I’ve never leased a car before and I understand that a good deal on a sports trim of a popular model isn’t gonna be that much better than a “standard” deal, but I wanted to post on here just to see.
Looks like currently the S5 is sitting at a .00109 MF and 57% residual, give or take a percentage point here or there depending on location and trim. I do have a Trade-in and I’m trying to swing it so that they would give me $5k over what I owe on the car (which is possible, but it might be a stretch).
What have others leased an S5 on here for? What would a “good” monthly payment be? I know a lot of people on here preach not putting any money down on a lease, but in this scenario, is there any way around that without an astronomical monthly payment?
It is practically impossible for us to tell you what a “good” monthly payment is for your specific lease as lease programs are highly dependent on region, personal qualifications, tax rates, etc.
We always recommend the following method before you ever contact a dealership. If you do all of the work up front, you’ll have a stress free dealer experience and set yourself for success.
Read Leasing 101 (Blog | LEASEHACKR) to understand how to calculate a lease payment and the variables. Monthly payment is an output, not an input!!
Pick a specific vehicle that you want to target
Gather the current MF, RV and incentives from Edmunds forums for your zip code
Research the LH marketplace and other deals that have been made recently on your vehicle - what was their pre-incentive discount? How did their lease terms differ?
Plug your numbers into the LH calculator (CALCULATOR | LEASEHACKR), and use a pre-incentive discount similar to what you have seen
Create a target deal, this is what you’re trying to negotiate to. You can try different terms, selling price discount, etc. and see how your monthly payment is affected. It is also possible that different trims of your vehicle may have different MF and RV (i.e. this is very common with GM), so make sure that you look into that. Come up with a set of inputs that give you the output that you want - your desired monthly payment.
With a target price determined, you now have a deal to pursue and compare dealer offers against. More importantly, you have a solid foundation to work from.
I have done this, and reached out to a dealer, but I just wanted to see what others may have gotten. Sorry, I should have just searched. You can close the thread if you’d like.
I used the .00109 MF and 57% residual for the S5 but I wanted to see what they would offer on a 48 month term instead of the typical 36-42. So I sent those numbers with a $5k down payment (basically rolled over cash from the trade-in) and am waiting to hear back. The sales guy said that the 48 month #'s are going to look different than what I provided but i figured it was worth a shot. I know I’m trying for a hail mary deal here.
If you had done this, there would be no need to do any of the dealer follow up, because you’d just use the 48 month information you got from Edmunds per the instructions and would know the answer.
The step by step instructions are here for you to follow so that you can get the best deal possible. It’s really in your best interest to take the time to actually work through it.
There are two choices for everyone starting off, including all the regulars here who started off in the same position at some point:
A. Educate yourself with all the helpful content here starting with all the articles in the Leasing 101 section (EDITORIAL | LEASEHACKR), and then have an educated discussion about how to make a decent deal better, if possible.
B. Refuse to spend 30-60 minutes on Choice A above and thus remain uneducated about leasing and get taken advantage of every 2-3 years for the rest of one’s life.
I would question this assumption. When 2019 S5 SBs had trunk money, people who knew what they were doing probably spent close to $10,000 less over the course of the lease vs people who didn’t.
While past numbers are irrelevant, the lessons are not.
You’ve gotten a lot of good advice in this thread already, but look at the entire lease cost with and without the down payment in order to decide.
The difference with the DP will be a savings in rent charges. If you choose to NOT put the money down, the extra finance costs are what you are paying to insure the microscopic risk of totaling the car and being out the DP.
Putting a bunch of money down for the psychological benefit of a lower payment later is an emotional decision, and not a logical or financial one.
I don’t think you will be able to find an S5 in today’s market in that price range. Are you also accounting for monies you will be paying upfront to cover fees, etc?
What are your mileage requirements? 10k miles per year?
Thanks everyone for the good advice. I don’t want to reply to a bunch of separate folks so I’ll sum it up:
@mllcb42 I threw a hail mary with the 48 month lease with 42 month numbers basically. That’s why the dealer said he would follow up. On top of that, we were originally talking about a car that is currently in transit and wouldn’t be on the lot until July, but I checked out a different one they had on the lot in person and liked the color more than I thought, so I’m seeing what we can do with that one instead.
Regarding the $5k down - thanks for the feedback. Sounds like this is not a good logical or financial idea. But like @trism said, it’s more of the psychological safety of having a lower payment. However, you guys have convinced me that I shouldn’t do that and that I should just get a check for my trade-in instead.
@max_g thanks for that. I’ve been browsing this site for a few months and I’ve noticed that people who typically try to lease a “sports” car are typically fighting an uphill battle, so that’s where I was coming from. But looks like my assumption was wrong so thanks for pointing that out.
sounds like the A5 might be worth my time more than the S5, then. Yeah, 10000 a year would work, ideally 12000 for any potential road trips but I work from home so I really have 0 commute and only take my car to go skiing, hiking, biking, or run errands.
Hey, I just started leasing an S5 last month. I used @OffStickerPrice.com as my broker and Sean was great. There is definitely a shortage on S5’s and I got a Premium trim. Thing is sick I love it so far. My gf’s whole fam took it for a spin lol. I did 36/10k miles and Sean got me it at $620/mo. I know there’s tons more info that would be useful but I don’t have it on hand. I’d reach out to Sean and see if he can help you. Just wanted to reply here because less than $700 is definitely doable.
@krisbkreeme MSRP was $56.5k. Premium trim with Convenience package.
@Bluemkn57cars $4200 DAS. Fees and taxes up front and may have had an extra tax because I live in Chicago I’m not sure. I hear Chicago is always a pain to lease in.
MSRP was $56.5k and then the adjusted capitalized cost which it says is what is used to decide payment was $51.7k.
Got u. So if you take out taxes, would you say the other fees amounted to about $2.5 - $3k? Your deal was back in May when deals were still decent and inventory was not too bad. Just trying to set expectations for @krisbkreeme regarding pricing for this month and what’s attainable. Btw, I also picked up an Audi lease early last month.
