None of these cars lease well and usually the sporty trim lack any incentives. My friend flew from NY to NC just to find a dealer with a Golf R willing to go below MSRP.
I leased my GTI Autobahn for an embarrassing $399 / month at the time because I didn’t know better and most dealers wanted $450+ with normal drive offs.
At that price Id rather take a 330i if I had known better.
Certainly subjective, I had both. The GTI was a hoot and the limits were a lot easier to reach safely since it’s FWD. I only drove the F30 328i but with the sport suspension in RWD trim you could have a lot of fun. I actually liked the handling of the 4 cyl more than my 335i, less weight and lower limits again, but no where near as smooth or good sounding.
If I was just shopping from that list I’d consider driving the Veloster N, it’s gotten very very good reviews if you can get over the badge.
GTI is refined compared to the Veloster N. Coworker of mine just bought the Hyundai and can confirm it is a hoot to drive. The only problem is that it has that weird 3rd door, so it’s not very practical.
But price wise, you can’t beat it, I think it’s under 30k for the more powerful version, which would be a travesty if you skipped it.
What’s a lease for that one?
A base Giulia can easily be had <400/m. A well optioned ones with bells and whistles under $500.
At the end, my advice would be to TEST DRIVE all these options and check out what makes sense to the driver. Every car has upside and downside. No one else can tell you what feature is more important to you.
E.g. Giulia has barely any trunk. Manual in rush hour traffic is hard to live with everyday. WRX is too loud for some. etc etc.
Sub 400 is possibly with a nice build (47k msrp), 14% loaner discount, lease cash, no loyalty and 9% tax in PA. Assuming 4500 lease cash, 389 dealer fee, PA reg and tax.
I’d definitely check out the X2 M35i. It’s a slightly lifted hot hatch, but I thought it was a blast to drive. I test drove one last summer when I was in the market and was pretty surprised, since I was coming from a Golf R. Not the most hackable BMW product, but if in the market specifically for a hot hatch, it’s a good option.
Have three S60 T6 AWDs in the stable (one '19 and two '20s) in both Momentum and R-Design trims. Can confirm they’re awesome. My deal is posted. 2020 Volvo S60 T6 R-Design ;-)