I am located in Southwest Michigan. I am looking to lease for the first time. I’ve been looking into the cost and terms for leasing the new Mazda CX-9. I first went to the manufacturer’s website to see what lease deals their finance department is offering this month. I also went there to get the information needed to for the leasehackr calculator. I then started email discussions with one local dealer to confirm vehicle information. The manufacturer is listing the vehicle MSRP at around $40,025. The dealer has communicated that their asking price is $40,260, about the same as the MSRP. The manufacturer is currently listing the estimated capitalization cost at around $36,500. That’s around 9% off of the MSRP. The manufacturer is currently listing the residual/end-of-lease purchase option at $28,018. That’s around 70% of the MSRP. The offer is for $379 a month/24 months, 10K miles/yr, money factor of 0.00101 or 2.42%. The leasehackr calculator says my effective monthly cost should be around $360/month with a total cost to lease of around $13,000. I haven’t told the dealer that I’ve visited the manufacturer’s website yet. Why is there such a big difference in the total cost provided by leasehackr and the capitalization cost estimate from the manufacturer? Which cost should I be basing my negotiations off of. I could really use some advice on how to proceed, so I’m not costing myself extra money by speaking to the wrong capitalization cost number. Thanks.
If you asked for a deal check, circle back after you have signed a deal – the community always loves to hear back! Submit your deal to SIGNED! (https://share.leasehackr.com).
The cap cost will be determined by how much money you put down upfront and how much the delaer is willing to discount. In this case, the dealer is willing to discount less than 0%, in other words they’re marking it up.
Cap cost is not determined by the manufacturer nor is it a set number like residual value will be.
The correct way to calculate and target a deal would be to determine the immovable numbers such as MSRP and RV, ensure that the dealer is offering the lowest money factor and not marking it up (which they can, in most cases), and then target a dealer discount that will bring you to a monthly payment palatable to you.
Manufacturer website offers are rarely attainable dlooar for dollar as they appear online, and often in the fine print they include down payment of several thousands and are not inclusive of taxes or fees.
Your best bet in my opinion is getting a marketplace deal here from a broker. There have been very strong deals on the CX-9 on here as of late.
There seem to be some misconceptions around what leasing is and who benefits from leasing.
The people who benefited most from leasing were those who were going to drive brand new BMWs, Mercedes, etc anyway and found leasing as a way to lower their TCO (total cost of ownership).
They could do so because they had the cash to put down MSD, had loyalty from prior ownership, or had corp/fleet from working at a select list of companies, knew about OL codes and had bought CCA membership, etc etc.
Leasing also benefited people who wanted … let’s call them toys for lack of a better word and again had the financial security to easily afford the overlapping monthly payments and insurance coverage on those extra cars. People who could pick up a Camaro V8 on a whim, an extra Mini to toss around, maybe even a Jaguar F-type.
The CX9 segment isn’t really one where it makes sense to lease. Nissan Pathfinder has good programs but only for 18 months. Doing repetitive 18 month leases is way more expensive than 60-72-month financing.
