This is a good thread for me, in my recent search I mainly focused on cars people were posting in the shared deals and broker ads. It did make me wonder if there were good deals out there that would appeal to me that I wasn’t hearing of. It seems like a lot of leg work to independently find good lease deals and I wouldn’t be sure on how to find a target pre-incentive discount from MSRP, nor a where to find all the possible incentives that stack up.
OP - 
Too true. It’s that first leap of faith that’s the hardest. Maybe have to start compromising somewhere… I’ve went to dealers 350-400 miles away for my last couple… after the deals were locked in of course 
You can try to leverage quotes from Indy and Chicago area dealerships
1 Like
I suggest you to narrow down your options by eliminating cars 1- you don’t like 2- don’t typically lease well… Once you have handful of choices, test drive all of them and decide your must have options. Then reach out to a reputable broker or two and get quotes. A lot of people think they can get better deals by themselves, I believe tiny fraction of them can do better than a professional broker. If you don’t have a ton of time AND keep track of many parameters that goes into pricing that are applicable to you AND can negotiate effectively , yes it is possible but for most people (including myself) hiring a broker is a money well spent.
2 Likes
Learned that one from experience. Shopped hard for a 2018 Impreza Sport - even as far as finding a manual to save a few bucks. Never even test drove it. What a mistake. Hated that car from like day 3.
Vroom saved my ass getting out of that thing with ~$500 negative equity… Was such a nice feeling to see that thing loaded onto a flatbed and hauled away.
1 Like
At $99/mo, Id acquire an admiration for the car! A $40-50k car with a two digit lease payment with just upfronts and MSDs DAS has been one of my long-term hacker goals.
That will make your life infinitely harder, if finding a really good deal is your goal. If someone is in the Northeast, or CA, they probably won’t need to leave their immediate area. For the rest of us, the acceptable search radius has to increase.
At the risk of getting too granular but to provide more context I’m well read up on cars. I trust Consumer Reports and use a combination if other professional and user car reviews. Just because I’m not attached to the specific model or badge, I wouldn’t seek out a model that doesn’t get a good rap regardless of how good the deal. I also test drive the car first multiple times.
Dude I have a friend that works at a Toyota dealership that was ready to help me with a similar deal. The wife is not down with a truck (we share cars). #Fail
Not a true 250 a month. Need over 2500 down for that monthly payment
Understood. Not everyone does. Just one example: I drive an XC60 now which I love. I had a back surgery a little more than a years ago: I CAN’T drive an R-Design for more than 10 minutes, the bolsters bothers my back. Momentum and Inscription feel great don’t bother me.
I could give a dozen examples of rental cars where one trim was fine and another was intolerable. I think it’s really important to spend more than 10 min distracted test drive farting up the seats, especially if you shopped the deal first. But you get it.
Tell my dad that. Sat his ass in a S60 momentum at a dealership, took literally like 2 minutes, as he took it in, then we grabbed a soda, talked #s, showed our deal, they couldn’t match, and he blind signed the next weekend with another dealer.