Should we pay the Acquisition Fee?
My 2016 Prius 2 was $650.
It’s not really optional. You just have to decide if you want to pay it upfront or roll it into the lease. When calculating the cost of your lease, don’t forget to factor it in and try to get more of a discount on selling price to account for it.
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On the same note, is there an advantage over rolling it into the lease vs. paying upfront? I am asking in terms of selling the car before lease term is up or if the car gets totaled for some reason, does the remaining acquisition fee become due?
GM Financial allows lessees to waive the $595 acq fee in favor of a money factor (interest) increase.
Sometimes it actually results in a lower monthly payment, if the money factor is already really low. Sometimes in increases the monthly, especially on a 36+ month lease.
Another thing to note: if you sell the car say 2 months after you lease it (somehow you have equity…this happened to me with my Cruze Limited lease), you will save on interest charges. Basically, if you sell/trade in a car 2 months after you signed a 36 months lease, you will effectively dodge the remaining 34 months of interest charges.
In this “lease and quick flip” scenario, it makes sense to take the acq fee waiver for higher MF. You escape the $595 up front charge, and you only end up paying interest for 2 months, which should be way less than the $595 acq fee.
Of course you had to have gotten a retarded good deal for a lease and flip to be profitable in any way.
I’ve done it twice though. 
Since you have GAP, you should elect to roll it in to the payment. Decrease your upfront exposure every time.
Not really. When you sell the car, you will need to call the finance company to get the payoff amount, which is usually the remaining payments + residual value. So you are still technically paying it since it’s included in those remaining payments. But it won’t be a separate fee.
Thanks @Randy_Haddox and @jmac63