3-Row SUV leasing help, soIN/KY

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Good morning Hackrs! First let me start by saying I appreciate any help you all give. You helped me hack a pretty great Acura TLX lease last year that I am still very happy with. Now I was hoping you could assist me in my search to help my wife. We currently have a 2018 Nissan Pathfinder who’s lease ends in June. I am having a heck of a time right now figuring out a path to follow. We can’t lease another Pathfinder because Nissan recently stopped lease support of the 2020 models, and the new redesigned one will not be out in dealerships in time. It’s also been a little while since we’ve looked into SUV leases and the world went kind of crazy since our last outing. I have been searching through here and reading tons of topics but still just can’t find any good answers. I know I don’t have any set info right now, but I’m more looking for help being pointed in the right direction. Needing a 3-row SUV, moderately well-equipped, that is not seeming terrible to lease right now. Tellurides/Palisades seem to be murder right now, along with most others I’ve looked at. Anywhere I should really start focusing on looking into? Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

I would suggest a Toyota Highlander. They seem to be leasing very well for the price point.

Also- look into Carmax for selling your pathfinder before lease end. I was shocked to have gotten out of my Rogue for $286 a year before my lease was up. You may even have equity or at the very least avoid the wear and tear and over mileage charges and dispo fee of just turning it back in. You can do a quick appraisal right on Carmax.com and the payoff you see on your Nissan finance website is the payoff Carmax would pay- it doesn’t include sales tax in that price. If you do go with Carmax, verify where they need to send the payoff. For Florida, at least, Carmax has to send the payoff to a local Nissan dealer who then deposits the check and notifies Nissan Finance. Sending directly to Nissan my check sat there for 3 weeks before I called to see what was going on.

Check out this thread in the market place for some deals from PA. Even with shipping the deals are pretty good if you can’t get something locally.

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Highlander XLEs are pretty good right now. I did a 36/12 $0 down for $369/mo (tax included) $504 DAS last week in Indy. I need to do a Share a Deal for it.

Awesome, thank you for the help. I’ll look into the Highlander some more. My only roadblock there is my wife doesn’t seem to be a fan of them. But I’ll talk to her some more. Here’s a list of what she has told me that she likes…

Kia Telluride / Hyundai Palisade (I’m assuming these are a lost cause?)
Kia Sorento
Dodge Durango
Ford Explorer
possibly VW Atlas

Any of those worth looking into at all? Anything else?

The Telluride and Palisade are very expensive still as they are a hot commodity but they are starting to cool down slightly. The Sorrento is also hot as it is a new model and little to no incentives right now.

The Durango and Explorer usually don’t lease that well thru their captive banks, but maybe better thru Us bank or ally, but that opens other can of worms at disposition time or if you try to sell your lease. The atlas is a nice car but the overall feeling from this community is it is very overpriced.

I also just thought about a Honda Pilot or if you can snag a leftover 2020 Acura MDX.

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Mazda CX-9 if you dont need a huge 3rd row @StlVDub

Palisade isn’t really a lost cause. You’ll pay more than, say, a highlander or a cx9, but you get more for your dollar.

It’ll take some more aggressive shopping and you’ll never get a deal on one by going to a dealer and asking them how much they want you to pay, but you can still get a not horrible deal on one. They’re not cheap, but you get what you pay for.

Curious to learn more about this - does Carmax (or any dealer for that matter) have to pay sales tax on the payoff, or do they get some sort of exclusion because they are dealers?

I’ll have to look into CarMax. I know I got an offer from Carvana a few weeks back for about $3,000 over what our payoff is. Thanks to Covid we didn’t drive that much last year and her car is WAY under mileage. The main problem I’m seeing, however, is we got pretty lucky with the Pathfinder in that Nissan was very willing to deal back in ‘18. So we got a fully-loaded SL model for a little over $400/month. Now I’m trying to find a 3-row suv with leather, some, but not all, goodies, for around that same amount and it’s looking impossible. I am not one to just walk into a dealer and I do a ton of research, that’s why I’ve come here asking for help. Just need to know where to really start. I would have figured the Dodge would be easier to deal on, but maybe I’m underestimating how many they are really selling right now.

I’ll talk to her about the MDX. I love my TLX, but she hates it (the whole dual screen thing turns her off).

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3 row suv

in this forum you will find lots of information

No dealers pay sales tax. For the most part with captive finance companies the buy out price is your payoff minus sales tax on the whole amount. For example if your payoff is 20,000 and your sales tax is 7% the dealer buyout will be approximately $18,600 give or take due to the exact 10 day interest compounding.

In the above situation, say Carmax appraised your vehicle for $21,600. Carmax would pay a check to the bank of their payoff (approx 18,600) and cut you a check for the difference of $3k.

Some other banks such as VW or ALLY or USBank charge whatever they want as “fair market value”. Your payoff could be 33k for YOU to buy it but could be 39k for a dealer to buy it, if that dealer even works with these banks. Carvana doesn’t work with Ally or Usbank. Carmax and vroom seem to still work with these banks for the time being.

If you want to stick you your $400 a month with just first DAS, really only a Pilot or Highlander will probably fit the bill.

Gotcha, that’s helpful. I’m still a little confused by those example numbers though. If my lease agreement lists the payoff price (before the 7% tax, I assume) at $20,000, how does the dealer pay only $18,600? Or am I misunderstanding something?

Your lease agreement dictates what they will sell you the car for.

In the $20k example, he was saying your payoff would be including tax. The dealer doesn’t have to pay tax, hence the lower payoff. That’s assuming that it isn’t a brand that charges a higher pay off to dealers.

ther have been a few Explorer XLTs that leased ok, the ST is a lost cause

Usually the price listed on your bank website for who you lease the car with will have a buy out. This price is your buyout including all fees and taxes. A dealer would pay that amount minus sales tax of 7% in my example.

What state and brand of car do you have?
If you are in Florida it’s a PITA to get a dealer pay off (have to call and pretend to be a dealer lol).
If you have a Nissan they require the payoff check being sent to a dealer who then deposits the check for Nissan Motor Finance.

It’s funny, how many posts I have seen like this recently. I am in the same spot my S5 lease ends in June and need a 3 row SUV, just debating to pull the trigger early or wait till the end and lease either in June or when 2022 models roll out.

Ahh I see, I think I was just going off of the price listed in my lease agreement as “purchase option at end of lease term”. I’m realizing this is not the full payoff amount that you and @mllcb42 are referring to.

I’m in WA state and have a Lexus RX 350 through Lexus Financial Services. I still have about 14 months of payments to go (~$488 incl. tax). Tax rate of roughly 10.1% in WA. And the purchase option at end of lease term is listed at $26,810. It sounds like if I were to initiate a buyout Lexus would give me one full price that would include taxes on everything, correct?

Make sure you include your MSDs in the payoff, most times when you get payoff quotes they will take the MSDs and lump them in to bring payoff down…

Good to flag, but I don’t have any MSDs on this one.