I’m looking at a lease deal for a 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee L Altitude right now. The dealer came back with breakdown of fees and noted Acquisition fee of $1,195. I’ve never seen an acquisition fee this high. Usually I’ve seen these be between $500 and $900 (on a luxury vehicle). Is this acquisition fee legit or are they adding on some extra fees?
They said1st payment plus $2000, which is essentially the fees that add up to $1861.50. I’m going to go back and say I’m not paying a round number because that’s just extra money in their pocket. I will pay 1st + fees exactly.
I agree, I always ask for exact amounts, no rounding. I guess still trying to figure out if the $1195 acquisition fee is a real amount because that’s an absurd amount to pay for any car, let alone a Jeep.
What bank is the lease through? Chrysler Capital? Stellantis Financial or something else? The acquisition fee can vary and the dealer can sometimes mark it up as well.
Yes I agree the discount looks bad. I try to get 5-10% off MSRP before any rebates. I literally just started this search so there will be more negotiations going on. Just wanted some feedback and advice. Maybe people are seeing something else in the markets.
No, your thought process makes no sense. The quality of a deal has absolutely nothing to do with whether you paid “exact” amounts of fees or some small CCR was added to make the DAS a nice, round number.
But before the minutiae of what’s in the DAS, does this vehicle make a good lease candidate? Let’s answer that question first.
I’m not saying the exactness of the fees makes or breaks a deal. I was just making an observation that the acquisition fee was extremely high from historical experience.
What makes a good deal to me is the combination of deep dealer discount and max rebates. For me there’s $7k in rebates which is great but also dealer discount sucks so I’m going to push on that as well. RV and MF are important because if the RV is stupid low and MF is high, doesn’t matter what discount they give, it still might be a terrible lease. I’m sure you now all of this anyways. If you have any expert advice for this situation please feel free to share.
Ask yourself why you’d spend the sum of payments + DAS to lease something selling for effectively $40k before taxes and fees.
Just to return in 36 months with $0 equity. And repeat that for the next 36m. Why would you spend that amount of money over 72 months and have no equity?
Especially when you can finance a Pilot, Telluride, etc for ~$40k before T&F and have a metric shit ton of equity after the same payments?
Because I can’t afford right now to be spending $900+/month on financing a $40+k vehicle. My budget is half of that. And pretty sure you cannot find a new 3 row SUV for $20k. If so, please point me in the right direction. Buying used is not an option at the moment. I don’t use cars as an investment to build equity. That was a short term post covid phenomenon where you could buy a Honda and 3 years later sell it for more than you paid for it. Not a thing now. Cars are an expense whatever way you look at it, you don’t buy them to build equity. You buy real estate to build equity and wealth.
Yes I think you’re right. I just got a response from another dealer who told me Ccap has no acquisition fee this month. The first dealer was going through a local union bank. Thanks for the details on this.
You can look at the Sorento/SantaFe segment which is low 30s or the Pilot/Telluride which you can get for ~$35k plus tax.
No one’s talking about equity flipping or asset appreciation. Ofc driving a car will cost money. But a net spend of, say, $45k over 6 years vs $30k — does that sound like “the same expense” whichever way you look at it?
