this advantage according to the Finance Manager who handled the paperwork. He has been with the Toyota store for over 5 years but was previously with Lexus. He said it is very common at the Lexus store, but almost unheard of at the Toyota store.

It was not something the salesman or the sales manager were familiar with at all. The salesman has been at the store for 20 years! When I told them I wanted to put down $3825.00 as MSD, they at first figured the lease as that money being a down payment! I ended up having to show them a copy of a Lease Hacker calculator printout I had copied before even going to the store. Once they saw this, it was pretty simple to put the deal together and getting the reduced money factor and a selling price I wanted.

The additional bonus money was icing on the cake! I did attend the Cleveland Auto Show before going to the dealer since this money could only be obtained at the show and filling out a form at the Toyota display. The money is good at any Toyota Cincinnati Region dealership which includes Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, or Kentucky according to the certificate I received via email from Toyota.

I had received two free tickets to the show from a Chevrolet email offer so I didn’t even have to spend the $13.00 admission fee per person and free parking is included at the show.

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Did you have to attend the auto show to qualify for this? Did you physically pick up a coupon or something at the auto show? I don’t fully understand how these work. Expiration?