Whenever I read a post from brokers saying a deal is only $1xx/month, or even less than that, I notice that the actual cost is always way much higher adding all the fees and tax, usually double or triple the advertised monthly payment. I feel that their ads are somewhat misleading. How would that separate brokers from dealers, especially when brokers would charge fees? Would it be a good idea that Leasehackr has brokers include effective monthly payments in their posts? This would promote better quality of the ads, ease of use of this platform, help buyers compare apples to apples among different brokers, and especially save time. Just some suggestions.
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Asked many many many times, and the answer is only if they feel like it and most don’t.
They pay to advertise here and LH doesn’t control how they post their deals. Only that they don’t spam.
There’s a calculator post for almost every single deal that shows you all of the variables used. Those alone differentiate those of us worth their salt from a dealer’s pricing. I’m not going to advertise a first payment due at signing deal b/c that same buyer who price shops me at a dealer isn’t going to be quoted a first payment due at signing deal at that dealer.
That said, there are a bunch of these $2-3500 due at signing + tax deals, which, to me, seem like complete crap because they tend to hide a good amount of cap cost in them. Feels like more of a west coast thing, and almost surprises me that this hasn’t changed in years.
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They can’t figure out your tax for you and the deals they post are easily modified if you plug their lowest common denominator numbers in with what suits you (your tax rate, months, miles, MSDs or not, $0 DAS, etc.) on the LHer calculator or whatever.
Would be too difficult other than to post the bare minimums that everyone knows are bare minimums anyway.
Because it’s marketing and it works on the masses. Very simple to roll it into the deal without a calculator. But subconsciously people like 600/mo with 5k down. 24/10 Porsche macan. Over a 825/mo advertisement. Same reason people use 9 at the end of many prices too
Not saying I agree with it. But that’s why…
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I’d argue that most people using a broker are payment shopping. The goal of their service isn’t to provide the best price, but a better price than the average joe would get by walking into a dealership. To most people, that is a good enough.
Sometimes there’s cap cost hidden in the DAS, other times not. I think if someone is worried about the “effective” payment, they have already plugged the brokers numbers into the calculator and have done the math.
We do also have guidelines that are enforced.
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I’d estimate less than 10% of customers that use brokers even look at the calculator. They get the brokers quote try and get 3 dealers to match it. Then go back to the broker
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It’s a very easy solution. Effective monthly (including broker fee) before taxes and govt fees for a 10k mi lease and max MSDs. Customers can adjust it from there, but standardizes the deals.
But nothing is going to change. It’s been discussed countless times, and no one is willing to enforce it. It’s not fair to have two brokers do it, and not make others.
Some brokers are transparent and provide calc links, others do $5000 DAS and a low monthly to bait you. It’s really frustrating but whatever
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As others said, it works because most people like 99% don’t focus on the effective. I had a BMW finance manager look at me confused and admit she had not had anyone look at the deals this way.
For some brokers, when they collect DAS upfront, I suspect they are pocketing additional profit on fees above what their dealers actually charge so it’s to their benefit to continue doing so.
It takes about 5 seconds to calculate
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You’re asking for every ad to be tailored to your specific circumstances.
There’s a 3.5% sales tax rate swing from city to city, just within the state of California.
On the other side of the country, imagine all of the dealers and brokers who service multiple little states in the NE, with all the variances in registration costs and sales/other tax rates.
Unfortunately, your suggestion isn’t practical.
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I think the main issue is collecting ccr in their ads. Almost all the Porsche brokers are it seems. Of course you don’t have to put 5k down but that’s how it’s advertised. And on high MF deals it def makes one look better than the other. So pure marketing gimmick
Tax tags is the only variable really. Would be simple to advertise deals that way, but I also think people should be free to advertise however they want as long as all is disclosed.
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We are already at $5,000 DAS on 12m deals.
Soon we’ll be seeing $10,000 DAS on 6m deals. Same monthly though, so
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My sister just got a macan using the forum. She basically had me compare 3 identical deals with just different das. She wanted to go with the one with the highest das and lowest monthly…again it works on the masses.
A true discounted deal will almost never end in “99”mo. Very rare do I run payments and it comes out like that. It’s usually 378, 385 etc. so when you get a quote ending in 99 people should be skeptical from the start. As a broker if I charge 399 vs 378 (actual cost) I just pocketed 22x36 extra into my broker fee. An extra $800 per deal isn’t shabby
If I’m at 403 I’ll actually round down to 399 bc I know the customer is more likely to take the deal. So it works both ways
I’m watching the 12-month CA Porsche CPO deals closely as my Trong lease is up in ~6 months and I’m trying to decide what to do next.
I do have a hard time figuring out which ones are good deals.
But it isn’t because I lack the math skills to add $5k DAS to the sum of the post-tax payments.
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I helped my sister with 4 Porsche brokers here and there was some shadiness going on with all but 1. Not sure if it was coincidental or the norm.
1 kept changing payments higher after agreeing to a price
2 locked in one car and after broker fee was paid changed the car. Literally different interior color/wheels without telling my sister.
3 told us it was a 24 month lease then bumped it to 39 without saying it.
We only went with #2 bc he located the correct color she wanted and reduced his broker fee for the “mistake”. It also was the best deal but the fact he changed interiors without mentioning it was pretty redic…he sent her pictures of the car. Then she paid broker fee. Next day I found out which dealer, looked up the car and it was a different macan (diff interior and wheels). Not cool
I wanted to use @IAC_Scott but logistics didn’t work out making it more money. But he was 100% most transparent. I also wanted to let my sister learn how to get her own lease but I was reading all the texts to make sure everything was good to go.
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Appreciate the kinds words 
On another note regarding your other point about deals ending in “99”. I am OCD about the numbers ending in something nice looking, like 669, 729, etc, so sometimes I massage a few bucks somewhere to make it end in a nine, but I agree, rarely does a deal work out to be something perfectly like 699/mo, but I always tell customers in my normal day to day quotes that one of the ways they know pricing is my best off the bat is due to the funny way the numbers come out, 623/ with 2,941 due, etc, etc, something like that, for a true price with only 1st month and fees up with no cap cost reduction, which is how 80% of my deals are done. Funny enough, my currently posted Taycan did work out within like 2 dollars of 699, hah.
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^ effective before taxes and govt fees is what should be advertised
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I wouldn’t mind if they chose one states taxes and gov fees to advertise with and disclose it. Some already do and say to adjust to your own taxes in the Calc anyway. This way there isn’t a crazy swing in effective when adding NY/NJ taxes. Currently when I see advertised monthlies I just assume effectives are 150-200 higher.
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Queue the endless stream of “broker posts are fake! They said $199/mo and then when i told them my zip it went up to $299! Nothing but no good liars” from the general pop
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