2020 Audi Q5 Prestige, $614/month, $55k MSRP, .00079 MF, No cost cap reduction, 11% off MSRP, 15% off w Texas tax credit

Happy Easter!

I received some pretty good advice on a 2019 Porsche Macan a few days ago. I decided to walk away from the deal because of maintenance and a huge tax liability when we move to Texas. We decided on going with the the following deal on a 2020 Audi Q5 Prestige for my fiancee and would like to know how I did. Also, passing along the links/info on the Macans in case anyone is interested.

Thanks again for all of the help! I’ve been lurking for about a month and used what I’ve learned to find what I think are solid deals. Would love to hear your thoughts.

2020 Audi Q5 Prestige

  • $55,745 MSRP
  • $49,962 sale price
  • $2,498 tax credit (in Texas)
  • 54% RV
  • .00079 MF
  • 10k/year
  • 36 months
  • $2,476.77 out the door ($895 acquisition fee, $343 tag and title, $614 first month’s payment, $624.53 remaining Texas tax)

$55,745 MSRP (plus $887 essential package add for $56,632 total - I’ll admit I don’t know why this is broken out separately on the quote), $49,962 sale price (11.8% initial discount), 36 months, 10k, 54% residual value of $30,102.30, and .00079 MF.

The kicker is Texas taxes 6.25% on the full value of the vehicle up front at the beginning of the lease ($3,122), so the dealership worked in another 5% discount to cover a portion of the taxes. At pick up I’ll pay $624.53 (1.25%) in state tax, $895 acquisition fee, and $343 for license, registration, and fees and a first month’s payment of $614 for a grand total of $2,476.77 at pickup.

All in, think I’m getting an initial $6,670 discount off MSRP and an additional $2,498 to cover 5% of the taxes due at signing for a total $9,168.10 off.

Thought I did alright. Couldn’t find another dealership close to $614/month on the Q5 Prestige. Have a deposit down while I wait for the car to arrive from port, so can walk away and lose the deposit if I’m getting a bad deal. Would love to hear your thoughts.

2019 Porsche Macans

There are two 2019 loaners available at Tom Woods Porsche in Indianapolis (one with 7k miles another with 5k miles). I was quoted on the first one. $599/month with $811 due on delivery (includes $598.50 in advanced payments and $212.93 in upfront charges). They swore the acquisition fee was built into the price already and that would not be due at signing. The deal was $57,560 MSRP, $47,700 sale price, for 39 months, 10k, .0022% MF and $34,128 residual value.

Once I realized (i) they were over a year old and wouldn’t be candidates for the Porsche maintenance plan and (ii) I was going to get hit with a $3k tax the second my fiancee moved to Texas, we decided to walk away from what otherwise seemed like a good deal.

What is it, and was it residualized?

I would assume that’s a worthless dealer add-on until shown otherwise (my Audi knowledge is thin, I’m just explaining what my thought process would be if someone put those numbers under my nose broken out the way you described).

Yeah, I couldn’t figure it out but let it slide. I looked at the entire deal as a package and didn’t mind the add on when all the other discounts were factored in. You’re right, though. I should ask for more info on that.

It’s a worthless dealer add on. Any package from the build would be factored into the original MSRP otherwise.

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Got it. Will see if I can get it waived. Otherwise a decent deal?

Looks solid. You should do msd

What’s that? Maintenance plan?

Multiple security deposit

11% with the $750 Audi incentive included is not a good discount, especially if the dealer is giving you some kind of tax credit or extra discount to soften the blow which is reflected there. The nuance of Texas lease taxes is not an area I can speak to well, but assuming it was any other state, a Q5 deal for anything less than 15% just doesn’t make sense to me. The Prestige trim takes a 2% residual hit vs. Premium Plus so you should decide if the features there are really critical to you; I would say they are not.

MSDs = multiple security deposits, basically placing up to 10 monthly payments down which is refunded to you at the end of the lease by Audi Financial, and they in turn will reduce your interest rate, which will lower your cost.

The maintenance plan is Audi Care, which costs $1k but is residualized in the lease. The worse your residual, the more of it you pay which goes back to the prior comment on Prestige. Adding Audi Care also adds 1% to your residual value, which then means you will save $500ish on the lease…not much…but you also break even on the maintenance costs if you were to pay out of pocket.

Noted on the MSD and Audi Care. Great advice @jananth1 and @Siejammy. I’ll definitely look into that. The extra tech (head-up and birds eye) in the Prestige were critical for her and we understood we were taking a hit on residual value.

Agree on the 11% not being the best deal, which is why the taxes are a critical part of the analysis. Texas is a horrible state to lease a car in. Even if I did score a 15% discount on MSRP of $8,361.75, I’m still paying a full 6.25% ($3,122) of sales taxes at signing, which all in is a worse deal.

Having 5% ($2,500) of the taxes additionally reduced from MSRP at signing brings it to a full $9,168.10 off MSRP, which is a better deal all together and a lower monthly payment.

Open to counterpoints here. Still learning and first time leasing. Thanks again for your thoughts!

@Siejammy could you explain why 15% is the threshold in another state? I’m assuming that’s the point where you would get to payments of 1% of MSRP?

It sounds to me like you got a tax credit. Again, I am not well versed on how that works in the Texas leasing dynamics, perhaps @IAC would be willing to chime in for posterity.

My comment on 15% in “another state” is only a reflection of my lack of knowledge of if tax credits are generally considered part of a discount you get on a car or if they would be in addition. The ultimate point I am making is that a 15% discount on a Q5 is where, to me, the monthly payment makes some sense relative to the MSRP. 15% is also an achievable discount based on historical data from others who have done deals and shared on the forum as well as for my own Audi (I went with a SQ5, better deals to be had there).

Got it. Appreciate the feedback! Would love to hear any thoughts from @IAC or anyone else with lease experience in Texas, VA or anywhere else that taxes the full sale price at closing. Wondering if I should re-open negotiations.

Bump. Any other thoughts?

Plugging your figures into the calculator I get $557/mo not $599. Where’s the extra $42 coming from? And that’s with the aq fee built in to the lease payment.

Screen Shot 2020-04-13 at 6.50.58 PM

Just because 15% discount before incentives is supposedly doable in one market does not mean it’s realistic in another. Are there any posted deals in Texas for 15% off MSRP plus any additional Audi incentives/tax credits. I just don’t know if 15% off MSRP before any incentive is realistic in the Texas market. Especially in April since dealers are trying to make money on each deal. Doubtful that there will be any dealer shooting for a sales target this month.

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It’s a little of both. I hate calling them “credits,” because they’re really not “credits” in the technical sense. The money really is an incentive. We’ve seen dealerships offer 10-11%, depending on the time of year/if volume is met, without credits, but only 7-8% with them.

To get payments to 1% of MSRP is not any metric by which you should measure a deal, especially in Texas, with “credits” or not.

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Here’s the worksheet. Looks like you’ll need to update the fees and residual value. I did it myself a few days ago and it came to $599 as advertised.

Got it and sounds about right. I haven’t really checked dealers in other major cities, but around the Houston area, this was by far the best offer I was seeing. I’ve provided the calculator below. It’s a little late in the negotiation since I’ve already put a $500 deposit down, but I’m willing to walk away from it.

I’m thinking I’ll push to get the $800 add-on removed. If anyone has any other thoughts on what buttons to push, please let me know.

Plug in the numbers yourself.
Residual is 59.2% based on your numbers. I rounded down to 59 so the payment should be even less than $557. There’s no way it comes ot $599.