So I’ve been lurking for a while here and finally decided to try my hand at a lease hack, but I really need someone to have a second set of eyes with this. I want to quickly go over my chain of events today:
I went into the dealership and let them know that I will be trying to take care of my current A4 lease as well. Based on the quote that you see below, I think they got me as close as they could. It’s a 2018 Audi A4 manual.
After running my credit, I was pulled into the GM’s office where he told me based on my credit rating, he would be losing too much on this car and cannot honor the deal (losing him about $16K supposedly). Apparently I’m a class 8 with two prior VW Credit leases, both of which with never a missed payment. As a result, the MF that I was told on this deal is .00135. I know my credit isn’t great, but it has increased since my last lease 3 years ago. Is VW really this oblivious to previous loans?
I sent a similar structure to another dealer in my area and she told me that this particular dealership is notorious for this sort of behavior and I have friends that can validate the same. She told me that she saw can see what I was trying to do just based off the numbers and it’s an okay deal but not great. They were going to get me a new number but the initial dealer ended up grounding my previous lease and they can’t properly get a payoff. Audi friends in WA I’m sure can pinpoint the dealer that I am referring to but I could be wrong.
Also, this is almost an exact picture of what my deal sheet looks like. It is incredibly confusing and almost impossible to follow.
Here is the deal (2021 Audi E-Tron P+): $2000 down @ $771/month
Lease Term: 24 months / 7500 miles
MSRP/Retail: $79,740.
Selling Price: $71,240.
Dealer Discount: $23,250.
Residual Value: $45,451.
Doc Fees: $150.
Accessories: $997.
Acquisition: $895.
Gross Cap Cost: $74,916.41
Trade Allowance: $29,806.59
Trade Payoff: $31,441.
Cash Cap Reduction: $2,000.
Cap Cost Reduction: $14,147.08
Adjusted Cap Cost: $60,769.33
Total Due at Signing: $2,000
Despite the GM apparently saying “no”, the sales manager is still hounding me saying all this random nonsense like wiping me out of my negative equity entirely, etc (which leads me to believe this whole thing is BS). Apparently this is over $30K in potential discounts that I’ll “never see again” because I responded to his text saying that they’re playing games which - with this place being an hour away from me - I literally do not have time for. I’m struggling to find out which of these lines makes up a $30K cut.
I know that there is something completely wrong with this deal, but can someone help me understand what it is? I’m getting a negative number almost every time I put it in the leasehackr calculator. If I am more informed on what I’m missing, I might be able to have some valid rebuttals because, as stated above, I can promise you they’re working on something, I just don’t know what (or I can just bring this deal to another dealer all together). This is a tactic that they’ve used before. Are they really losing $16k on this car? That’s the main thing I think is total BS.
We can’t really tell what you’re doing wrong in the calculator if you don’t share your calculator.
What concerns me most here is that the dealer somehow grounded your trade without you entering into a new contract. You need to forget a new vehicle until you sort out what is going on there.
I agree, but I think I found the problem. I was using this “dealer discount” line item thinking that was the discount. It’s not, it’s some arbitrary number by the looks of it. The sum of total discounts appears to be the cap reduction line.
The Sales Manager said it will be reverted on Monday. Crazy, right? The other dealership that I went to said it’s a form that I wouldn’t miss because it can only be done digitally - which I certainly didn’t do. Sort of concerning.
No, their listed discount includes discount and incentives. You need to separate out the incentives so you know what is coming from the discount and what is coming from the incentives.
Thanks for taking look at the deal I posted! Keep in mind this advise is from a stranger named Mcluvin on the internet, but here are my $0.02.
Most importantly, I think you need to take a step back (start over) if possible.
It sounds like you already grounded this, but if not Audi has a 3 month pull ahead going on so you dont need to “take care of it” aka bury the negative equity. With a 2018 model lease turn in date is probably coming soon?
This happened to me too at the last second with a different dealer. They had calculated the lease as a 36 month and didn’t want give a discount for my 24 month deal, whatever BS. Only difference is I was in my house and all I got was a phone call before they ran the credit. Best thing you can do for yourself is finding a feasible discount, payment, MSDs that works for you after you figure out what incentives you qualify for. THEN, email dealerships with what works for you and let them accept or decline YOUR deal. That way there’s no stress of being at a dealership thinking about offers and maybe missing the important details of a deal.
Do NOT step foot into a dealership. Negotiate entirely via email (plenty of threads including my own on this). Include delivery of vehicle to your house in the negotiation.
I haven’t signed anything. The car is still in my possession, but when I went to another dealer to do another (better) deal, they told me they couldn’t get my payoff because they grounded the lease internally - essentially locking me into only dealing with them until I rectify this with AFS.
They also told me that this is a form that I sign digitally, and I know for a fact I didn’t sign anything. They must’ve forged my signature.
I didn’t go until we agreed to it via email! Then I walked out because this was the “new” deal after “running my credit”. They took my VIN and grounded my lease with AFS. I’m cutting all ties with this particular dealership after this, but just wanted to see if this was even a good deal and if it can potentially increase due to a credit tier.
But yes, I have a better deal at the new dealer but they can’t take my car until I get this grounding situation rectified.
Have you gotten your buy rate MF and what regional incentives you quality for from Edmunds?
In CA, MF=0.00074. Max MSDs. P+ have $18000 incentives. And eTron sales war started since Costco dropped on March 2nd. In CA right now, ~7-9% pre-incentive discount. WA is historically tougher market.
You may want to re-read Leasing 101. Golden rule of LH- NEVER put any DOWN payment- only driveoffs. $0 down is different from $0 DAS.
The MF here is .00075 but I was told by the dealer that my buy rate is .003 because of my credit tier. With two loans with Audi I find this hard to believe but I guess it could be true?
Larson in Tacoma. Should’ve expected this when they tried to pack my last lease.
Bellevue wouldn’t even match it. They said that the numbers were all screwed up and something wasn’t lining up. I asked specifically what and couldn’t get a straight answer…
