Hey Hackrs! Currently in the market for a Hybrid crossover/suv. I had my eyes on the RX450H but I think it might be a bit expensive for me. I don’t really want to spend more than 400-450 TOPS a month with tax included. So I went ahead and checked out the NX300H, which I’m heavily considering but is there anything better? The NX seems a bit small for me. Reason why I want a hybrid is because even though I live in CT, I work in NYC and my parents and girlfriend live here as well so I’m down here a lot and I need a car with good gas mileage for it. Currently have a 05 MDX and down here I get about 10-11 MPG! In CT I get about 18 MPG, mostly highway.
My end game is to lease to buy, whats a good hybrid crossover/suv that leases well so I can buy it out after? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Edit: I’m also open to non hybrids if the price point is right and I can make up for the gas by paying less monthly. I saw that the infiniti suv’s lease well, but man the interior looks so out of date! And since I plan on buying it and using it for about 8-10 years, that is definitely not an option
Leasing to buy can often be more expensive than just buying it outright. The cars that lease the best are going to be cars with higher RV and lower MF (combined with good dealer discounts and possibly incentives)…however, that higher RV is going to mean more $$$ to buy it out at the end.
@jamiemose I spoke with someone from this forum and he mentioned that leasing to buy is cheaper if you can get a deal. This was what he told me, “I got a 2018 RX 350 with MSRP around 56K for about 480 per month including tax and nothing down other than 3K in MSDs. I also got a 2019 F sport with 59K MSRP for less than 500 per month including tax with nothing down other than MSDs. On the 2018 RX I got about 3500 in lease cash incentives in addition to 14% off the price and zero interest. If I want I can still buy it at the end of the lease for about 30K and with 6K down my payment will be less than 500 per month. If I bought it outright brand new my payment was going to be 800+.”
That’s what made me decide I should lease to buy. No down payment, lower monthly payments and its pretty much the same as financing to my knowledge.
You also have a longer payment length too though. This Hackr conveniently left that out. The only time it can possibly make sense IMHO is when there is a much larger lease rebate than purchase rebate and the MF isn’t astronomical. You need to crunch the numbers. It may work on one car one month and then just not work. It sounds like you’re trying to buy more car than you can afford though.
I’d run a cost comparison of buying the car outright now versus leasing to buy and see how much you’ll actually end up paying. You’ll have at minimum the acquisition fee that you wouldn’t have if you buy outright, and often times, lease MFs can be more expensive than financing rates, so you’ll end up paying more in interest over the course of the car.
Let’s use the RX for example. The cost of the lease is $17,280. Let’s round up and assume to buy out, he’ll put $6k down and then spend $500 per month for 48 months to pay off the loan to equal the $30,000 buy out price. So, total to own the car is roughly $47,280.
If the car was discounted 14%, the sales price of the car would be $48,160 to buy out right. So less than $1,000 difference but if there was $3,500 lease cash, shouldn’t there be a greater savings for a lease to buy rather than purchasing outright? This is without considering a bunch of other factors like taxes, etc.
Like I said prior, leasing to buy can often be more expensive, but that’s not to say with the right combo of deals, etc., it can’t be done.
Thanks for that informative post @jamiemose. What would be the best way to go about this? Obviously looking at vehicles that may be cheaper than a luxury brand like Lexus is a start. Which is why I am here to see what suggestions you guys have.
Yah I want to get in something that is cheaper which is why I’m here. I can pay 400-450 for the Lexus with a few cut backs, but I rather pay for something more in my budget. I was also factoring in if I got a hybrid, I would pay for gas less, so those gas payments would go towards my monthly payment if that makes sense. Thanks for the feed back!
I think you’ll need to start by narrowing your options so you can gather lease quotes for a few specific models and then calculate the cost of leasing to buy versus the cost of buying outright for those cars to determine what option is the best choice for your situation. Autobytel will have info regarding incentives so you can get an idea of lease incentives versus purchase incentives as well.
What do you mean by “best”? I think that’s rather subjective and really depends on what you need/want in your car.
The new RAV4 hybrids aren’t supposed to come out until March AFAIK and deals most likely won’t be had on those until months from now. Have you looked for some leftover 2018 RAV4 hybrids to see if dealers are offering good deals for purchase to get them off the lots?
I mean best bang for your buck. Great gas mileage (hybrid of course), apple car play, redesign that looks really nice. Only downside I see is a lot of people complaining about the plastic interior its loaded with. Which isn’t really a downside considering its a toyota and not a lexus.
Most small crossovers will get similar MPG as a hybrid without the hybrid cost premium…take the CX-5 or Forester for example, both of which are actually rated better for highway MPG than the RAV4. I think you’ll be able to find a better deal on a non-hybrid.
I think Kia Niro is the mpg king in the crossover/small suv category. That 50 mpg is hard to beat…and it’s relatively cheap so you can have more options added on the car.
When it comes to financing, isn’t it better to get one that’s 2-3 years old? This way the original owner ate up a lot of the depreciation? If I’m going to buy a vehicle I’d like for it to be something a bit more premium so I’d rather get the rx450h.
Depends… around me it saves only 6-7k to get a car that’s 3 yrs older and has 50K+ miles.
APR on the new one would be lower too
Personally, due to the lack of meaningful savings I would get the new one with full B2B warranty, fresh tires, brakes and everything else, with a lower APR and buy the extended OEM warranty online for the lowest price. I’d be all set for a while now
It’s often hard to get a deal on them and they arent really that good for highway miles, more just city driving, but the plug-ins from Volvo (XC60/XC90) and BMW X5e might also fit the bill. Not cheap though.
It it was me, I think I’d finance a 2019 RAV4 and be done with it.
