Nmikmik,
You hit the nail on the head in regards to my uneducated thinking of how I might be able to use a residual number on my 2015 Suburban. I am 72 years old and did my first lease last year on my wife’s car which was a 2016 GMC Terrain. I used information in this forum to help me learn about leasing and I think I did OK. I leased her car for two years and 24K miles. Financing did not enter the equation since I paid for the lease up front and I paid over 4K less than I would have had to pay if I had paid cash like I usually do. Another perk was that I owned the car. They had to buy out my equity in the car which of course is a one shot deal since I will probably keep on leasing her car. I am considering a lease on my next Suburban or GMC Yukon XL. I’ll see how that goes.
Can I ask you a question? On the 2017 when I start working on a deal this fall. Is there any way to discover what the real residual actually is during the time period that I am trying to make a deal? GM or whoever has to set a figure to be included in the deal right? If I knew that number I could negotiate off the sticker from there. Or is the residual that is set by the finance companies a big secret? I am not knowledgeable enough to know if the dealers play around with that number or not. This is all new to me and I hope I am not asking stupid questions. Thank you! Bill.
