I’m not here to give specific endorsements. And I briefly worked for the phone company, so if you ask me for a recommendation I’ll just read the first 3 from the top of the list.
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I feel like the current market has driven a lot of traffic here with people scouring the internet for ways to get some normal pricing on their next vehicle, hence all the “feed me info threads”. (mods can probably confirm based on data).
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This has been ramping up for years. I don’t know that I have seen a particularly noticeable uptick attributable to the recent market.
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It would be very surprising to me if the website didn’t receive a uptick in traffic lately. Even without new accounts
Oh, I’m sure there’s more traffic. I mean the prevalence of “spoonfeed me everything” posts.
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I don’t think I’m painting with too broad a brush when I say: no payment-shopper got through life by doing long-division
I can easily explain why you should lease, but how takes time, and effort, and curiousity and math and determination. If you are short on any one of those, and you still want to lease and get a good (better than they likely woukd on their own in the finance office) deal, pay a professional. 
Memba Boltmania 1 and 2? e-trons, 4xe, NJ EVs a plenty, Camaros, V60s, there were so many surprise babies! 
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Gimme a break. One or two isolated comments in a long thread define “the sentiment of a forum”?
The current market boils down to this: known quantities in the form of brokers, some of whom have very long term history here, which does go a long way in terms of recommendation, if not for results just from being on people’s minds thanks to staying power/perseverance. The other side of the coin is reaching out to as many dealers as you can and grinding out your own deal. This has pretty much always been the case, the difference is that now the grinders and hackrs are playing the game on hard mode thanks to inventory constraints and other market forces. Unless you REALLY like playing the game a broker offering a deal that you consider fair may be the best way to go, especially when you consider that broker deal may be gone by tomorrow if you don’t act quickly.
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I think this empty lots affect popular brand like Toyota and/or location.
Hyundai dealer in Dublin have plenty of cars on the lots. Give or take about a hundred car just 2 weeks ago. I visited a friend in Walnut Creek and the Cadillac and Mercedes dealers still have plenty of cars on the lot. Definitely not as packed as before, but not as barren as the picture above.
Totally agree.
I happen to “Really” like playing the game 
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Totally agree. I feel like there used to be more posters who put in more effort rather than just asking for a handout. Ask a lazy question, get a lazy answer. And my lazy answer is “use a broker.” Why should I do more work than the poster asking the question?
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Lot of upset replies here, but I see what you’re saying. I suppose the people with the most incentive to post often are going to be brokers, so you’re going to see a cluster of brokers promoting other brokers depending on brand/region. Three years ago I used this forum to hack a 50k+ 3 series for $292 and now, after digging around, I’ll be happy to hire a broker. The terrible market is partly at issue too, in my opinion.
A broker will always get you close to the best deal possible on a specific car in a specific month. Anyone coming here looking for the best <insert brand/models> having done no legwork will be best served by a broker.
What a broker won’t do is help you find the right car to lease in that perfect month when the planets align. They (justly) don’t want to talk to you until you are ready to lease this month.Biding your time and reading is where the best hacks are and you’re only going to get there spending time on the forum.
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It’s not that we don’t want to talk to you, but we do ask that your expectations are reasonable and that you be forthright with us and by extension treat our time like you’d treat your own.
There are clients I still keep in touch with regularly months, and even years after our last business transaction.
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Personally I believe LH is a platform for discourse about how to get the best deal.
If you’re shopping today, a broker that has an established legitimate business can likely offer you a better deal than you’ll find no matter how hard you shop.
Don’t get me wrong, a determined customer can still find a deal because ultimately the broker is just offering numbers that a store is willing to take … It’s just less common right now.
There was a thread about an Acura either today or yesterday and that guy got a great deal without using a broker. There are still deals out there you just have to be flexible and ready to jump.
Right now, it’s more broker skewed because some of us can still offer consistent and repeatable deals in this bad market.
However, the car world really isn’t set up for MSRP sales because inventory and dealer profitability are mostly based on flow through. If you sell more, you get more cars and more desirable builds.
The stores that try to maintain the gross profit model are going to get slaughtered once inventory AND production get somewhat normal.
Either at the end of this year or next spring I think you’ll see the forum shift again to more consumer discussion because there will be more cars and dealers are going to need to move metal.
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That number was absolutely wild. Could make sense, though. Paragon Acura is currently showing 90 TLXs in stock and 12 a-specs. Could have been trying to dump a unit ahead of quarter/month end. That dealer is notorious for hitting people over the head.
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I don’t think it’s become that. Many Trusted Hackrs offer their feedback, experiences, and recommendations in an effort to continue building a community of Hackrs . Unfortunately the majority of those recommendations are for members to educate themselves since so many people expect to be spoon fed deals. With many people unwilling to put in the legwork, the increasing number of recommendations to use a broker are the product of that.
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LeaseHackr has become of forum to complain about only realizing $5K in positive equity after possessing a vehicle for one month.
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If you would have told me 2 years ago that a Tacoma with an 83% RV would be a fantastic buy at lease end or selling one 3rd party would net you almost $7K in equity I would’ve asked if you had a bridge to sell me too.
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I’ve been here for a couple of years, albeit relatively quiet. I’ve learned a lot and I’ll admit that I’ve probably not been too helpful to people. This forum has driven me to do a lot of research to try to understand how lease deals work and what’s in it for dealers. During that time I’ve come up with a list of brokers I’d definitely trust.
I don’t really ask “is this a good deal” because I’ve done all the legwork and kind of have an idea of what would be good for me. No point in asking other people’s opinions and then feeling bad about it. I leased a car on Thursday. I was about to start working with a LH broker but my local dealer got the exact car I wanted in stock that day and agreed to my terms.
Yes, I see a lot of broker ads here, but that’s what the market is now. Either do the work or pay someone to do it for you. Many times it’s better for you financially to pay someone to do it for you. People seem to expect members here to go do all the work for them and then post where and when to get the deals. That may lead you to think that the forum is not very helpful.
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