The below is from a Software Engineer perspective after using the calculator for a couple of weeks:
Cap Cost section - Alter the way down payment and Zero drive off is handled. (suggested ways to achieve). In my opinion this gives the user and in many cases a newer user a clearer picture of the lease structure.
OPT1 - Remove Zero Drive off check box and Down Payment field and replace it with a single field called Due at Signing. This alleviates the need to put negative numbers in the down payment field. The calculator should then calculate in a waterfall effect when you add a positive number to that DAS field by first going toward taxes and fees and then toward down payment (cap cost reduction). If I just want to put my first months payment in, I can do that too.
OPT2 - Leave the Down Payment field and add 2 check boxes under a heading Due at signing. 1 checkbox for first months payment" and another for “taxes and fees”. This also alleviates the need to use a negative value in the down payment field.
Sales tax and associated radio buttons - Use zip code to look up tax rate by state, then when you have the state you do not need the 3 radio buttons to apply tax to the lease, it should do that automatically. There are many MySql or equivalent DB file out there that have zip code to sales tax lookup that you can get for free and they really don’t change all that often.
Media Print of the Calculator - A printout in a nice format similar to what a dealer shows the customer laying out the lease deal with all appropriate numbers. Maybe remove any leasehackr references on the printout. While you can for sure print the screen, it is not in a nice readable format that fits on a single page.
Obviously there are 10 ways to skin a cat but I feel there suggestions would be a lot more user friendly especially to newcomers.
As much as I like the idea of zip code tax look up, I would still prefer the radio buttons just to make it easier to understand a deal. I don’t need to go look up zipcodes to see where this was and what I would have to do for VA for ex to replicate the deal.
Media Printout - I wouldn’t make it similar to the dealership printout but a nice printout would be good. Even something as simple as a box with the title and number next to it.
I like the OPT1 but again, just as someone that’s used this for a while, I’d prefer the current layout.
I think if it doesn’t take you too long, a nice PoC would be nice to see just to get a better idea but I get what you mean by putting in the negative number.
94010… its very typical for California to have cities sharing zip codes and having different additional taxes… In CA when looking up tax, you always have to enter address. https://gis.cdtfa.ca.gov/public/maps/taxrates/
Does your tax DB take into consideration additional lease tax based on zip? In other words, in my zip code, I pay x tax on general merchandise. To lease a car, I pay x tax +3% on the lease rent+depreciation (it’s on the base monthly). There’s a name for the additional tax in PA for a lease, but I’m too lazy to look it up.
Does everyone who’s a broker or advertising on here have to use the calculator feature? It’s very frustrating when they don’t use it and refuse to.
Nobody has to use it. It’s convenient when they do, but if you’re going to be shopping leases, it’s in your best interest in becoming proficient with filling it out yourself anyway.
Personally, I would have already worked out what the discount needed to be to get to different monthlies before talking to anyway. But I also generate a big ol spreadsheet for every car I look at the compare different deals.
