This is probably going to jump all over, I’m just trying to learn.
Am I going to have to go far to get a good deal on something? So I’m still really new to lease hacking but in the next couple months my wife is looking at getting rid of her 2018 Subaru Crosstrek, and upgrading. Thank goodness cause I hate that car. I’ve been looking around at offers and deals on here but nothing really seems to be around the Wisconsin area where we are located.
She seems interested in a 4Runner or Highlander. An Audi like the ones in the Pre-Negotiated Deal are options I pointed out to her which she liked. Are luxury brands like Audi, Mercedes or Lexus better “bang for you buck” hack wise? Or can a real good deal be had at any manufacturer?
There’s no real easy answer to that question. It depends on a lot of things. The first step would be to identify a particular segment that you are interested in. I could tell you that mainstream brand X leases better than luxury brand Y, but if you desire luxury features, it doesn’t really matter. Pick the segment you need (SUV, Sedan, Etc) and start to compare brands and trims to find the cars out there that have the things you absolutely must have. From there, research the programs available for those cars on the Edmunds forums. You will want to know the residual value, money factor (interest rate) and available incentives in your area. The ideal “hackable” car has a high residual, low interest rate and hopefully some cash from the factory that can be applied to a lease.
Getting the best deal is really about taking the time to learn, working out what a strong deal is, and having the confidence to stick to your targets. WI isn’t a strong market, so reaching further away may net you a better deal, but you can always have someone further away deliver the car to you.
Thanks for the info, as right now any mid-size SUV is on the table. My wife isn’t brand loyal or care about any of that. And although I’m kinda brand loyal its her car so I might push her to what I like, but at the end of the day its her car and she get whatever she wants. Hell her first and main reason for buying the Crosstrek was because of the color. I know you’re looking for the high residual and low interest rate. I just didn’t know if the more luxury brands tend to have a higher residual cause they are luxury. Since a lot of the deals I see coming across are for BMW, Audi, Mercedes and the others similar.
Why not go and test drive a few vehicles and see what you like. You can use this site to see if a possible deal falls into your payment comfort zone. Once you have narrowed down then you start to collect quotes and work the numbers.
Yeah we are going to start doing that, probably after the start of the New Year. I know she wants to test drive a 4Runner and well go on from there to see what she likes. I just wanted to see if maybe a good deal could be had better with say Audi over a Chevy. But like others have stated its a matter of the residual and interest rate.
If you are lucky you’ll see artificially pumped up Residuals on some of the volume moving models and trims from BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc. The reality is that they mostly depreciate like rocks in the real world. Just looking really quick and dirty on the Edmunds forums the Audi Q5 seems to have the best program this month versus similar vehicles like the BMW X5 and Mercedes GLC (forgive me if those aren’t the most apt comparisons). This can change month to month, and other loyalty incentives, conquest incentives and special corporate discounts can tilt the balance one way or another depending on what you qualify for.
Luxury doesn’t mean higher residuals. Some luxury brands can lease well due to loaner / demo inventory, steep discounts off MSRP, incentive based programs, etc. Look for brands / models with large pre incentive discounts and figure out what incentives you qualify for.
It’s more than residual and interest rate. It’s discount preincentives, it’s incentives you qualify for and can stack. And then finding a dealer who checks all the boxes.
I got you, I guess that’s were my mindset was kinda at. I assumed them to be higher end luxury so they would be a better deal then the more blue collar type brands.
I’m in South Central WI and I’ve arranged two leases from the Chicago area. The most recent one, they offered to drive the vehicle about 2 hours for free. After you read the Leasing 101 link above, make a spreadsheet with all the dealerships you want to contact. I’ve had decent luck getting the ball rolling putting a bunch of zip codes into TrueCar. But, you can absolutely skip that. Spend time looking at recent deals on this forum and learn how to use the lease calculator so you can start to figure out what kinds of discounts equal what type of payments.
It’s all about discount, incentives/rebates, Money Factor, and Residual. Also, once you get a reasonably decent quote, post it here for feedback before signing the deal.
Thanks for the info, I’ll look into that after we start test driving some vehicles after the start of the new year.
So with test driving. I know most dealerships are going to want to talk numbers right away or try and keep you there somehow. Obviously we aren’t going to be taking her car when we do this so they can’t try the whole “looking for you keys speech”. But what do you say to the salesman/dealer if you’re just going in to test drive and have no intention of purchasing or signing anything at that time.
I make an appointment ahead of time for the test drive, during typically slow hours, and tell them upfront that I’m still trying to narrow down vehicles and not ready to move forward yet.
Be respectful of their time, don’t eat up prime sales hours, and be honest about where you are in the process. They’ll probably still try to get info or have the manager so the handshake, but you can at least do your part.
So a question when looking at vehicle prices online. When you see something like what I’ve pictured below do you including the $4,750 off the deal as well when you put the info into the calculator or no. Like I went to edmunds and found the Residual and MF for this car(not in my area) just trying to confirm I’m using the calculator correctly.
Edmunds Noted
.00023 MF and 57% residual
$250 customer incentive
though neither may be practical for WI.