I think a different question is, do you think now is a good time to lease a vehicle? Do you think incentives and inventory will be there in the months.
I don’t think now is so much better of a time to lease that it justifies rolling in several months’ payments for no reason.
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The only incentives were the $750 from Acura, was that loyalty? Lease cash? Also a 30.74% off MSRP seems really high, is that replicable in your opinion? The down payment and monthly seems incredible for a top trim luxury car
Acura tends to offer very large direct to dealer incentives, so there’s a lot more incentives rolled in here than just the $750.
Yeah I checked edmunds and they have a $5800 (!!!) incentive for the TLX in my zip. They also lowered the MF from like 5.2% to lke 1-2%, it seems like they really want to lease TLX’s, unless I am missing something.
2020 ACURA TLX A Spec 4 Cylinder (Performance Red) —LEASE
Please tell me if this is a decent deal?
MSRP:39,200.08 and Gross Capitalized Cost 36,749.16
Manufacturer Contribution: 1500.00
Dealer Contribution: 8,700.00
Amount Paid in Cash: 5,150.00
Adjusted Capitalized Cost: 24,675.08
Monthly Payment: 199.00
Millage Per Year: 7,500
Lease: 36 Months
Money Factor: .00255
Residual: 21,229.00
Rent Charge: 3,717.92
Total of Base Payments: 7,164
What did Edmunds give you for RV/MF/incentives? That MF and that money down are both ridiculous
Still waiting on that. Dealer is stating that MF wont change precisely because it is determined by Acura. Not sure if he was lying through his teeth.
The captive determines the MF, but we are telling you to go to Edmunds forums to find out what the base MF is so that we’ll know if they’re making it up or not.
Also ask the Edmunds folks what the full manufacturer incentives are, 1500 doesn’t seem right for a TLX. Should be much more.
The rent charge $ amount(3717.92/36)/ (24675.08+21229) seems to correspond to .00225. If your going to put that much down a one pay on a 24m might not be too much more out of pocket if they still give .0008 discount and reduce effective monthly ~$30ish
@zeeqadri
Welcome. The information you shared are really just bits of the leasing puzzle. And some of the jumbled bits you shared suggest you can improve your deal in meaningful ways. Unfortunately you haven’t made it easy for us to help you. Two things can really help - in this order.
- Post your lease worksheet. Every software program dealer’s use to calculate your lease payment and DAS produces a printable lease worksheet. You need to ask your dealer for it. They will only share it with you IF YOU ASK. Get it and post it. Given the info you shared, you may already have this document.
- Post your LH calculator. But only do so if you are comfortable inputting the information correctly, this takes a few minutes to learn. If you don’t have confidence in your calculator abilities, the lease worksheet will serve you better. The only downside of the lease worksheet is hackrs need to manipulate the numbers to see how your deal is shaping up. Make it easy for us, and the more we can help you.
Next time, just ask them for RV/MF/incentives
TLDR: 6.3% Pre-Incentive Discount. MF Markup. 12% Down Payment.
You shared your actual lease agreement which is very helpful for the hackr community. So I am going to give you my thoughts beyond a few truncated sentences.
There are 4 (1-4 below) key pieces to an Acura deal. Here is what you did well:
-
Acura offers its dealers a fat direct-to-dealer incentive. It looks like yours was $8.700. It looks like you got it all, well done. You can verify the incentive at Edmunds to confirm you got it all.
-
Acura offers conditional incentives and you received $1,500, well done. Normally, loyalty runs $750 on the TLX so this looks high - but the more, the better. Did you qualify for loyalty?
Any other conditional incentive in here? College Grad? 1st Responder?
Now for the rough spots in your deal.
-
Dealer Discount:
$39,200 MSRP
$36,749 Agreed Up Vehicle Value
$ 2,451 Dealer Discount6.3% Pre-Incentive Discount from MSRP
The dealer reached into her pocket and gave you a 6.3% discount from MSRP. Under normal market conditions, you should have asked him to reach deeper. +$2,250 deeper on the high end, and +$1,100 deeper on the low end. BUT, we are not in normal times. COVID forced manufacturing to shut down and dealers have managed inventory tightly. Tight inventory = less discounts.
So you want me to weigh in on whether your 6.3% discount is any good. And my answer is: it depends. If you went to 8 Chicago dealers and this was the best discount you got - GREAT DEAL. If you went to 1-2 dealers - POOR DEAL. A great deal is always a function of: A. did you do your homework and identify a good-great discount %. Did you do your homework? If yes and you felt 6.3% off was reasonable, GREAT DEAL. If no, POOR DEAL. B. You need to work for a great deal, so that means you need to engage with as many dealers as possible. Keep going until your energy or time run out.
How many dealers did you deal with? How did they react when you asked for a lower selling price? What compelled you to stop negotiating at a 6.3% discount?
- Now for tough love - YOU SUCKER.
Money Factor Markup. You fell for the most straight forward slight-of-hand in the car salesmen’s book. Many people do - it appears you were one of them. I will be frank - the fact that you didn’t know the dealer marked-up the MF tells me you didn’t do your homework. No homework = poor deal. IF you qualified for the loyalty incentive you ALSO qualify for a 0.0001 reduction in the money factor. This fact is mention on this website many times (this is how I learned about it). Make sure your deal is written at the buy rate. The MF is a secret profit weapon for dealers. In this weird 5 digit after-the-decimal-place figure the dealer can build in a little more profit in your deal. PAY ATTENSION to the MF in your deal. But this didn’t hurt you too bad - you will pay about $200 more in interest than if you locked in the proper loyalty buy rate MF 0.00215.
- Why did you put down $5,150? Part of that money went to pay your DAS inception fees but $4,325 ($5,150 - DAS inception fees). Conventional wisdom says don’t put any money down (Research here to find out why. You lose it if your car is stolen/totaled.). Acura charges about 5.4% in interest - were you trying to avoid interest? Check to see if Acura offers MSDs.
Bottom line. You could have saved $1,300-$2,500 on your deal (better discount, better MF). More homework or going through a broker (if you don’t have time to invest in research) will serve yuo well on your next deal. Good luck and thanks for sharing.
CAVEAT: Chicago/Cook County drafts their lease agreements in a way I am not familiar with. I am CA lease agreement literate so I may have misinterpreted a data point so please correct any errors I may have made. Also, I am not familiar with Cook County fees and taxes so I will leave it to the knowledgeable to comment on those aspects of your deal.
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They don’t and IMO with an MF that high and taxes as obscene as Cook County I would also take the risk of the down payment.
There are many great things about Chicago. Taxes are not one of them. For those Chicagoans that follow, heed the advice of the Chicago brain trust here.
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@824 Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. I cant thank you enough for your time sir!
- I didn’t qualify for other incentives, hence the loyalty credit.
- I got in touch with four dealers and this one came up with the best price point. I agree that I should’ve pushed harder but I was in a time crunch. Yes I am making an excuse
live an learn - I asked the clown in finance office three times if he was marking up the MF and he insisted that I qualified for .00255. I can live $200 extra in cost. I caved here.
- Putting cash down was intended for three reasons: low payments, less interest and tax.
I cant find decent brokers in Chicagoland area. I still have two car purchases pending for family members. Please feel free to make recommendations.
Thank you!
When I think of Chicago I think of Lou Malnati’s Deep Dish.
For cars, I have seen great things said about Benedetto, check him out. If you need two cars, reach out to him in a few days. He is probably closing out the month. Sometime after 7/13.
I look forward to hearing how you do on your next 2 leases.
Good luck.
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