I’ve gotten deals for thousands below where other dealers have said they can’t go any further.
With that said, looking at the offer, I think you’re just pushing a rock up a hill and are targeting a trim level that is a very poor lease value.
I have a passport in my driveway right now. Not quite a pilot, but basically the same thing other than the missing 3rd row. Its a lower trim level as well. At the $350ish/mo I’m paying for it, it’s a great vehicle. At $600/mo, I think it’s an insane vehicle to be considering. The value proposition isn’t there for it.
mllcb42 - If I’m hearing you right, we would make a better decision not doing a 2021 Pilot “black edition” trim level, we can drop down a trim level and still have a heated steering wheel. We wouldn’t have to spend extra money on the Black Edition fascia and wheel package
We could also make a better decision by doing 36 months @ 12k miles to bump up our residual to a better %.
mllcb42 - that’s a great point. We visited and drove some competition to get a feel of the options. We went to the Toyota Highlander dealerships, Acura MDX dealers, and a Kia Telluride dealer. Its a lot of work and we have been online looking at a Volvo xc90 SUV. The “decision maker” likes the features and room in the 2021 Pilot lol.
We are selling our leased 2018 Highlander to Carmax and getting a check back for positive equity. We had signed at 15k miles on that one.
We discovered that we can do 12k miles as long as we sell the leased vehicle to a dealer before the lease is up. Hopefully the Honda will have positive trade equity too lol.
joeblogs - thanks for verifying. This seems like a better decision for us.
It sounds like you can’t do 12k miles then. Equity towards the end of a lease is great, but you’re gambling that it’ll be there. I certainly wouldn’t use current used car performance as a measuring stick for 3 years from now.
Since you looked at the telluride, you should know that the palisade is likely to lease better and is basically the same vehicle.
The xc90 is a superior vehicle to the highlander, pilot, mdx, telluride, and palisade in my opinion. It doesn’t have as large of a 3rd row as the pilot (but neither does the highlander). It will lease much better than its MSRP would suggest.
The pilot is a fantastic budget 3 row suv. It doesn’t compete at the $600 price point.
We can do 12k after all. We thought we’d have 45k miles on our
current 2018 Toyota at the end of our 36 month term. We are at the end of the term with 32,900 miles now. We were expecting more road trips and different work territories when we signed on the 2018 Highlander. We should be good with 12k miles now.
Seriously just get an EXL and be done with it. I got mine in July for $329 a month with $2164 DAS. Elite isn’t that much better but costs a lot more but it seems to me like no one is going to talk you out of this deal and you will end up with $600 a month pilot.
EX-L
Power liftgate, Sunroof, Leather upholstery, Second-row sunshades, Second-row USB charging ports.
SE (Special Edition)
Wireless smartphone charging, and Hands-free liftgate.
Touring
Navigation system, Roof rails, Front and rear parking sensors, Heated rear seats, Rear entertainment system, and 10-speaker premium audio system.
Elite
Second-row captain’s chairs, Auto-dimming and power-folding side mirrors, Panoramic sunroof, Heated steering wheel, and Ventilated front seats.
Finally, the Black Edition is equipped identically to the Elite but has black exterior accents and red interior trim.
Get whatever makes you and your wife happy. My opinion an EXL goes for about $350 a month, are the additional upgrades worth an extra $9,000 over 36 months?
mllcb42 - I don’t recall asking any dealer how much they want me to pay.
Anhelenuk1 - I’m not stuck on a $600 payment for the black edition any longer. We can step down to an Elite and get all of the features on our family’s list. Remember, it’s not just for me. I’m not painted into a corner regarding payment. I meant to say in previous posts that our max budget is $600 for any make and model during our weeklong search. Some ppl take longer to make a decision or they wait for better incentives. I shared previous quotes from dealerships for reference, hopefully to help someone in the future who is starting out with getting numbers. Obviously these aren’t the best numbers on a Honda Pilot, they are just for reference.
I know I learned a bunch from others that shared their quotes. I’m not hung up on paying $600 for anything, we’d pay much less if the midsize SUV has the correct features for our entire family. The main decision maker wants to continue having her favorite feature, a heated steering wheel, its only offered on specific trim levels in the pilot. We are not adding an aftermarket heated steering wheel and will not go with an EXL. We already spelled out the specific features we want in a Pilot and the EXL lacks those features.
We’ve landed on a new Pilot trim level, the Elite, thanks to some advice in this thread above ◉‿◉ Thanks.
mllcb42 - I don’t understand what you are saying. I landed on the “Elite” trim level with the guidance that I received here. You’ve been a big help. We started on the most expensive trim level, in the beginning, because our salesperson said it would compare to our 2018 Highlander Platinum. We then thought about the Honda Pilot, for a few days before submitting some offers to Honda dealers of what we’d pay them. Some ignored us obviously lol.
These are the top quotes so far, some were better than others, but I did not “lay down” for anyone. I shared the offers in hopes of being helpful to a newcomer. Maybe I asked too many questions about the calculations and trim levels? I’m not trying to be a pest.
What I’m trying to suggest is that rather than asking the dealer for quotes, which inevitably are going to be as favorable to them as they can be, that you put together an offer and present it to the dealer. Figure out where you need to be, see if it makes sense, and then take that to them.
The advice that I give to anyone that will listen is this:
Talking numbers with a dealer is for finding someone that will do your deal, not for figuring out what a vehicle should lease for. If you find yourself with a dealer offer in hand, wondering if it’s a good deal, you have gotten out over your skis and set yourself up for failure. You need to determine what that deal is before talking with the dealer to set yourself up for success.
I would highly recommend that when you do this, you do not talk numbers with the dealer and if they do try to give you pricing estimates that you totally ignore anything they say. They will quote you much higher numbers than what is doable
