Lexus RZ early buyout

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1

Hey guys, I’m looking into leasing a Lexus RZ450 to take advantage of the $15,000 lease credit. My dealer is taking $7,500 off MSRP and applying the lease credit so effectively $22,500 off of $67k.

Lexus MF is high and monthly payments still in the $700-800 range with no money down. My question is, could I start a lease and buy it out right away (within a few months)? If I do this, would I just be paying residual, taxes and fees, and depreciation? As I understand, I wouldn’t be paying the monthly taxes or rent charge during a buyout.

Any help would be appreciated. I don’t normally lease so everything is new to me. And I know the car has low range and doesn’t have great reviews, but it needs my needs and id consider it a good deal for $45k. Thanks!

2

Please take a look at the used pricing on the RZ around you, in my zip they already retail for low to mid $40k range for very low mileage used ones. I would absolutely not want to own any EV due to unpredictable depraticiaon, especially the RZ due to its lackluster range. It is a good value as a lease, but you might lose significant amount of money on it if you purchase it with the intention of selling it in the next 1-2 years…

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3

Yes. Best to do it within the first month.

You would owe something very close to your adjusted cap cost on the lease:

MSRP
Less discount
Less incentive
Plus:

  • acq fee
  • any reg or upfront tax you chose to roll in
4

Isn’t PA one of the state which require the buy out to be processed by the dealer and the dealer will add some fees to process it?

5

That sounds pretty normal considering the effective new price is $45k.

All of that is not really relevant to someone who doesn’t lease, ie holds their vehicle long term.

Would love to see any evidence that 6+ year depreciation is meaningfully worse than any other mid $40s ICEV crossover like an X1, GLA, QX50, etc.

The value proposition as a $700+ lease is terrible. Hard pass on leasing one for 3 years.

TLDR lease to buy it out immediately, otherwise forget this car.

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6

Some fees wouldn’t be the end of the world if I’m able to secure the $15,000 lease rebate

7

I disagree, I passed up on a $485/month+tax with $485+tax plus MSDs DAS deal at the end of the year with similar $7.5k discount and $15k lease cash at the end of last month for a 27/7.5k lease on an RZ. It is a great lease value but I would not hold onto an EV with 196 mile of range long term. You can look at Nissan Leaf values if you want data around deprecation on low-range EVs. In my opinion, it is too risky to own an EV (especially a low range one like the RZ), I would gladly pay extra money to dump the deprecation risk to the captive.

8

I’m not sure if that’s applicable to the OP if that was a December Hail Mary and/or included an extra $5k from Colorado

9

This gets asked a couple times a week. Lots of related discussion if you search, e.g.

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10

Nope, this offer has been on the table for me the last 2-3 months and I kept asking for more, which they would not agree. I am fairly confident, they would still offer this deal, RZ units are not moving. Also the quote I shared is not factoring in the $5k CO state refund.

OP has pretty much the same deal with the only difference being they have a higher MSRP Luxury trim car versus my RZ was a lower spec Premium car.

11

Before I got my benz, I was trying to get lexus Rz as well n buy it out asap. I found out I have to process the buyout at the dealer n it will add $1-2k on dealer fees.

12

Why did you have to process the buyout at the dealer?

13

In some states, including PA, you have to process buyouts at the dealer. I assume the dealers lobby is responsible for this law/rule.

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14

PA doc fee is capped at $399 iirc

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15

Not sure about that, a local newspaper made a story about this. One Kia dealer charged $1k to process the buyout.