Big time…I totally avoided this approach two years ago when the possibility for extremely low payments was possible. Many of the dealers hadnt yet seen how the various things could stack so they were caught off guard with the possibility of a $200/mo $50k car and they thought I was joking.
Yup. Had that happen with my Volvo s90 that had not only really low payments, but also was cheaper on a 24 month. Got the usual “there’s no way you can get anywhere near that price and 36 months is always cheaper.” I told them to run it with 24 months and had them come back with a “well I’ll be damned.”
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At least they didn’t steal the car out from under you!
I think I mentioned in some other thread a while ago about how I was scooped on a car by the sales manager. They had two of the same model left that we had deals worked out on, in the end they only sold me one😎. The other one was mistakenly “sold” prior so not available to me. I found out afterwards that the sales manager himself bought it after he saw how my lease calcs worked out.
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I’ve had a sales guy I am friendly with order a 330e once after showing him a calc on a 330e I was after, haha.
Just to echo what a few others have said here. Do your research to find out the base mf, residual, & incentives. Use your own (or the brilliant LH) calculator. Find the car on the dealer’s website and give them the stock number. Present to them the amount you want to pay at signing as well as your monthly payment including tax.
A smart or seasoned salesperson will know if your offer is legitimate (even if it is on the low end). The less work they have to do, the better. The sales person can go into their boss and say “I just got an email inquiry on stock #X. The guy wants it for $X DAS & $X per month including tax and will sign today, take delivery this week.” An easy sale to punch. I agree that I don’t care how they meet your numbers, as long as they meet them.
Some of these crazy deals will take a lot more hand holding and time on your end and the sales person/manager’s end.
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If you are a season vet when it comes to numbers, lease structures, AND have the time, I’d personally entertain this dealer to see how they can finalize your already prepared target offer.
If you are not versed well in the numbers, lease structure or do not have the time then this is just a rabbit hole you want to run away from. The dealer is hoping for a clueless, naive payment shopper who just wants to feel like they “stole” the deal of the century and tell all their neighbors how amazing of a negotiator they are.
I did enjoy the “we have two levers” honesty, “I’m one of you” bit.
Leasing mystery cars is always a tough go
One more thing: What else should I look for before signing - is there something that the dealer can sneak in to the paperwork that I wouldn’t know about (tire insurance, disposition fee, etc) or is everything spelled out and accounted for in either the monthly or DAS?
Btw, love the replies and collective wisdom in this forum. Thanks, all! I have my backup numbers, so I’ll start with a reasonable, but aggressive monthly and DAS, and see where that goes, and if they are curious I’ll show them my calcs and tell them to structure the lease as they see fit as long as it meets my monthly and DAS.
Another thing is timing…new models arriving shortly, month-end, qtr end. Don’t burn the bridges- it may very well be that the dealership who said they could not meet your terms may come back down the line…
When leasing my previous car all I cared about was the monthly payment. Going in I knew what the approximate should be. It was a true sign n drive so that’s all that mattered. Whatever dealer had the lowest MSRP to monthly payment ratio won.
When its all said and done your total lease cost is monthly $ X months + any money down.
Everything will be on the contract. Go over it line by line. Dealers are sneaky and there’re a lot of ways to write a deal…they may add some something in lieu of subtracting something. At the end of the day it comes to your total out of pocket when the lease is over. Who cares how they get there.
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Not only should you go over the contract, you should read the article in the leasing101 section here that goes through how to read a lease contract first.
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Just wanted to celebrate with the community. Thanks to your collective wisdom, I had my comps and homework done, and emailed a couple of dealerships with just DAS and monthly.
Two dealerships wanted to play and ended up in a small bidding war with some back and forth. Result was cap cost @ 11% off msrp, with adj cap cost at a reasonable place given the high transit authority license fees in my zip. This is on a 2021 CX-5 in a PNW market where they sell themselves like pancakes. There was no funny business on the lease paperwork and I even remembered to turn down gap coverage (added to insurance later for cheap).
Thank goodness for Lease Hackr Forums!
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Congrats and enjoy your new car! I found that using DAS and monthly worked quite well for me but one needs to be darn sure of the comps which looked like you were. Please post pics in trophy garage.
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Care to post the full lease math & final monthly payments?
I’ve been haggling with these WA dealers too. I miss California 
Are CA dealers better to deal with than WA dealers?
Why do you need GAP? Pretty sure Mazda Capital has it built in?
Mazda capital doesn’t exist. Mazda uses toyota capital, who do not include gap coverage.
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The best dealership in WA is SeaTac
Yes.
There just isn’t enough competition in the market here. CA enjoys massive market liquidity due to the population density. There are 20 BMW dealerships in the LA area, in contrast Seattle has 2 dealerships.