Maximizing Deals as a New Lessee

Ask the Hackrs
1

Hi all,

I’m new here, I did try to look around the forums as I’m sure this has been asked before, but I didn’t see anything that hit my specific questions.

My basic question is this—as someone who’s never leased a car before, is it going to be essentially impossible for me to match the better deals I see here? I don’t even mean the crazy 50-60 year lifehacker score deals: I’m seeing that a lot of people, in socal in particular, are getting great deals (~5500 one pay or less) on Blazer and Ariya EVs, ~20 year lifehacker score. However, it looks like most of these deals are benefitting from loyalty and/or conquest discounts. Am I going to struggle to get a deal so good as a first time lessee?

Essentially, I’m interested only in an EV, as long as it gets >200 miles of range I’m mainly looking for the least expensive lease I can get—my reasoning being that a payment <$250/month (done as one pay or monthly) would likely be essentially made up for over the life of the lease in fuel/maintenance costs.

I’ve seen lots of people got deals of that sort on Blazers and Ariyas lately, but I’m less confident on my ability to replicate. I briefly emailed with a Chevy dealership near me with more than a dozen Blazer models in stock advertising great terms, and was given a nearly $10k (over the life of the lease) quote for what on their inventory site is advertised at $139/mo. + $2500 DAS. I wasn’t expecting an incredible offer direct from their sales team, but that made me doubtful about getting the offers I would need.

Would my best option still be, more or less, to email the SM/GM, note my location (car reg zip, right?) and what incentives (i think) I’m eligible for, then say what I’d be willing to pay and that I can close quickly?

So for instance, could I email that Chevy dealership something like this?

Hi [GM],

I’m interested in leasing a 2024 Blazer EV, [VIN]. The car would be registered in [zip], and I should be eligible for Select Market Competitive Cash, the costco discount, and the college discount.

In line with other signed Blazer leases I’ve seen recently, I’d like to offer $5200 for one pay for 24 months/ 10k miles annually. I’m also fine with monthly as long as there’s no additional DAS. I’m looking to close on a deal by the end of the month, please let me know if you’d be interested.

Thanks,
[name]

Is that too long/is it lacking any necessary info? From what i saw they don’t have an interest in seeing me calculate the money factor or anything else.

My plan was to basically send this email to a few different Chevy GMs in my area, and then do a similar thing with Nissan. I know there’s not much to lose in doing so, but I would appreciate guidance if I’m doing something wrong or have set my hopes too high as someone who hasn’t done this before

2

A lot of work, a lot of luck, and a lot of time is involved closing in on a Unicorn. This forum can atleast tell you what is possible and you can try to get as close to it as you possibly can.

Under $5500 one pay Blazer or Equinox should be possible for you. Again depends on how much time you have on your hand. Going through brokers is definitely worth it since it saves you a lot of time.

That’s because almost all threads here informs you to not ask for quotes. Run your own numbers in the calculator. Tune them for the incentives you qualify for. Then ask multiple dealers if they are willing to give you that deal/% discount.

Yes. something like this. I usually negotiate on the % discount over MSRP and their willingness to do one-pay lease. Once I have that, I can negotiate the rest. Since often a low payment puts dealers off. But hey, everyone negotiates their own way.

A few might be too low. The more you contact, the better the deals you will get.

3

Thank you, this is so helpful!!

re: the quotes, yes I put in my info for an email quote last night, I’m seeing quickly why that isn’t recommended here :stuck_out_tongue:

There’s no shortage of car dealerships in socal, so i suppose I may as well start emailing every dealer from malibu to san diego haha.

A few more quick questions, since you were so thorough:

  1. re the MSRP discount—would it then be helpful to start from cars that are already seeing a sizable discount? For instance, I see a lot of Blazers have
    “Total Dealer Featured Price” that’s $5-6k under MSRP. Does that mean that they’re functionally already willing to give that discount? And if I see that would it be advised to move forward with that discount, or move beyond it? For instance I’m seeing a $50.5k Blazer with a Total Dealer Featured Price at $44.5k. Should I take that as the discount price or go lower? ($43k?)
  2. Continuing in that vein—if I went your way, with discount and onepay, would I essentially amend my email to say “I see a discount of ~10% on the MSRP is already being offered, would a 12% discount with onepay be possible?”
  3. I’ve seen a few people comment on the deals on the '23 Ariyas, would it be smart to seek out any of those that are still on lots specifically, or just focus on the '24s at this point.
4

I don’t trust the websites at all. Some dealers just plug in all the incentives and show them as a “dealer discount”. So be ready for surprise like these. Honestly, I would simply contact all the dealership with the available trim and mass email them. You will get dozens of calls the day after so be mentally ready for this. If you have time, you can just go 2 to 3 dealerships a day.

I ask for “pre-incentive discount” or “dealership discount”.

Some of them have Vin specific incentives. That would make the deal sweeter. I personally think Blazer should be an easier lease as opposed to Ariya. But honestly, try your luck everywhere. You never know where you end up getting the deals from.

I remember someone posted a signed lease for Blazer in So-Cal who was willing to share their dealer. You can ask them to get you in contact with the dealership.

5

awesome, thanks! two final quick questions:

  1. do you recommend going in person versus emailing if it’s an option? i have a few dealers pretty close to me, so i don’t mind trying those if better. If I go in person should I just have the same MSRP discount and one pay questions ready?
  2. is the residual just going to be calculated on a per-vehicle basis? looking at recent blazer signings i’m seeing mostly .82 for the 24-months, but also some .75s. Is that something to negotiate or is a .75 residual here mostly just going to kill a deal unless the dealership will offer incentives to compensate. (and yes i messaged the socal blazer poster)

Thank you again! I’ll update in here if I get close to closing anywhere.

