I disagree. It provides more inputs, thereby providing more areas for error.
More doesn’t always equal better. Sometimes the KISS rule applies.
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There aren’t more inputs if you don’t want there to be more inputs.
TBH, I’d throw the calc away altogether. That forces people to learn how to calc a lease by hand, thereby providing them more understanding of how a lease works. IMO, the calc is more trouble than it’s worth.
9 x out of 10, the posts are “I can’t get the calc to match…” and it’s almost always user error. Give them the math formula, let them calc it out by hand, or via excel spreadsheet if they have a basic knowledge of Excel.
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Fair, good idea
Initial brainstorm - if people cant get the calculator to match, send them to the spreadsheet. If people want their hand held, offer folks to pay a ($10?) fee to a trusted hackr to trace through a deal. I bet this would clean up the forum.
That’d be a good set up for someone that knows what they’re doing, I agree, but for the vast majority of the people that use it, it would just cause more issues unfortunately
In a best case scenario, you’d select your state and it would auto-fill whether your selected rebate or incentive was taxed or not 
I assume this was tongue and cheek, but hard disagree. It’s a great tool for starters and has tons of utility for regular users, brokers, etc. However, as I said before, there is always room for improvement. There are plenty of good suggestions on how the calculator could be improved, streamlined, and simplified (its not a zero sum game).
Apple spent years turning first and second gen cellphones into a user-friendly, streamlined, and simplified device that anyone can use. Do experts and true hackers like iPhones and Macs the most? No, there are far better alternatives for high-productivity users and specialists.
Perhaps this might be an indication that it’s not user-friendly enough? Carrying over the same principle from the Apple example, the best lease calculator for experts is clearly a complex spreadsheet similar to desking software. I have one, most expert users here have one too, from what I can tell. We aren’t the ones who rely on the LH calc to succeed. The newbies do.
I wish there would be more enthusiasm to help improve the calc here. We ran into this same issue with the monthly deal hack thread in June. Lots of people are clueless. Why not help them by striving to make the best calculator possible, and not poo-poo any new ideas.
Given the great work @RustyDaemon, @edmcman, and some of the others on the tech crew have done with the scraper, I’m certain that there are enough bright and willing minds to do some testing on new calc features or designs. Perhaps in a the same vein, the mods could create a calc group dedicated to building and testing new iterations…just a thought.
And before anyone steps in to critique me or push back on making “unnecessary” calculator improvements, we’re probably just going to fundamentally disagree and can leave it at that. If you’d like to present an argument about back end costs or about lack of willing and able labor to make the changes, then fine. I came here with a passion for cars and leasehacking and I make suggestions/ comments with a keen interest in growth and improvement. I love the site for what it is, and will love it as it grows and evolves into something greater.
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So, does anyone know who’s in charge of the calc?
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The one and only @littleviolette
Here is my suggestion: for a fee ($5?) you send someone your lease worksheet, and they send you back a calculator link that is filled out correctly.
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And of course I didn’t know LH didnt have any sort of Dev team. In which case, I totally support any and all small monetization options to help improve the site/ increase funding beyond donations.
Just to be precise, I’m not saying LH should charge (though they could), maybe the brokers or other members of the site want to do it.
I hope the responses to this thread don’t discourage people from making suggestions (keep them coming), but they are usually from the perspective of one person trying to save time leasing their 1 car a year. Breaking out the incentives (for instance) solves the problem of where to put those, but which are/aren’t taxable varies, and so you would still need to know that to calculate the lease correctly. You still end up with a user education problem, even though we have
and (courtesy of @mllcb42):
Because the best means different things to different people.
Just a quick example of contradictory needs:
A. To probably 90+% of people the best calculator would more closely resemble a lease quote or contract, and the selling price field in the calculator would mirror the “agreed-upon value” of the contract, ie it would have direct-to-dealer incentives embedded within it.
B. However, LH regulars need those incentives to be stripped out, to reveal a truer level of dealer discount, and to better normalize the data coming thru the forum.
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You could have 2 calculators.
You just described probably 95%+ of the calculators that are posted on this site and 100% of the calculators posted by brokers. Which is where my idea stems from.
So even if your suggestion was implemented, the same issues would still be present as no one is forced to use it correctly.
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That’s a good point. You’d almost have to make the sales price a function of the input instead of an input itself. However, the point of me posing the thought was that if dealer discount/lease cash/etc were visually separated, perhaps it would change behaviors?
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Yeah, let’s add more to the calculator people can’t use correctly in the first place. Then get super offended and start calling people names. 
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I suspect it wouldn’t. You’re still reliant on people having to digest the numbers to input them.
For example, we get a lot of people that post Volvo deals on here, claiming 15%+ pre-incentive discounts with only some of the incentives broken out, as the lease cash isn’t spelled out by the dealer, absolutely adamant that they’ve got the incentives right. Having a line item for “lease cash” in the calculator wouldn’t change a thing here, as they never take the time to gather the incentive data, as they don’t even know it exists. If they can’t be bothered to spend a few minutes researching/gathering the pertinent data (this would be easily solved by just asking Edmunds for RV/MF/incentives in this case), having a spot on the calculator to put it broken out does no good.
I dont disagree that having the ability to separate out incentives in the calculator could make it easier to make a “deal sheet” for communicating a deal all in one place for “power users”, but I don’t see it being the solution to the problem that most people here seem to want it to be the solution to.
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Well said. When you put it in that context, tends to make more sense to leave as is. You are definitely closer to the deal evaluation and would have a better gauge as to how folks use the calc. Thanks for the well thought out response!
I think this is right. Most dealers bundle up the “total discount” hoping that the unassuming buyer thinks they’re getting a great pre-incentive discount, when in fact they’re just getting all the incentives balled up with a meager discount. Then those same buyers come here not knowing the incentives and are helpless on the calculator.
Perhaps a simple prompt on the calculator (either selling price line or rebate line) saying “remember to ask your dealer what incentives are included in the discount line”?
Most dealers won’t disclose the direct to dealer incentives anyway if you ask. Up to you to do the homework ahead of time.
Frankly, if someone is getting a dealer offer on a vehicle without already knowing what the incentives are first, they’re doing it wrong anyway.
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People should know how to calc a lease from educating themselves before jumping into leasing, not by using a calculator. This is the equivalent of electronic spoon feeding, which teaches nothing