Looking for advice in Colorado!

Hey guys, been lurking for awhile and thought I’d finally post. Don’t know if I’m posting this in the right place, but long story short is I’m posting here for advice on whether or not the broker I’m working with is giving it to me straight or if I should shop around for another.

I’m currently financing a C450 AMG and am looking to get out of it and into a lease to lower my monthly payment a bit. I was hoping you guys could read through our email exchange and tell me if my expectations are unrealistic? Here they are:

So, I don’t know if it’s possible with how stupidly low C450s are selling for (although mine has a much better spec than the ones I’ve seen), but I’d like to get into a lease on an M340i xdrive, an Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti Sport AWD, Jaguar XE R-Sport AWD, or Genesis G70 3.3T AWD for $400-500/mo. I’ve seen on leasehackr and other sites people are consistently finding those cars and leasing them for low to mid 300s, so maybe it’s doable for $400-500 with whatever negative equity I have to roll over from the Benz? Credit score ~830.

Candidly, your assumptions are unrealistic at this point because 1) we don’t know the amount of any negative equity and 2) Leasehackr is not a reliable or credible source - they don’t buy or sell cars. I suspect the lease prices you saw on the vehicles involved a substantial cap reduction, no taxes and minimal miles.

Let’s wait a week and see what lease incentives are available in January -

Malcolm

Understand. My buddy just got a mid-300s lease quote on an Alfa Ti Carbon from autonation. Are leases like financing in the sense that “every $1000 financed is $20/mo?” If that is the case, and say I have $4000-5000 in negative equity in the Benz, wouldn’t I be looking at mid-400s a month?

Your buddy had to put down a considerable amount of $$$ to have a monthly payment in the $ 350 range - its a $ 44-$46K vehicle.

Your correct - rolling over negative equity will cost closer to additional $ 30 per month per $ 1,000 of negative equity.

My recommendation is to focus on an exit strategy for the MB - once we’ve have confirmed bids we’ll know accurately how much NE you have to roll over - we can then outline how much a monthly lease payment you would have .

Next Steps:

1) When you return to Colorado, let’s schedule an app’t for me to appraise vehicle so I can create a detailed bid sheet to send out.  

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What do you guys think? Self-admittedly I know very little about leasing and I do have a bit of negative equity in the Benz, so if he is spot on and my expectations are unrealistic please let me know!

Thanks, and looking forward to learning the intricacies of leasing.

Ben

You left out so much info (how much negative equity you have, drive off amounts and terms of your mentioned lease deals, etc), but the broker’s responses sound correct. There’s no way anyone got low-mid 300’s on a 340 w/o significant CCR.

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I’m thinking about $4000 in negative equity, give or take $500.

I suggest reading up more on how leases work.

Also you’re better off selling the C450 privately. It’s basically a C43, right?

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It IS a C43. The C450 was rebadged the C43 in 2017. Only difference between the two is an additional two gears in the gearbox.

Welcome. And if you’ve been around a little, you know you didn’t give us much to work with numbers-wise.

From LH or BYOB(roker)?

Don’t worry about what other people got their leases for and focus on controlling your deal. Which starts with your current encumbrance.

Smart broker

No point in speculating, broker is right. Get your payoff and get quotes from vroom/carvana/carmax and see how deep the hole is.

In general though

Just remember you aren’t a European nation: you can’t always spend your way out and expect to owe less at the end. :money_with_wings::money_with_wings::money_with_wings:

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