2023 Defender 110 s lease

I quite like my 4xe… single vehicle household for now

13 Likes

Picking up tomorrow a 130s from my local dealer that I ordered this summer. $74,725 msrp. Minimal options with white exterior, black rims, off road tires, spare wheel cover, upgraded vintage tan windsor seats and cold climate pack. No add ons or mark ups. Financed through a credit union at 1.99% thanks to the helpful post from @HersheySweet. Excited for the new family hauler.

11 Likes

Annoyed because the LR dealer I have an order with from months ago preemptively did a hard pull despite putting in writing to me that they would not do a hard pull “until the car had arrived and was ready for delivery” (expected 3-4 weeks out).

They didn’t inform me otherwise, they just did a pull, I don’t even know what the lease programs are this month and I’ve asked him and he’s come back asking me for proof of income saying LR finance can provide lease quote once they process (which I know is a bunch of BS as I’ve had other LR dealers in the past provide lease quotes without any issue).

Lesson learned I’ve gone and frozen my credit with all credit bureaus. Very annoyed and his response was so snarky when I brought it up: “if you’re concerned about a credit pull then that worries me”…. :rage:

@Petrem - Sorry to hear about your situation. Thanks for sharing your experience.

You just dodged a bullet. It amazes me that sales people still think they can treat prospective customers like that.

1 Like

Yes, when I flagged that he had said in writing it wouldn’t be a hard pull until car arrived he was sorry for confusion / miscommunication but it was a new management policy… surprised also because he was pretty nice otherwise / throughout the process.

I would be annoyed too. Freeze your credit bureaus, they can’t successfully perform a hard pull until you thaw it

Yep frozen with all of them. Did it same day. But the attitude bothered me as much as the pull.

1 Like

Can someone with more experience with LR Financial / Chase tell me what my options are here?

Dealer came back (after running my credit without notifying me), saying that the “bank” only approved me for a 20k DAS lease. I asked whether it can be structured as a 1st DAS and salesperson said no. I’ve always been Tier 1 with CCAP and with BMW before that, so I find that surprising.

Sounds like maybe I should do financing instead with a CU?

Had this same issue with an LA-based JLR dealership.

Not only was the sales manager a condescending dickhead (looked like one too since he was bald), but he said that Chase only approved leases at 5k down.

I called Chase JLR and they said this is incorrect, and that $0 DAS is absolutely possible.

Relayed that information back to shiny-dome and he changed his tune to “Well that’s our own dealership requirement and I’ve already sold your car anyways so bye”.

Funny thing is, I woulda done $5k down anyways. I was just confirming with the bank first. It was gonna be a flip anyways.

Needless to say, I didn’t walk out with my Defender. Turned me off to the brand too, if Instagram influencers hadn’t done that enough.

2 Likes

Similar situation. Bank would only approve me with $10k down. Funny I went to a different JLR dealer and got approved for 1st payment das like I requested

was this with a NE/NJ JLR?

Edit: @NATO reply from dealer: “Its directly from Chase, has nothing to do with us. We do not have anything do with a customers credit history or application approval. Ill get you the [lease rate sheet i asked for] breakdown in a bit.”

Edit2: lease breakdown looks fine. 77% RV and Edmunds MF + 100. Just the 20k down that I’m not willing to do.

Credit bureaus can only be pulled with a wet or digital signature.

If the dealer pulled without this, call a lawyer.

It was several ~5 months back, so I don’t recall every detail, but I did fill out the pre-approval form on their website (was requested / [required?] to reserve the car. I assume this had a digital signature element to it, though I don’t immediately recall. **

So, prior to submitting I wrote over email:
“Can you confirm this would be a soft-pull on credit? I’d prefer not to have 2 hard-pulls for the same car, one at order and one at delivery (has happened before…)”

Reply was: “Completely a soft pull. We don’t do hard pulls until the vehicle arrives and is ready for delivery.” [emphasis added]

**Edit: the pre-approval form clearly says:

I authorize Land Rover Princeton to check my credit and employment history, obtain credit reports, and/or to submit my application to one or more financial institutions for the purpose of securing credit.

I assume this counts as a digital signature.

This isn’t the case, or you wouldn’t be able to apply for a credit card or other loan product over the phone.

‘…the only time explicit, written permission is required is when your credit is checked for employment purposes.’

Yes correct. Verbal is also allowed. Generally it’s recorded and retained.

I’m not sure you really have a beef beef if you agreed to a credit inquiry. This is on you, not them, snide comment aside.

Trusting a salesperson would also be user error.

2 Likes

To bring the convo back to the defender, rather than credit - I believe I gave my permission, when hitting submit given their terms mentioned above. I followed-up in writing to confirm they wouldn’t run my credit, and they said no until the vehicle arrives. I guess on me for believing sales person when he said that. Not much to be done there.

Is there any way to reduce the amount due if salesperson is blaming chase, or should I go the CU route if I really want the car?

Anything I should know about paying off LR Financial leases early? Is it as easy as with CCAP?

Your explicit permission for a credit pull isn’t required at all on a consumer credit transaction, at least not under the FCRA (a handful of states go further on some credit matters than federal statute, but I don’t know of any who have more stringent requirements on this.)

The subscriber (“puller”) isn’t the one who’s regulated by FCRA anyway, it’s the credit bureau.

The subscriber accepts rules set by the credit bureau to ensure that the credit bureau stays in compliance.

Take a look at the text of the FCRA in the link I posted.

Going forward, can they run my credit as many times as they like / “feel necessary” without me having any say [à la chappie]?

Technically yes, the bureau can furnish a report to the subscriber as long as one of the conditions in the FCRA is true (such as: the subscriber intends to use the report for a credit transaction involving the consumer). But this gets harder and harder to defend the more time that passes since the consumer last made contact.

But let’s be practical. There’s no incentive to continue pulling, as there’s a fee involved in each one – and the report itself doesn’t become unusable the day after it was pulled. It has a shelf life for underwriting purposes.

1 Like