6

Your email is too ambiguous and immediately actionable.

Dont do the “well, maybe a one pay or monthly is cool too”. State exactly what you want. If you want a one pay, offer a price for a one pay.

Also, “id like to close by the end of the month” is way too noncommittal. You want then to know if they ageee, the deal is done now. I usually say something more like “If you agree, I can be there within 2 hours to close today.”

7

Residual is based on msrp of the specific vehicle. You must know what the rv is for the vehicle youre looking at.

If you dont know the rv, you can not know what an appropriate one pay price is, so you can not go sending an offer saying “hey, i saw someone else got $5500, so i want that”.

You have to set up an accurate target deal for the vehicle you want with the programs as they apply to you. Start by putting that together, post it up for review, and if it gets the thumbs up, THEN move forward with making an offer.

8

This is helpful, thank you I’ll be less equivocal.

So I understand RV is set and I can’t negotiate that etc. But is it set by vehicle vin, per trim level, or something else? I’m confused because different 2024 blazers on the same term (10k/24) in the signed deals section have different RV. .82 seems common but not universal. Am I missing something there?

9

Rv can vary by month, by trim, etc. You need to know what the rv is today for the trim you are persuing.

An easy way to get access to that data is to sign up as a supersupporter and use ratefindr.

10

@chevysalesgirl is in SoCal. Reach out to her.

11

Just got off the phone with my local Chevy. Waiting to see the term sheet but I’m told that the final offer is ~5900 one pay for a 24/10k Blazer lease, $52.9k MSRP version. If I apply for and accept the Chevy credit card that’d save me $500. I am strongly considering accepting this offer—it’s possible I could do better with calling around, but maybe not by much? We’re not getting EV conquest fee—Costco + >2010 vehicle reg in household, College—so I think this seems solid. Obviously I need to see the final offer but if this is all correct should I accept?

I just made an account last night and this was my first day of looking, so part of me wants to try for better, but I’m not sure I’ll get it.
Thanks

1 Like
12

You are missing a lot of incentives and still getting a good deal here.
Let us know how the final offer looks like.

13

I ended up signing. I posted the deal to the signed page—$52294 MRSP, $47424 agreed upon, .82 residual, $5250 One Pay. Took a bit to finish but there weren’t many problems at the dealership. The big one—I was told explicitly by the sales team member I was working with my one pay included disposition fee. The financial guy essentially told me that was impossible. I asked for a print out of the agreement, and the disposition fee was listed there, but i was told in pretty concrete terms that couldn’t be a part of the one pay. I was pretty annoyed because the sales guy told me privately he remembered promising me that, but he wasn’t willing to say it in front of his boss. The GM offered another $150 off the top to make it right and noted that the fee could have flexibility (he seemed to be implying it could be waived even if i don’t lease another Chevy, but I probably shouldn’t hold my breath). Part of me wishes I’d tried to hold firm there, but what they were saying about that $395 fee always being included seems broadly true (right?) and I think it was an honest mistake that my sales member said it wasn’t included. Anyway, I think I did pretty well. Thoughts? let me know if I should make a separate post. Thanks for all your help!

14

Disposition fee is not included in the one pay amount.

It is listed on the contract, as it is a cost you will pay, but it is paid separately at disposition.

It doesn’t get included, because you don’t pay it if you roll into a new gm lease, trigger a buyout, etc

15

I understood it would be due after the lease, but I essentially thought the sales member agreed that fee would be waived should I choose not to lease another car etc. It was a miscommunication, I think potentially he doesn’t deal with tons of one pays? but again i think it was an honest miscommunication and the $150 knocked off my one pay helped.

16

I’ll also mention that I paid with the My GM Rewards cc I was approved for—I got a $6500 credit line, 9 months 0 APR (down from 12). If i understand correctly I should get ~10k points for signing the lease (1/$5 MSRP) and ~21k on the payment (4/$) , so that’s some $310 in additional rewards if i can figure out how to take advantage lol. ofc i could have used another card but i think i max out at 2% on options I had for this.

1 Like
17

Not a bad deal for a first timer. For future reference, become a super supporter and get access to rate finder. That will tell you every single incentive available and you just go through the ones you qualify for and tally total rebates. Makes it a lot easier to put together a target deal, share that with the GM.

Congrats and enjoy the car!

18

[in a non snarky way in case it comes off that way] what would you say i could do better in the future if i ever lease again (i’ll at least have it in mind for my partner in the future, too)? I see a few better deals on Blazer EVs, but I think all of those have lease + conquest incentives, of which I had neither. I’ll definitely join super supporters, just didn’t expect this deal to come together so quickly. do you think i might have found a better deal by searching around more? people i spoke with at other dealerships encouraged me to take this. but i’m not sure if you/anyone thinks i might have had any better luck down the line. my impression was getting <$5k onepay without lease or conquest incentives seems improbable, but maybe i was too persuaded by the gm talking up the deal i got.

19

When I said not bad, it was more of a
Kevin Hart Reaction GIF by MOODMAN

How I email GMs is usually like this:

MSRP
Dealer Discount %
Qualified Rebates

RV

Monthly/One Pay amount

By breaking down each category it allows the dealer to quickly accept or pass, by doing the work for them.

I also tend to push hard for a good deal and don’t like my first offer getting accepted, though it also means a lot of time is wasted. You have the RS trim right? It’s a pretty good deal overall, enjoy the car and don’t worry too much for next time

20

From the posts it sounds like you signed a lease but you really don’t know how to lease…for your own education purposes input your deal into the LH calc or use the raw lease equations in Wiki so you know how payment/DAS math actually comes together. Post that link.