Does anyone understand how a dealer can sell a truck as new that at least according to Carfax, has been titled before? It seems to me that the finance company is the looser here with a potentially inflated residual. My advantages are 1) rebate eligibility 2) discount off MSRP and 3) higher residual - lower payments. The dealer gets to sell a truck they’ve had for a year and used as a registered as a commercial vehicle at a “new” price instead of as a used vehicle.
I just leased a reasonably loaded demo Cadillac XT6 with 3500 miles that was advertised for $499/month with $2999 down plus tax, 24 month lease and 20k miles, so 16,500 miles remaining. The VIN in the ad was equipped exactly as I wanted, with an MSRP of 62,895. The ad price required Costco Rebate, Lease Loyalty, and GM Card sign-up. Knowing I didn’t qualify for Lease Loyalty rebate of $2,500, I went to the dealer and my salesman went to work to find rebates to make up for it, which he did - Lease Conquest ($1,000) and Supplier discount. I qualified for a total of $7,000 in rebates, did the deal and picked it up a few days later. Love the truck
After logging into the Cadillac app, I see that the warranty started 6 months earlier, and the Carfax states that it was titled or registered 6 months earlier as Commercial. It doesn’t matter to me because I don’t intend to buy the truck after the lease, and it qualified for all the rebates. They discounted 8% off MSRP and the residual is $66% of the MSRP. The truck is pristine BTW, virtually no sign of use, except the Battery had been replaced by the dealer.
No complaints about the deal from my end, unless of course someone here convinces me otherwise
Unless the dealer somehow hid the fact that the car had 3500 miles on it then they didn’t really sell it as brand new. The sold it as a demo, courtesy car, service loaner, executive demo, or whatever other clever name they could come up with.
And lots of loaner/demo’s are sold having already been “punched” (titled), it varies by the dealer and manufacturer in how they handle it. Nothing unusual.
But the bank couldn’t care less about the fact that the dealer had previously titled the car. The fact that it’s a demo with 3500 miles was taken into account in the numbers that you signed for.
At the end of the day all that really matters in terms of the car’s value is the condition and miles, not whether CarFax shows one owner or two.
Thanks for that Jeff; makes perfect sense. They didn’t hide the fact that it was a demo and I signed a document stating that I was aware. I think it was used as a courtesy transport vehicle for the US Open in NYC a few months ago. I’m thrilled with the deal and the remaining miles are exactly what I expect to drive. I got a loaded XT6 for what a $10k cheaper base model is leasing for. The Costco limited time offer helped as well
I didn’t word it correctly but in my case, the lease if for the $16,500. That’s the mileage allotment on the lease document. I drive about $7k/yr so it’s not an issue for me. My last lease was a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. I was allotted 30k and only drove about 19k. Ended up buying that for cash from Chrysler Financial, keeping it for 6 more months, then selling to Carvana for more than I paid to buyout the lease.
