I’m creating a spreadsheet of captive lease rates (MF and RV) of a specific model’s trims (as specific as styles) for a given location. I am able to manually source this information together with each available permutation of terms (months) and allowed mileages. I also have the MSRP of each one. What would be the best way to figure out which of these trims would lease the best for us (consumers)?
For consistency, assume the following:
MSRP is the selling price (not including destination charge)
Zero drive off
No downpayment, rebates, incentives, coupons, lease cache, etc., essentially, no cap cost reduction at all
No trade-in vehicle
No registration fees, doc fees, acquisition fees, etc
No taxes
Given almost everything is constant, plus knowing the terms, allowed mileage, money factor and residual value, I can calculate the following:
Question: Which of these would be the best attribute to score the lease of a group of trims (same model)? My gut feeling is the Total Rent Charge, but I’d like to hear your thoughts as well.
If I’m considering leasing one of two different trims this month, one has $3000 cash on the hood and the other doesn’t, how is excluding the incentives a fair evaluation of which is leasing better?
The answer to your bigger question will be subjective: if I can lease the higher trim for $10/mo more because the RV happens to be higher, one person will think that’s a better value (more stuff for almost the same price), one cheapskate will want the absolute least payment because they don’t care about the extra options.
I think what you’re doing can be used to subjectively compare the RV and MF across trims, and also across terms (is 24 months more than 6 points higher RV with the same MF?). You can decide what matters most to you and filter based on that.
Gotcha. So I think including available manufacturer rebates, incentives, lease cash, etc. is a must, then.
Further questions:
What about acquisition fee and destination charge? Should I roll them in the monthly computation? Do they differ per trim or region?
Do these rates from the captive sources change exactly at the 1st of every month? Is it safe to add an expiry date at the last day and refetch the data at the 1st?
A lot of this information is available, but the definitions in short hand form are helpful.
My suggestion if you care to take it, is compiling undisclosed mfg to dealer incentives. That would be something that would help with information asymmetry that exists in todays marketplace.
