We’re in Portland, Oregon and have had a zero down, $129/month lease for the Chevy Spark EV for the last 36 months. It was amazing, but sadly, the lease is up next week and we’re not finding anything anywhere near that price.
It’s a commuter/family car, so we only need 3500 miles per year.
Smaller car with good gas mileage and/or electric is ideal, but really, we’re up for anything with a cheap monthly payment and zero down. 24 month or 36 doesn’t matter.
Yes, we’ve been doing tons of research online (including these forums) for the last six months and have spoken with Wentworth Chevrolet, where we leased it from, and Beaverton Honda where we purchased our other car. I know this is a tricky one since the last deal was so good, but if anyone has any tips or suggestions for keeping it under even $150 it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
What is the lease buyout on your Bolt? If it’s been reliable and the residual is reasonable, may make sense to just buy it. I doubt you’ll find anything at that price point that you will be happy with coming from the Bolt.
Have definitely thought about that, but the 2015 Sparks, for example (what we’re turning in) average about $10,000, so about $300/month for 36 months (more than double what we’re paying now). If we space the payments out longer (60-72 months) I’m not sure the vehicle would hold its value to warrant the extra time.
Our fall-back is buying a $2000-$3000 clunker to get us the 10 miles a day we need, but monthly maintenance/upkeep might add up, plus we’ve just been spoiled with a newer/nice car to use for all the extra family errands as well.
Thank you! That could be a good start. I don’t think that was available when we looked last, or maybe it was just out of our price range, but with the lease ending we’re looking at a lot of options.
Looks like it’s about $1500 down plus the $199/month, so still out of our budget but worth looking into. Thanks!
We’d love to keep it (we know it’s been treated well), but the buyout is $13,777.35. I’ve heard in Oregon that you can often find your same car at a particular car auction for about $10,000 within a few weeks. But even the $10,000 is more than our current budget.
You can try to extend your current lease for a few months so that you can have more time.
I think there is no car under $200/month with 0 drive off. Some cars maybe $200/month with some fees at drive off:
Hyundai Sonata/Elantra, VW Jetta, Buick Encore
If the Spark loses half its current value in the next 3 yrs (a conservative assumption considering it has lost the bulk of its depreciation already), your ‘monthly payment’ is half that, right? Obv there is some maintenance to be accounted for as well.
10,000 loan divided by 36 months at approx 3% equals roughly $300/month to be paid off at the end of the three years. So are you saying it makes sense to spread it out over 6 years (at around $150/month) since most of the deprecation has happened and it would most likely be worth at least $5000 after three years? I think I get where you’re going with that, and if so, makes sense.
Any idea on what would be “a good reason?” We heard back exactly that, that our reason wasn’t good enough (liking the car, waiting to lease a new one, etc.), but I have no idea how they judge what’s good enough.
A good reason should include getting another GM car coming in or on order I would think (Volt, Encore).
In CA we can get Volt LTs for low $200s with $2K out of pocket, which comes back to us in a $1,500 CA rebate (could even be $3,500 for low income lessees) and $500 PG&E rebate, so it nets out as a zero drive-off lease.
As mentioned above, there have been some great deals on VWs and Buick Encores. Subaru usually has something in the $159-169 range with cash up front that can be negotiated down. No EVs here, as I think the eGolf is gone.
