It used to be a place where people provide insights on how to hack a lease, get better deal, and which levers can be pulled.
Nowadays, I only see people just promoting brokers.
Nothing wrong with it, but the sentiment feels different from what it was few years ago in this community
I mean the most popular threads by far in the past few months have been about the 4XE and how to get the best deals on them.
Unless you are specifically looking at Marketplace or reviews, I barely see “upselling brokers”.
This is a crowdsourced education site in my opinion, everything else is just gravy.
perhaps the sentiment has changed because a) there aren’t really deals to be “hacked” and b) whatever non-list deals there are, are provided solely by brokers?
Too many noob’s asking redundant questions and either expecting to be spoonfed or not doing enough research. If that’s the case, save yourself the trouble and work with a broker. Makes sense, no?
You can tell based on the posts and lines of questioning who has put effort into it and whom hasn’t. For the ones who do put the work in, you’ll see the TH’ers and more responding in kind.
Edit: when you also see views like this at multiple dealerships, there’s not much more to say
By virtue of the market, I don’t think that’s cynical if you only look at the past 3 months.
Nobody asked, but I’ll volunteer:
I’ve used a broker once myself, there are at least 6 here (for various reasons) I would recommend a friend/family use them, pay their full fee, and feel good about it. And i want to educate people to get great deals like my prior 6 leases, but the market is 
A few months back (before things really went shit) Chevy Bolts were a thing, and hardly any brokers for those, mainly dealers direct to buyers, aided by LH regulars as you describe.
would you use me even if i dont charge a fee up-front???
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.
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).
This has been ramping up for years. I don’t know that I have seen a particularly noticeable uptick attributable to the recent market.
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.
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! 
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.
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 
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?
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.
