Lease for Buyout… looking for help on the math (Audi A6 etron sportback)

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Hi, I am very new to leasing… i put too many miles on to lease, but in order to take advantage of the Audi lease credit for EVs, i am exploring a lease for buyout. I want to learn how the math works to make sure that most of the credit actually gets passed on to me in the process…. I suspect it will never be 100%. I did search for buyout threads but could not find one that answers the payment question. Please point me in that direction if you know of a good guide.

Here is my understanding, please correct me if i am wrong.

I negotiate a price off MSRP, then the lease credit is also applied. They will calculate a rate and payment and i will have to make a down payment, pay the lease for four months and then pay the residual and the remaining 20 or 32 payments at once to take ownership.
I am told Audi (and VW) does not allow an immediate buyout.

Where i get confused is what the sum total of the payments will be. The lease sheet has a Lease depreciation and a lease Charge. Those added together are the lease payment. That is what i would normally pay monthly during the lease.

However, when i go to buy the lease out, i am being told the remaining payments would be just the lease depreciation. The lease charge does not apply at the buyout because that is the finance charge on the rent. IS that correct?

Also, since I am planning to buy the lease out, what factors should i still care about, term? Money factor? Will they really move the needle that much for 4 months?

Here is an example. This is not likely the deal i will go with.

If my math is correct, the total cost of the car for me is the 5999 down payment, 4 payments of 791, 32 payments of 504 and the residual of 41886, a total of 67177, which is 4754 less than an outright cash purchase with the same dealer discount, which means that 2800 of the lease credit is lost. Not great, but better than zero. 895 of it to acquisition fee i suppose.

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Is there a better way to approach this?

Also, bonus question. I will be moving from CA to OR in the next few months. I guess that i will pay tax on the DP and payments made during CA, but then the buyout will not be taxed at CA rates if i have moved by the time the buy happens, meaning the benefit of buying in OR is still realized on the majority of the purchase price. Am i right there too?

Thank you for any guidance.

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You can buy it out immediately. Your immediate buyout will be approximately the adjusted cap cost plus fees and taxes.

Your buyout will lower roughly $500 each month.

With that said, look at the real world depreciation on the etrons that are a few years old. Do you really want to financially tie yourself to that anchor?

3 Likes
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Exactly, compare the cost of albuyimg someone else’s 2-3 yr old lease turn-in and you will probably come out ahead from a depreciation standpoint.

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Well, there are no 2-3 year old A6 since it just came out, but I understand what your re saying, but i put 20k or more miles a year on the car, so i am the depreciator…. And there isn’t much else out there with the range and charging speed i would like.

So in the example above, adjust cap costs is “net cap cost”, so i pay 5999 down and then a week late pay 60052 for a total of ~66000?

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Lease a cheap second EV or pay the additional miles at the end, either strat likely to be less expensive than buying the A6.

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Plan B for you: consider a low mileage CPO MBZ as they come with unlimited mileage warranty and have taken much bigger depreciation hit than 7500 credit.

Plan C: CPO Lexus RZ. Charging and range are not impressive, good car otherwise. You can also lease and buy out with Lexus as you described above. RZs are actually made in Japan and are reliable unlike anything German where you may get stuck between two states lemon laws.

Which brings up the last point - consider holding off until you move to OR (or at least can show OR residency for legal and tax purposes). Presume OR tax rate will be lower?

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Yup. If you can afford to do a single pay lease, that’s the cheapest way to go if you’re buying the vehicle within a few months after lease signing. Your posted deal is horrible. The dealer discount looks weak to me. Suggest you read the following…

Single Payment Adjusted Lease Balance Calcuations, Optimality, and Purchase Option.pdf (948.6 KB)

It covers everything from structuring a minimum cost single pay lease to buyout calculations. This does require considerable thought… so, have patience.

If you want to stick with a monthly payment structure, the pdfs below will help.

Monthly Payment Adjusted Lease Balance and Buyout Calculations.pdf (976.5 KB)

Building a Motor Vehicle Lease- Data Collection and Calculations.pdf (403.6 KB)

??? Let me know.

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Depends on what the continuing depreciation looks like.

RZ is a good idea and their leases are cheap enough to be the second car + it doesn’t feel like a beater like some other cheap leases.

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You get to pay taxes and fees on that $60052, so more like $72000 total.

Or take advantage of the sales tax benefits of Oregon and wait to buy out

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That single pay lease pdf looks like a masters thesis! I will try and digest that this weekend, but i assume any benefit of that program is going to be wiped out by CA tax versus OR, so i would need to wait until i had my proof of residence for that.

I did consider the EQS 450+… and i guess i still am. It’s a bit bigger than i would want, but it does have some nice features and is lower cost.

One thing not mentioned earlier is that i will be doing A LOT of long distance roadtrips, so i am willing to pay a little for more a long range, fast charging car. A6 checks those boxes.

Thank you for the continued feedback.

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EQS 450+ sedan could exceed 400 mi on freeway if driven gently. It does charge slower than A6 but still peaks at about 205 kw. AMG line (exterior trim) helps with freeway range.

How long of a drive are we talking about though?

EQE is smaller but has shorter range and slower charging speed.

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There will be three legs mostly…
693 miles
316 miles
And 194 miles

That’s one way.

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EQS 450+ sedans start in the 30s, 40+ gets a nice one. Hard to imagine dropping to zero over 3-4 years, maybe ~50% drop? Anyone’s guess at this point.

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I think you’re looking at this wrong. And, as usual, I see yet another dealer WS that’s garbage. The due at signing (DAS) itemization is a mess and very confusing to any novice…

Your rebate plus out of pocket cash totals 7500.00 + 5999.00 = 13499.00. Of this total, 9932.84 is allocated toward a cap reduction while the 3566.16 balance is applied toward the DAS…

DAS fees should be itemized as follows…

*1st pay… 791.05
Inception Fees… 2462.69
Sales Tax… 312.42
Customer Cash… 5999.00
TOTAL FEES… 9565.16
Cash Credit… 3566.16
DAS… 5999.00

Bottom line: DAS = 5999.00 followed by 35 monthly payments of 791.05 each.

Why are you paying 5999 out of pocket? That is so unnecessary. If you total the car or if it’s stolen, you risk losing all or some portion of the 5999. Remember, a car is a depreciating asset and, therefore, an expense, not an investment.

*Why is there no tax on the base payment? CA levies tax on the base payment streams

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Yes I’ve seen a few near me in the low 40s. Probably worth a look.

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693 mi will require a charge halfway on either EQS or a6. 316 mi will need one at destination. Yeah, RZ won’t be the best for this scenario. I’d say coin toss between A6 and EQS if looking at charging alone.

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To be fair, i am not paying 5999, that was the example and the only worksheet i had at the time of posting. I am a novice, but i have read this forum enough not to put a huge number down. I wont be paying a high down.

There’s no tax because that worksheet is from an OR dealer.

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Not likely. Run the numbers, don’t assume.

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Ok, I’ll give it a try,. Do i just insist that the dealer do a one pay? Or i have to find one that can?

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Is there a spreadsheet based on the 3 methods already created i can use?