I’ve been in the market for a new car for about a month now. I’ve mainly been looking at the 2025 Hyundai Elantra N. Unfortunately, I live in Hawaii and dealership options aren’t that great. Also, the color I want is not here but I’m willing to compromise on that.
My issue is the deal. The image I’ve attached goes Top-down. I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the first one. Anyways, after about 2 hours of back and forth, they pretty much said the second photo was the best they could do at 0.00289. I also wanted to see my Finance options and they basically said that 6.9% was the best they could do despite my credit being in their “above tier 1” level.
One of my main issues was this $899 Xzilon fee. They kept saying they were removing it but no matter how I did the math it was still there. They said it needs to stay on the paper and that they applied a bigger discount to offset it. However, the math still keeps adding the $899 in there somewhere. I made it known to them that this car is a want, not a need and if they sell it before I buy it then that is okay. They make it seem like this vehicle is a hot commodity but despite the attention it apparently has been giving, no one has bought it after a month and it’s racked up about 300 miles.
A few hours after I left the texted me the bottom 2 images of a deal. I asked him to clarify things and how they got to the new prices.
I’ve never leased before and I’ve only bought a car once.
Well the best thing is that you didnt sign any deal with them. (That first sheet is .. i cant even find any words to call it).
Now from what I know, the N trim is not a mass produced model and kind of their premium sport trim. You may find very limited information here from others who may have shopped or been successful on here.
You have to research on how much of a discount off msrp do these cars usually get if any. Then, build a calculator based of that sales price and using base money factor and residual which is set by the bank. Add your state fees for registration, tags etc and also add whatever dealer fees are usually charged in your state.
Once u build a calculator, you will have an idea of where you need to be. Sometimes, some models make better sense purchasing rather than leasing. Also, you dont really have to finance from the dealership. You can use a third party bank or credit union to finance your auto loan at a better rate.
Then hopefully you can decide which route is better for you.
Edit: you also mentioned you have only bought a car once. How long ago was that and was it financed on your credit? Was it financed more than 7 to 10 years ago ?
Lack of credit also plays a role on lease pricing as a lender may not be as comfortable to let you lease as opposed to financing.
Yeah, I’m already pre-approved through my CU at 4.6% but Hyundai actually beat them with 4.5% as seen in their last paper. I bought a car in 2021 and financed it. Still not paid off but I plan on selling it or renting it out. I was going to potentially trade it in but they only offered $12.5 for my 2017 Grand Cherokee 69k miles. My credit is solid.
As for MSRP discount, I did some research earlier this month that the car’s invoice is around 35k (automatic) but I can’t remember where I saw that number at. If I lived in LA, I’d have many more options to choose from and some dealers already have them discounted quite a bit. If I went that route I’d need to pay $2,000 to have it shipped here. Realistically they probably won’t discount the MSRP unless the car sits another month as there is kind of a monopoly with dealerships here.
579 X 35 = $20,265 which is about $1k less than their projected RF.
If I plug in the numbers they provided me, this is what the lease calculator is offering me. I also completely removed the $899 PPF fee.
The best APR I could get from them was 4.5% which beat my Credit Union by about 0.3%. If I plug in their numbers in the second to last sheet and remove the $899 PPF, the 72 month term at 4.5% gets me a monthly rate of $570. If I go with a 60 month term, it shoots up to $669 per month.
Forgive me as I’m not really educated on this topic but if the RV of the car is $21,591 and over the 36 months of paying $520 comes out to $18,720 vs 36 months of paying $570 comes out to $20,520, is the Lease not the better deal? I may not even want the car after 3 years.
What matters is the loan balance after 36 months, not how much you have paid. Much of the loan payments have gone to interest. My guess is the loan balance will be much higher than the RV, making the lease the better value. Plus you don’t know how ,itch the vehicle wil actually be worth in three years, so let the bank take the residual risk. If it is worth much more than estimated RSV you can always buy or trade in the car to capture the difference.
