Is it a good time to get a lease? NO! When will it get better? Nobody knows

The merely “good” deal (by LH standards) from a couple years ago is almost a unicorn now.

So unless you enjoy the chase, don’t bother

If you can wait, then wait.

But don’t ask when it will get better because nobody knows.

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Well, Labor Day is right around the corner, you know.

*queue up Labor Day sales questions in 3…2…1…

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So true man — it’s a fight out there — Audi was the last one remaining

Covid plus a sharp increase in Uber rates and 0.9% interest rates are making cars a commodity

I have to pay $500 for a fking Alfa. Thinking bout getting a GX but no CarPlay

Just the Etron, right? Even that required having Costco but negotiating beyond Costco, plus Loyalty plus max MSD.

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Yeah for 24 months loyalty is a requirement as the drive-offs are killer. Yeah 10% off plus the available incentives will still give you a monthly of around $675/mo or higher all in

Best bet would be to focus on cars with high residuals

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Or if you need a car. If you lease, and you only have one car, you’ll need something new assuming you can’t extend your current lease.

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So hanging up your apron and retiring from this forum? I will pay for the cake!

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I agree…Ive been looking for the past few weeks and I have ceased polling dealers for literally anything. $550/mo 3 series BMW do not float my (or anyone else on this forum’s) boat.

Short of some reasonable broker postings here, and the occasional dealer giveaway (like the @ethanrs Trax yesterday), its probably not worth the effort. The diligence that has paid off in the past will only have a relative level of success currently. The way to go now IMO is to try find a good lease swap. I found one yesterday and am starting the process tomorrow.

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We need to make the holiday car sales thread a sticky…

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Agreed. Getting my RDX was a slog with many citing market conditions as their rationale for not being more competitive. I think for the current market I did as well as I could.

I’d say this is true. The last couple years, hacking cars from several brands like MB, BMW, Hyundai, etc was insanely easy. A lot of the deals I’m squeezing for family and friends right now are right around 1% and these are the same vehicles that I was hacking for 0.5-0.75% not that long ago. Some of the same sales folks, too. Hopefully that changes next year :blush:

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You mean that the Trax isn’t a unicorn right now, even by pre-covid standards ? /s

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This thread could also be called, “predictions from early April about how manufacturers and dealers would handle COVID came true”.

And as we also recommended back then, the only reason to shop was because you needed a car.

Tacomas and Tundras (until they were gone), and Volvo deals in May and June were better than I expected. Likewise with eTrons. And as other’s mentioned @ethanrs’s Trax fire sale and a few others people snagged along the way. The trend with few exceptions was higher priced metal moving, which is exactly why manufacturers have leasing to begin with.

I’m surprised we’ve had as many as we did, and this disruption will probably last the rest of this year.

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That^^^^^^

Skip buying unless its necessary.

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Id say that one at $150/mo effective probably would be a deal in most all circumstances. I think there were some (maybe Encore?) that were in the $100-150 range a couple of years ago.

My thread planting seeds?

I so got screwed, was looking to pick up a loaner pre lci m550 or m5 and now the production dropped, big rip. Oh well you win some you lose some.

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Hey @jeisensc, IDK about you, but I’m just enough of a jerk to be able to say “Told ya so” with a smile, to the legions of those who pretty much told us we were full of shit.

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I’m less smug about being right that car business turned out as expected (educated guess on my part), more-so about arguments the first week of March that a vaccine would be here “in a few weeks”. Almost 5 months later, we are at least that far from someone getting a shot in the arm - but that came from years of experience (Swine flu and other clinical trials and research) in work I don’t do anymore.

I’m wrong a lot, but I will usually offer some kind of confidence measure with a prediction. Nobody here is an expert or has a crystal ball, but some predictions are better than others.

The jerk in me started replying to max that this should be called “the I told you so superthread”, and then I tempered it just a little.

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Just like toilet paper, good deals will return lol

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