Looking to get my daughter a car to drive to school. Looking to spend under $300 a month. I keep hearing car prices are insane right now. Anyone know of any good lease specials in NJ? Open to any cars.
If you’re able, I would recommend finding a decent used vehicle ($5k-$10k) and pay cash. With the current finance/lease rates, and the fact that she will have the car at college, this is what I would do (with this current market).
I’ve seen at least one Kia Forte advertised recently at $299 with around $2k DAS (iirc).
I believe it was in CA, which obviously won’t work for you, but perhaps that’s at least lukewarm path to pursue for further research.
That’s almost a 20% increase for the effective monthly, from the specified <$300/mo.
I initially thought that too but used cars are so over priced right now too! It’s crazy!
In general, yes, that is absolutely true. You’re not going to waltz into a random dealer’s lot and have your choice of color of the 5 blowout models (which no longer exist).
There are still deals are there to be had. You just have to look in the right place, at the right time. Many on here have recently purchased lower priced (used) vehicles recently at a fair price.
Thank you, yes, that’s pretty close to what I calculated too. 
Just had to poke fun before someone else does! 
I have no idea if the deal I mentioned could scale down to a lower total cost with fewer options/lower MSRP, so it was just a thread to pull on.
No one really needs a built-in laser printer or a corduroy headliner, do they?
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That’s not a realistic target.
I’d prob start the search w/ looking at broker deals here in the NE area to get a sense of what the deals are like. And be open to purchasing instead.
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I can do a Kia Soul close to 350. 4x2 Tacoma sr 300
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What you’re looking for doesn’t really exist.
However all is not lost.
Those $300/month payments equal ~$11,000 over 3 years. That will go a long way towards paying off a financed Corolla, Forte, Leaf, ID4 or similar.
The purchase price on many of those cars are ~10% higher than pre-pandemic but the lease payments are often 100% (or more) higher. So you’d want to finance rather than lease.
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Im just got an offer for a Corolla of $413 WITH 2k down. Just amazingly bad.
As of last week my current lease that needs to be turned in soon has 4-5k in equity. Even factoring that in I can barely get to $300 a month on small cars like a Civic, HRV or CX30. And thats assuming I can find a dealer to do it.
I’m around 413 with $0 down on corolla. That’s not an msrp deal…
I just spent a total of 40 hours going to dealerships to try and find a good “deal”. I highly recommend financing over leasing right now.
While i agree financing is generally the better path right now, youll never find a good deal just going to dealers and asking how much they want you to pay.
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Obviously don’t walk into a dealer and ask them how much they want . I went to multiple dealerships with a deal I wanted and asked them if they could match it .
TBH that’s still not a great use of your time. And you’ve lost most of your leverage by walking in the door. They know the longer they can keep you there the more they can wear down your resistance.
And while someone may chime in that the best deal they ever got was by going in person, that’s generally not repeatable. So counting on lightning to strike twice is not really a viable strategy.
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After searching I think you are right that the best deal right now would be a finance. I haven’t had any luck at all w a decent lease.
My original comment was just to say that financing a vehicle right now may make more sense than some of these leases that are being offered. I used to sell cars , I know what to do and what not to do when entering a dealership. I did not spend more than an hour at a dealer and all my conversations started via email. I went to 5 dealerships and had email communication with 11 dealers.
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