First-time car lessee here, and I recently got an offer on a 36 month 10000 miles/year 2021 Kona Ultimate trim that with an MSRP of $30,285. The dealer has an accessory plan worth $898, and they’re offering a rebate of $3750.
With drive off of about $2,000 (which includes all additional fees and the first month’s lease payment) and a monthly payment of $365 (incl. tax), the total amount I’ll pay over 36 months (with all taxes and fees included) comes up to about $14,800.
I understand that the car market is not great at the moment, but it would be good if I could get an idea of whether I’m getting a decent offer here… Any help would be appreciated, thanks very much.
Have you double checked incentive and MF?
If these are current info, you are essentially paying $3k over sticker for a Kona… And the MY22 is out. Just run away from this dealer.
The incentive they’re offering is $3750 off the sticker price (the rebate wouldn’t apply on the MY22). I mentioned that in the calculator notes, but let me edit my post to include that mention as well. If I’m using the calculator correctly, the MF is ~ 0.00106 (APR 2.54). Is that still a terrible deal?
It is practically impossible for us to tell you what a “good” monthly payment is for your specific lease as lease programs are highly dependent on region, personal qualifications, tax rates, etc.
We always recommend the following method before you ever contact a dealership. If you do all of the work up front, you’ll have a stress free dealer experience and set yourself for success.
Read Leasing 101 (Blog | LEASEHACKR) to understand how to calculate a lease payment and the variables. Monthly payment is an output, not an input!!
Pick a specific vehicle that you want to target
Gather the current MF, RV and incentives from Edmunds forums for your zip code
Research the LH marketplace and other deals that have been made recently on your vehicle - what was their pre-incentive discount? How did their lease terms differ?
Plug your numbers into the LH calculator (CALCULATOR | LEASEHACKR), and use a pre-incentive discount similar to what you have seen
Create a target deal, this is what you’re trying to negotiate to. You can try different terms, selling price discount, etc. and see how your monthly payment is affected. It is also possible that different trims of your vehicle may have different MF and RV (i.e. this is very common with GM), so make sure that you look into that. Come up with a set of inputs that give you the output that you want - your desired monthly payment.
With a target price determined, you now have a deal to pursue and compare dealer offers against. More importantly, you have a solid foundation to work from.
