First post here- I’ve been diligently scouring these forums for information the past two days as I’m currently looking to get a solid deal on a well-equipped Cadillac XT5 or CTS. I’m the dude who spent my 20s being super impulsive and making awful decisions with cars, now I’m a frugal self-employed 35 year old and I don’t mind waiting a month (or longer) for the right deal.
Anyway- I’ll get down to it now- I got an email from a dealership here in Florida, the gist of it was:
New 2018 ESCALADE MODELS SAVE $7500
New 2018 XT5 MODELS SAVE $10,000
New 2018 CTS MODELS SAVE $15,000
New 2018 CT6 MODELS SAVE $15,000
New 2018 XTS MODELS SAVE $15,000
It wasn’t clear if they were specific stock numbers but upon emailing them I was told it was on remaining courtesy vehicles. Cool- makes sense.
After exchanging a couple of emails where (I’d only really discuss MSRP and sell price) and getting a couple of quotes, none of the sell prices even came close to the 10-15k off MSRP. I think 5k was the most I saw off MSRP, and there was a $2k “addendum” added to MSRP (I’m guessing this increases the residual, but it wasn’t explained to me why they were bumping MSRP).
Anyway- I finally asked them to provide me with specific XT5 and CTS stock numbers that qualified for the discounts outlined in the email. I was then told that’s for purchases only.
After a day of light emailing back and forth I’m thinking… the guy knows why I emailed him, the huge discount. So now I’m wondering, was the email just to lure in suckers, is he playing games, or is there really a difference in what kind of discounts a dealer can give on lease vs buy.
The email didn’t have any lease/buy verbiage in it and I made it very clear from the start I was interested in those discounts and leasing only.
Anyway- I appreciate any input and hope I didn’t violate any forum guidelines with my first long-winded post!
I get that it was meant to lure me in- I may have worded that wrong. I work in marketing- I guess I don’t get the point of leading me on for a day and not just being like “no- if you’re leasing that deal isn’t for you”. Seems like a waste of everyone’s time. Maybe they’re hoping I’m not going to challenge them when I see the $630 payment on a courtesy CTS.
Now he’s just frustrated a potential customer in a day-in-age where people are quick to leave negative reviews on Google and Facebook (I’m not that guy, but still seems risky).
I’m not convinced if I emailed back right now and asked him to work up a deal to purchase with that discount, they could.
That’s exactly what they hope will happen. Many people interested in a lease don’t understand the intricacies behind it, or understand you can negotiate a lease just as if you were purchasing a car. Keep in mind, the members of this forum are just a small fraction of the leasing public. They see the monthly payment and say “Ok, that sounds good…sign me up!” The bad deals also help them make the good deals for someone more savvy. Most of the dealers are not going to give you their best price right off the bat. You have to work for it. The less you work, the more money in their coffers when it’s all said and done.
Many times, again, on a purchase, they will include ALL incentives that are available on the car, not necessarily those that you will qualify for. So, you’re probably right, they probably couldn’t work up a deal including all rebates on a purchase. I don’t track purchasing rebates, as I’m not interested, so I can’t say for sure, but an educated guess would say that you’re probably correct.
At the end of the day though, they now know you’re interested, so you’re now a lead to them.
Rebates are very different on buy vs lease… We have about $8k in Customer Cash in Houston on Escalades(not including loyalty) and only $3200 For Lease…
@cjm41 Cadillac websites advertise a huge discount upfront on cash and financed purchases. The discounts for leasing are anywhere from 25-50% of the discount you would receive if you financed the vehicle. I can help if you would like to come up to Atlanta. I just leased an Escalade to a buyer that came up from Florida last week . Please message me if you need any help.
@ATLCadillac I’ll browse your website and see what you’ve got in stock. I’m looking for a solid discount on a courtesy CTS or XT5, so if you don’t have those on hand it’s a non-starter. I am not currently in a lease, I don’t have a trade-in, and I run my business from my home office (I’m flexible and don’t put miles on vehicles) so I’ve got no problem flying up to Atlanta (a city I am familiar with- I lived in Savannah for 7 years and would go up on weekends) and driving back if you can do FL leases.
BTW, I think I’m in a FB Group you may have started.
Thanks @ATLCadillac you’d be hard pressed to get me in a car with beige interior, but I’ll definitely look around a bit at what you’ve got. How often do you guys retire courtesy vehicles?
I’ll keep you guys on my shortlist (there are a few dealership sites I’ve been hawkeying for a week or so).
Unfortunately as Florian I know what you mean, Usually they stacked all of the incentive ( most of them is not applicable for Public) , adding a lots of Dealer Installed , and then high dealer fee, docs fee and even preparation fee on top of that!
try other dealers , specially far away from you, email their internet manager with targeted price. I leased 4 car in past 3 years and I picked up almost all of my car from 100+ mile radius .
You guys like living on the edge of that 7500 mark! Does the lease absorb those miles effectively bringing the 30k mile allotment over the life of the 36/mo lease down to 22,517 miles?
This is a point of contention. The official GMF documentation says it does, along with others in the forum that have done GM demo/loaner leases…some dealers say it doesn’t. I suspect the dealers that say it doesn’t buy the miles back in the lease so you don’t lose them.
Interesting. Is it reasonable to think If the dealer is willing to let me eat the miles rather than have to purchase them back from GM, I could leverage that into a discount, essentially letting me leave with a lease that’s already burned ~7500 miles and some extra cash in my pocket each month?
. Please message me if you need any help.