[Lease Analysis] Jaguar XE w/ drastic change in MF after credit pull

Ask the Hackrs
1

Hi there -

I went into a Jag dealership yesterday after discussing numbers over phone/text/email all day believing I had a pretty good deal laid out.

Here’s the lease info that I agreed upon before heading over to the dealership (based out of LA):

2017 Jaguar XE 25t
MSRP $37,933
Selling Price $33,700 (11% off MSRP)
Residual 58%
MF 0.00072 for Tier 1
10,000 mi/yr for 39 months
$4,000 downpayment (including $1,000 Dealer rebate, my own down payment, first monthly payment, acquisition fee, tax, licensing fee etc.)
$3,000 total drive-off
Monthly payment including tax $307.14

This being my first car shopping experience ever, I thought I did pretty good and was personally happy with the deal.

Now here’s where things go south…
Once I arrived at the dealership and they checked my credit score, lo and behold, I wasn’t qualified for Tier 1 MF due to my Transunion auto score.

My Transunion & Equifax score on CreditKarma (I know this is not the most reliable source) is ~730 and my FICO score is 719. The Transunion auto score the dealership came back with was 643 which is their Tier 5. Almost 80 point difference. :weary:

So the MF went from 0.00072 (1.7% APR) to .00182 (4.36% APR) & thus raising my monthly payment including tax to $381.57

Because I already got what I thought was a good selling price & the change was due to my oversight on credit score, I ultimately decided to take the deal. Now that’s a big discrepancy from $307 monthly to $382 monthly which I’m not thrilled about at all.

Has anyone else been in a situation similar to this? Is it possible for me to get a better MF/APR after some time on the lease? Can it be renegotiated?

I’m super happy with the car, but really wish I could have gotten the Tier 1 MF :sweat:

2

Well the first issue you are putting money done in a lease which is a big no no on this forum.

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3

I agree down payment is less than ideal, but Jaguar doesn’t offer MSDs to lower MF :smirk:

4

But you may as well just keep the down payment in you bank account and use it to supplement the payment.

5

It all comes down to personal preference & I prefer to have a lower monthly payment w/ down payment. What I want to know - more importantly - is if MF is negotiable some point during the lease if the auto score is to go up.

6

Everything in life is personal preference, you just run the risk of losing your down payment should something bad happen to the car. That is why people are against it here.

I would look at another car manufacturer where they use a different credit score system

1 Like
7

The fiscal risk of down payment (technically Cap Cost Reduction) loss is overplayed. Certainly doesn’t warrant 3/3 comments in a thread where it’s not even relevant to the question being asked. Can you name any other instance where people are so overwhelmingly preoccupied with what is probably a 4-, 5- or 6-sigma event concerning such a trivial (relative to your stock portfolio) amount of money?

The answer to the OP’s question is no, with a small caveat. There is no legal obligation for the dealer to redo your lease at a different APR, AFAIK. One person on this forum did say he was able to go back to the manager, and convince him to redo his lease on a lower MF; the manager apparently agreed because his customer satisfaction index was very important to him and he didn’t want go get dinged over a small amount.

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8

What is a sigma event? And stock portfolios… Now that is getting off topic. He clearly wanted comments on his lease otherwise why post all the figures, it has no relevance to the MF question.

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9

…

First off, I’m a she.

And second, to reiterate my post - I’m a first-time car leaser with no prior experience (I’M A TOTAL NOOB AT THIS OKAY?) hence why I wanted to run numbers by here. And yes, I do believe the figures are pertinent to the MF question because I wanted to check the dealer is not pulling some crazy trick out of their hat with the MF tweak in their math.
I already read and understood the risk of putting down payment, plus I already got the car so no looking at other manufacturers. I was considering doing MSDs with BMW but ultimately decided to go with the Jag.

Now if you are done sprinkling your hate dust, please GTFO

1 Like
10

@max_g

Thanks! that’s actually helpful. I’ll do some digging around to find that post. So sounds like it IS possible (albeit a very small chance) to renegotiate the APR - so there’s some hope at least. Is it plausible to have that big of a discrepancy between the FICO/credit score and the auto score though?

The manager told me my auto score is likely low because I have no prior car lease/finance history, and I’m hoping the score goes up after few months of payment.

11

Wow, ok, apologies for confusing the sex, it was remiss of me. But I believe that this has got way out of hand. There was no hate intended at all. Everyone here tries to help, I’m sorry if it did not come across that way. I did not realise you already had the car, I see now that I should have read more closely.

Please chill out, no hate dust being sprinkled here. I hope you enjoy the car.

12

Also, I believe once you have signed the documents you are tied into the lease, no going back. We have had people get better MFs by talking to managers before they sign.

1 Like
13

I’ve leased 7 cars and never totaled any of them, but I always liked to keep my payments lower. I did not know as much as I know now about leasing and a few of my first leases where with about $3,5-4K down just because I wanted lower payments and had cash to put down. So, yes - it’s a personal preference and adults can decide for themselves whether to take the risk of losing CCR IF the car is totaled.

2 Likes
14

Yes the MF is negotiable if you know what the base MF is. My dealer tried the first time to mark it up all the way on me. I told them it was supposed to be xxxxx and they said ok. The next two over the next two months, they didn’t even bother trying, as they told me I knew more about leasing than any salesman or finance person there.

15

Agree 100%, I would also like to know why, if you have GAP insurance, does it matter? Is it because say you put $5k down, write the car off the next day, the insurance will pay off the amount you owe on the car leaving you clear of debt but they won’t give back your down payment… Or are there cases where they will give it back?

16

@adamcar but that is before you signed and drove off. The OP has signed and wants to renegotiate once the score improves.

17

@Ed_Churchward I’m chill & all’s good. It’s just frustrating to repeat what I already wrote in the original post. I need to get you a pair of :eyeglasses:

So the important thing here is that APR is not negotiable after all is signed? I only asked this question in the first place because I read you can refinance if you were to finance, but wasn’t sure if that’s applicable to lease as well.

18

Also does MF of 0.00182 for Tier 5 (where my auto score stands) sound reasonable? Is it regarded as high or pretty good?

19

Well I think all you can do is pay off your lease with straight finance and then you would have a standard loan. Perhaps you could drive the car for a year and then try and get somebody to take it over as it seems a good deal so might not be hard. Then you can get a new car with a new lease. Don’t know if Jag let you transfer leases though.

20

We always ask people to post all the details of their lease, don’t we? It would be ironic, to say the least, if we then held that against them.