I have a ton of info to share in this post, but I’ll start off giving a massive shoutout to @Jeff_BeachCitiesAuto. I was straight up with Jeff and told him I was probably not going to work with him because I was targetting a deal that would likely be a huge timesink for him but that I would appreciate his help in figuring out bank numbers (Chrysler, US, Ally) and the optimal deal. Without his help, I would not have had the information I needed to make this deal possible. He did that all free of charge for me (believe me I bugged him quite a bit), so I can’t imagine what he would have done had I paid his retainer fee and tried to get a JLU through him. Thank you, Jeff!
Year, Make, Model, and Trim: 2019 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sport S
MSRP: $43xxx
Monthly Payment: $307 (including TTLR)
Drive-Off Amount: $0
Months: 36
Annual Mileage: 12k
MF: .00200
Residual: $27,319.95
Incentives: $4500 ($2000 Jeep bonus cash, $1000 Jeep bonus cash, $1500 PNW Lease rebate)
Region: PNW - Seattle
Leasehackr Score: 13.8?
---- The Long Story ----
Seattle and, more generally, the PNW, is known for possibly being the worst car market in America. I don’t even shop locally anymore because of how bad it is here. Dealers do not negotiate on pricing because they can’t push volume. Shoppers are mostly South Asian/Asians working in tech who are always looking for “a deal.” Often, its cheaper to just order an advertised deal in Cali and pay for shipping. This, in turn, further drives down the volume, and the cycle repeats.
My goal was to find an AWD $40k+ SUV with heated seats and Apple Carplay (or Nav) for under $0 DAS, $300/month TTLR included. Most forum members and brokers would call me crazy for setting such an aggressive goal, especially considering that SUVs often have weak incentives compared to sedans.
I started searching nationwide at the start of the year for an X2, X3, GLE, and GLA that would fit the bill. I was often able to get under $400 but never near the coveted $300. One day, around the beginning of February, I saw an ad at Seattle CDJR for a 2019 Jeep JLU Sport S for a little over 16% off MSRP ($36,374) on just dealer discount. I got familiar with JLWranglerForums.com and noted that this was likely impossible because the best dealers in the country are on a list that they keep, and the best discount they give is 7% below invoice. Furthermore, Jeep dealers, in general, are notorious for bait and switch type scenarios. For some reason, I decided that if I were going to get that advertised price, I would have to visit the dealership in person to see if I could rush a deal. It turns out, there was some fine print hidden deal on their website that said all dealer discounts assume a $1500 finance rebate and $1500 trade-in bonus. I managed to get them to keep the discounts “if I leased or financed” but I left because they wouldn’t give me an extra $374 to let the car go for $36,000 (I also knew that the way the conversation was going, there was no way in hell they would give me the bank’s rate).
Several days later, I saw that they dropped the price of the car by three grand. I was livid! I thought to myself, “do these guys just not like me? They would rather let me go over $300 and sell it to someone else for $3000 cheaper?”. I took a screenshot of the pricing and the price history on CarGurus and texted my salesman. After an hour of keeping me waiting, the salesman texted back, acting like the price never existed and even took a picture of the website saying, “look! The price is still the same”. I shared my screenshots and asked him to honor the price. He said that it must be some different website or something because the car was never listed for that price.
I got extremely frustrated, so I started doing some homework. I looked up the top 500 dealers in America by revenue. I noted that Washington state’s best dealer was ranked 360 and that Dave Smith in Idaho was number 1 (almost half a billion in revenue in 2019). I wrote up a very detailed review of my whole experience, with the screenshots, and why you should never buy a car in the PNW (unless it’s from a volume dealer like Dave Smith who can take a hit on a single unit because of their volume bonuses). My review got some traction, and the GM of the dealership, David Frank, ended up reaching out to me. We had an hour-long phone conversation about how Seattle sucks for both dealers and buyers. He admitted that I had all the evidence lined up, and his team completely fucked up the customer relationship part of their business. He even admitted that it has been so hard that he has been hiring inexperienced salespeople because it’s cheaper that way. Sometimes those people employ unethical tactics all in hopes of getting a better commission and it further tarnishes the name of the dealership. At the end, he offered me to come back and to take the car for the more discounted advertised price of $32,374. Punching in that price plus the $4500 in rebates for February through Chrysler Cap meant if I could get the bank MF, I’d have this car at under $200/month!
I came in the next day, March 1st. It was a Sunday, and I knew he was going to be off (he said so on the phone), but I didn’t want to wait since programs were going to expire the next day. The discount was so substantial that I had actually convinced myself to buy this car instead of lease it. When I arrived at the dealership, I found that the car I was going to buy was sold the hour before. I stood at the entrance watching the family getting into the car the GM had promised me…
I was ready to explode on site.
Their most senior salesperson, Terry Hogan, was vaguely familiar with my situation, so he located another 2019 that they had, which was actually about $400 better equipped. Since the GM was out, I had to work with their GSM, Dara. Dara could not believe that David had agreed to sell me the car for such a steep loss (we’re talking about roughly $9k below invoice) but was willing to honor the price as long as I bought GAP and an extended warranty. It turns out those two add-ons mean an extra $5000. I told them, thank you, but now I have even more material to write about, so I started for the door. Dara stopped me and asked, “didn’t you originally want a lease?” He worked up some numbers and gave me a marked up MF of .00268 and $2000 in service package add-ons making the OTD cost $454/month. Me being prepared, I presented a written offer from Dave Smith for a 2020 $44k Willys for $399 DAS, $399/month TTLR included, and asked him, “why would I get a cheaper and older car for more money? Also, why can’t you just give me what David promised?” After some back and forth for an hour, I agreed to a marked up MF of .00200 (from .00188 thank’s to Jeff I knew these numbers), some service package add-ons of $2200 (for three oil changes), and a sales price (before rebates) of $37668 (over $5k more than what the GM promised). But I agree because my net cost was $307/month, and I knew I couldn’t get a Wrangler for that price anywhere. I actually decided to pay my registration upfront ($500), so my monthly dropped to $296, but the Leasehackr Calculator does not support such modifications. 4.5 hours later, I left the dealership with my contract in hand.
The next day, David reached out to me and asked if I was happy. I told him to be honest, I wanted to buy the car, and I was upset that I couldn’t, but I’m also not going to be a bitch and complain about getting a JLU for $307/month. He asked about how I knew so much about the car buying process. I told him about everything I learned on Leasehackr and JLWranglerForums. He’s an older gentleman, so he admitted that he didn’t have much experience with online forums. He asked, “how can I get involved in these communities.” I told him he could join himself or that I would write about my story and potentially refer new people under two conditions. The first, “I need your best salespeople who won’t bullshit or waste time.” Second, “give the minimum discount to get on the JLWranglerForum’s list of good dealers (9% off MSRP + TTLR and no other fees) to anyone who asks and mentions my name”. He graciously agreed to both conditions, so here I am.
So to anyone in the Seattle area who wants to lease or buy a Jeep Wrangler you can try to go to Seattle CDJR. The GM is David Frank. The salespeople you should look for are Terry Hogan OR August Leinweber. Mention Karim sent you, and they should agree to 9% off MSRP + TTLR and no additional fees. I can’t guarantee it, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt, and hopefully, someone can update us with their experience.
