I’ll preface this by saying sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’m new to leasing and I’m not sure if I’m missing something here.
I’ve been looking at leasing an Alfa Romeo Giulia since there are really good deals going around on them. There are a lot of people that seem to be signing leases for $300-400 a month on a brand new Giulia with a ~$50,000 MSRP minus maybe $6-9k from incentives. The used market on these shows that 2 year old Giulias with ~20k miles go for around $27k. With lease deals this good, I’m having trouble seeing how it isn’t a steal to lease a brand new car and then maybe buyout the lease at the end (if I wanted). How is it possible that people are paying say $350 a month for 2 years then at the end of the lease they have a car worth $15k less than when it was new? Am I missing something about these deals, is FCA subsidizing sales to get the cars on the road, or what?
This means these people paid about $36K for the $50K MSRP car. 375*24 = 9000. 27000+9000 = 36000. Roughly of course. Part of the discount is dealer discount and the rest are incentives.
I paid $31K for my $45K Giulia, which puts me at the $260 payment all in.
Alfa Romeo is not profitable right now, as building a luxury brand takes time, and the competition is fierce. Alfas are for true enthusiasts who value driving feel, and who don’t care about things like subpar infotainment.
Personally, I would never buy an Alfa. My brother leased a Giulia, and it was one of the most marvelous driver’s cars of all time. But…living true to its brand, it was also in the shop every other month for service. And that’s a big reason why no one wants these when the lease runs out.
I’m sure you’ll get plenty of anecdotal “mine has never had a problem!” but why bother with the risk on such a rapidly depreciating asset?
I was originally looking at 3ish year old cars under $30k but in my research my eye caught the Giulia and the lease deals people are getting. I agree, I’d be very hesitant to own an Alfa and I don’t think I’d be willing to risk it. But if I can lease one for the same price as a used car payment on a car 1/2 the MSRP of a Giulia, and drive it under warranty, I don’t have much concern.
I was really suspicious seeing these deals and wanted to see what the catch was. I guess dealers are just actually giving absurd discounts on them.
Don’t take the chance on owning an Alfa, just lease it. I’m one of the folks who hasn’t had a problem (I had a 2018 Stelvio and currently have a 2019 Giulia), but I would not think of owning one outside of a warranty. The 2017s had lots of problems.
The buy out at the end of the lease is based on the residual, not the market price unless you are able to negotiate it with FCA at the end which is unlikely.
my current 2018 Ti-Sport Q4 had MSRP of $56.5k.
Monthly pay of $454/mo on 2yr lease. coming to end at the end of the month.
RV was 59% so my buyout would be over $33k. Similarly spec’d 2yr old cars go for $22~27k so no way in the hell I’ll be paying that.
Asked dealer to buy it at wholesale and re-sell to me as guaranteed deal, says FCA/Chrysler capital won’t take a loss and sell at wholesale immediately.
looking to lease 2020.
