One of (although certainly not the only) reasons that I won’t likely lease a Lexus again is that my very first time leasing some 10 years ago, I leased an IS 350. The sales experience was pretty good, but I spent an hour and a half in the finance office, with the dude trying every hard sell tactic he could to get me to buy tons of addons.
He made a big show of reprinting that CVS receipt of a lease contract because he’d already printed it up with all of them. Then the printed malfunctioned, and he spent another 20 minutes trying to convince me to just sign the one that was already printed. Ended up sorting it out and walked out of there with 0 addons, but the finance guy was pretty pissed at me. Pretty terrible experience all around.
Every dealer pushes those things (except the Audi dealer when I stupidly traded in an S4 1 year into a 3 year lease for an SQ5, I think they figured they’d already gouged me for enough), and I understand it is part of the deal, but I’ve never had one as bad as the Lexus one.
With Lexus i believe you can request a full refund within 30 days. If I get a Lexus next time i will just get one package to get the FI person off my back. Plus with their rates being close to zero it’s an interest free loan.
In the future just clam up and act like you speak very little English. That’s what I do. Last lease it was w/ Lexus and I just acted like German was my primary language. It is so much easier to say “Nein, nein, nein…Was ist das? Nein!”. Worst case scenario they think I’m a psycho but best case I’m signed and outta there in under twenty minutes. This is the beauty of setting up deals via email. True story.
When I got my INFINITI I bought it through a predecessor to the current VPP program, and got actual factory employee pricing (long story).
When I took delivery, the finance person closed the door and said, “On this deal you are one of us.”
Gesturing toward a rack of brochures, she added, “You don’t need any of this crap.”
Why are people making it complicated. Just say no. I have no problems getting out of finance quickly but focusing on the deal we have and saying no.
Certainly don’t agree to something only to plan to cancel it later.
Or just ask for home delivery of the car, they usually skip all the add ons for that.
+1
It’s never been hard to me. Just a series of “no, thanks” and “I worked hard for this deal, and I’m respectfully declining everything that will add to payment.” and “I’m willing to throw those dice.”
I recently worked out a deal on a Pacifica for my parents and my wife and I took my dad to sign.
I’m used to the F&I hard sell tactics, and have long past accepted that I’m just going to have to say no several times to the same sales pitch.
The finance guy would not take no for an answer at one point until my very short fused because she’s pregnant wife started going off on him for his BS. He made some snide remark back, but fortunately stopped himself before going too far.
The nonsense stopped after that. Ha!
OP: thank for sharing. Even though it was TL I did read the whole threat.
In my personal experience when I came with my deals to F&I they stopped their pitch after first No adding “I get it you just need to get car and move on”
I guess some with more experience feel where they can spend more time and make $ and where it would be just a waste.
Because in time they’d try to convince me and get nothing, they sure could have someone else with much more success of selling.
But again - end of lease wear and tear is not a total dismissal right away.
Used it on my Jetta and got covered wear and tear that were more than my the cost of this add on.
Still got it on my infinity because 3 under 5 boys are sure working hard to trash it inside and there is a >0 chance wife will also add some wear on the outside. Was worth it for $500. Could be $0 wear and tear bill and rhat would have been a waste but I can sleep better at night.
You have to understand that for a lot of people, there is a lot of emotions involved in making a first or second car purchase/lease.
When I bought my first car a decade ago, I made that mistake. I had no intention of buying anything in FI, but hey, I’m purchasing something that costs 20K, which is like my 4-5 months salary, I better wrap that up in every protection possible.
ALso, a couple of weeks ago, helped a friend hack a 330i. Trained him to delete every word in his vocabulary except the word no. He goes to FI, calls me from in there, saying that the FI manager is saying BMW doesn’t offer maintenance, I have to buy it. (Not true). Ten mins later he calls again FI manager is saying brakes/tires won’t last the length of the lease, should I buy? Its not easy to say no when numbers are thrown at you making them attractive and you are emotionally giddy about get that NEW CAR!!
This never mixes well with money.
Yes but humans are emotional and irrational creatures
I’ve def been accused of having fewer than normal of these emotion things you reference.
Emotions are for relationships
After 2 hours in the f&i office you could say you have a relationship.
If I get to the one hour mark, the deal is off, brother. See ya next time.
Intimate one
That’s the type of BDSM I’m not into
I’m not sure what’s so hard about dealing with F&I guy. “No.” “How about this one time I knock off 50%?” “No.” Presents the laminated graphs. I start going through my fantasy basketball line up in my head pretending to listen. When he’s done: “No.”
in general I agree to just say no to F&I packages. However in rare instances they offer something i’d consider buying. I’ve gotten a third party tire and wheel protection plan in the past that paid for itself. The VW wear and tear package is also cheap enough to where it might be worth it for some leasees that street park under trees, in snowy regions etc. I recently had a coconut fall on the roof of my car from parking under a palm tree and it caused a huge dent and i’m very careful about parking my car. If im not mistaken you can also return your car with bald tires so if you account for having to buy and install a set of 4 tires at end of a typical VW 39-mo lease plus $10k in wear and tear protection and VW charges only about $600 if i remember correctly, I personally think it’s worth it. Other protection programs are big rip off, especially some that Mercedes offers. So i wouldn’t just dismiss every plan they offer. Just go in cautiously and be educated about what you are signing.