Folks, I need a reality check.
Last time I leased was last year in April. Shoutout to AutoNinjas.
Right now I’m in search of a commuter car (any of these in a base trim Kia Forte, Nissan Sentra, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Elantra) for 36mo/10k. Am I out of reality thinking that a lease for any of those with $0 drive-off should be not more than $320-$340?
I drove today through a number of dealers locally (Tampa Bay area) and only 1 was adequate enough to give me a straight-up quote with no BS fees but it was a shocker. $521 for Elantra SEL trim (they didn’t have any other in stock). Another dealer, Century KIA, went from $305 as advertised on Kia website to $577 with all their “Advanced Package” fees.
What is a fair monthly payment for the type of car I mentioned? Have I lost the track of the market and everything has gone up that much lately?
Thanks! I would be open to considering a one-pay scenario but want to understand the MSD better. Are they fully refundable at the end of the lease term or are there any subtractions involved in it?
There seem to be some misconceptions around what leasing is and who benefits from leasing.
The people who benefited most from leasing were those who were going to drive brand new BMWs, Mercedes, etc anyway and found leasing as a way to lower their TCO (total cost of ownership).
They could do so because they had the cash to put down MSD, had loyalty from prior ownership, or had corp/fleet from working at a select list of companies, knew about OL codes and had bought CCA membership, etc etc.
And it made sense because ALL the 4 variables (discount, incentive, RV and MF) lined up to make lease payments way cheaper than ownership. Even repetitive leases were cheaper than repetitive 5+ year ownership over time.
That saving has rarely really existed outside of luxury cars. Leasing 5 Corollas or 10 Altimas over 15 years would be a massive waste of money over financing and trading 3 brand new Corollas over the same time frame.
Do some quick math: (total lease cost of an 18m Altima lease + any applicable broker and shipping fees) x 10.
That was really interesting to learn a bit more about how the leases started. Thanks!
I agree owning is a better financial decision than leasing if keeping a car for a long period of time. In your example it will probably be 2 cars over the course of 15 years as they can last 7-8 years, I think without any major problems.
I’ll also look into financing options.
Thanks again for the info.
I’d like to add that just going for the “base model” of any car doesn’t necessarily guarantee a lower payment. It’s quite common that the more upmarket trims tend to be the “sweet spot” where RV in particular is best. Sometimes there are even incentives that don’t apply to those lower trim cars. The Grand Cherokee is a good example of this at the moment. It doesn’t make sense that the larger, more capable and more expensive model of that car has a lower payment, but here we are.
