I’ve a few questions on finalizing a lease deal; since there are so many number involved in leasing.
1- Is it okay to see the total lease cost for 36 months (or 30 months) to know how much you pay money on a lease? Say 550/mo with 2000 DAS versAus 515/with 3400 DAS…more over at end of 3 years you pay the same amount no?
2- where to put incentives applied in leasehackr calculator. And how to put in taxes in the calculator.
Thanks.
Of course it is ok to look at the total lease cost.
It’s a key metric in evaluating a lease, there’s no reason NOT to look at this. The LH calculator clearly lays out total lease cost.
As to incentives and taxes in the calculator, there are clear spots to input these. Have you read the LH Calculator 101?
Thanks for the reply.
So since I plan to lease an X3, would it be ok if I just see the total lease cost on a particular msrp price, and deal with a dealer that gives best value on that? Since down/DAS/monthly payments even if they are different would eventually add up to same lease cost in 3 years.
I’ll read the link
There are reasons why it’s not in your best interest to have a large das
The cool thing about putting money down on lease, if the car gets totaled in an accident, you don’t have to worry about that money, it just disappears 
So you would prefer it wise to pay for example 700/mo with zero DAS, than 550/mo with 2000 of 3000 DAS?
Well, those wouldn’t have equivalent lease costs, but I would rather pay $700/mo with $0 das than $550/mo with $5400 das
@Usman_Ghani sahab, thing is that its a trade off. The less you put down or pay at signing, the higher the amount you are financing and as such you will end up paying more interest and your lease cost will be slightly more. However, if the car gets totalled, whatever you put down is lost. So its a risk reward thing. For most people, its peace of mind, by paying a few dollars extra over course of a lease than risk loosing it all.
Why don’t you put things in a calculator and play with it to see zero DAS and 3K DAS changes total lease cost.
The total lease cost remains unchanged when I change numbers. It’s a matter of +/- $100-200; still a difference but when the lease is costing $21800 and the other costing $21500 doesn’t make a big difference
Okay, then what’s worth more to you, having safety and peace of mind with a higher monthly payment, or a slightly lower effective payment with the risk of loosing any money you put das (except MSDs that’s different) in a case where the car is totaled.
This is just another form of payment shopping. Which is not the same as leasehacking.
So what are you trying to learn from a leasehacking forum?
Sure, if your goal is to just ask dealers what they want you to pay and choose the lowest, you can do that. If you want to actually analyze the deal and see where to target improvements, you need the actual deal.
There are some that swear by keeping their head in the sand as to what the deal is and hope they can just play dealers off each other. Personally, I think all that tells you is how low the 2nd best dealer is willing to go.