Afternoon! I’m based out of Chicago (Cook County). I have been working on finding a Q5e. I am wondering how this group feels about this deal. LeaseHacker Calculator is linked below. LeaseHacker Score is coming in at 8.4 years (I know the number of years isn’t the biggest indicator of a “deal” but calling it out since it’s the final output of the tool). Incentives were $1000 for Costco and then $7500 for EV. Received 10% off of the MSRP. It’s a 36/10. $784/month with $784 DAS. Any thoughts?
If you live in Chicago, you shouldn’t lease
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yeah, they really get you with these taxes!
You’re barking up the wrong tree if you want a good deal.
Because of the car brand or just leasing in Chicago in general?
Leasing in Chicago in general, around an effective 18.5% tax rate.
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Yes. It’s a beast for sure, no way around that 18.5% unless you buy the car which I didn’t want to do. Relatively speaking though, when I compare the deal I got to what I see on other deal sheets (excluding tax obviously) for this car, it feels pretty solid.
Ugh. I used to buy only when living in the City. I get leasing and not owning for EVs but those taxes are a deal killer for me. And wait until property taxes sky rocket again with the huge budget deficit. Love the City but glad we were able to sell and get out.
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Well you can’t easily move, but you can easily choose a better value for your dollars.
Even $500 for an antiquated compact would be 
Compact luxury SUVs are pretty roomy these days as everything has grown but yeah better deals to be had on other more updated EVs.
For the city and taxation reasons seeking out a decent discount and buying a hybrid would probably be my direction.
Appreciate the conversation. If I didn’t want a luxury mid-size SUV I definitely would have purchased something. I guess I’m considering this more of a fun treat and the fact that I got it at a price that matched some of the deals I was seeing from brokers made me feel good. I actually worked with a broker to get it and he was fantastic to work with.
Good. For me it wasn’t the money but the principal of that crazy taxation. I hate getting screwed and was already paying huge taxes on condo, work, etc. so enough was enough. Just wrote checks for cars instead.
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You could have saved about $60 a month by paying the taxes upfront. By rolling them into the payment you also get to pay the monthly tax on the taxes. This is one situation where putting money down on a lease can save money.
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