I’ve been researching on Edmunds for lease deals and calculating what the payment total should be, and here’s the two offers I’ve received so far.
I have a 2012 Fiat 500 Lounge that I want to trade in - Edmunds says it’s worth $5700, Carvana is offering $4800, and Vroom is offering $4990.
Dealer 1:
33 month/10k
Vehicle Price: 32525
Trade-in: 3000
$485/month, includes $800 GAP insurance and $397 for door guards.
Purchase option 20430
They did not give me the MF or offer any additional rebates beyond the $3k for the trade in.
Dealer 2:
36 month/12k miles
Vehicle price: 31525
Customer Cash: 5199 (they put it under customer cash/rebates instead of trade in for some reason)
$399/month with a MF of .00013
They don’t show what the end of lease buyout would be.
This includes aftermarket addons, door edge guards $35, AVAS $1475, and interior perma plate $995.
Does not include GAP insurance and they didn’t quote me for it.
Edmunds shows that if I got it for 31525, with 4900 for my trade in, that I should be able to get it for $317/month with all taxes/doc fees. With the GAP insurance added, it should be less than $350/month (I’d just pay the GAP up front to keep my monthly payments low).
How can I go about getting a better deal with these dealers?
It is practically impossible for us to tell you what a “good” monthly payment is for your specific lease as lease programs are highly dependent on region, personal qualifications, tax rates, etc.
We always recommend the following method before you ever contact a dealership. If you do all of the work up front, you’ll have a stress free dealer experience and set yourself for success.
Read Leasing 101 (EDITORIAL | LEASEHACKR) to understand how to calculate a lease payment and the variables. Monthly payment is an output, not an input!! While you’re at it, be sure to watch the LH video (How to Use Leasehackr - YouTube) to brush up on how to most efficiently use the resources here.
Pick a specific vehicle that you want to target
Gather the current MF, RV and incentives from the LH Calculator - Lease Program Query or Edmunds forums for your zip code
Research the LH marketplace and other deals that have been made recently on your vehicle - what was their pre-incentive discount? How did their lease terms differ?
Plug your numbers into the LH calculator (CALCULATOR | LEASEHACKR), and use a pre-incentive discount similar to what you have seen
Create a target deal, this is what you’re trying to negotiate to. You can try different terms, selling price discount, etc. and see how your monthly payment is affected. It is also possible that different trims of your vehicle may have different MF and RV (i.e. this is very common with GM), so make sure that you look into that. Come up with a set of inputs that give you the output that you want - your desired monthly payment.
With a target price determined, you now have a deal to pursue and compare dealer offers against. More importantly, you have a solid foundation to work from.
Separate the trade from the new lease. Edmunds is NOT authoritative on what your used car is worth. Get quotes from the car buying services
Edmunds IS authoritative on the captive lease programs, so go ask them what the residual/MF/incentives are for this model, for those two different terms you were quoted, in your zip. Plug everything into the lease calculator to see where your payments should be. Follow the instructions that were shared by @volvo1 above.
I’m in SoCal, looking to get my hands on a 2021 Mazda CX30 Premium.
I’m new to leasing cars and have been using a lease calculator as suggested, but I’m not sure if this is a good deal in the current car market. I’m also not sure if my credit (724) is good enough to get the deal in the end.
33/12k, $425/mo, $0 DAS, MSRP of $31525 with a rebate of $720. Not sure of the MF and RV (I think it’s .00013 and 58%, but the dealer didn’t give me the exact numbers).
Don’t forget that CA doesn’t pro-rate registration, so for year 3, you’re paying a whole year’s worth but only getting partial use out of it. Probably doesn’t fully make up for the cost difference, but it certainly closes the gap some. Hurts more on a 39 month option.
Their numbers don’t seem to jive with your calculator, which points to you having some data wrong. Are you sure they’re using mazda/toyota financial and not a different bank?
Have you ran the numbers from edmunds for a 33 and 36 month lease through the calculator to see if the 33 month lease is actually a better deal? I get that the dealer offer favored one, but running the numbers yourself helps identify what’s actually going on.
I have - Edmunds shows 36/12k as being $422 after taxes/fees. But there’s no option for a 33 month lease so I can’t calculate that on Edmunds, only on leasehackr.
I’m guessing the RV/MF isn’t actually .00013 and 58%.
I think it may also be because they’re rolling that first car payment into the monthly payments?
What did edmunds tell you the rv/mf was when you posted on their forum and specifically asked for that term?
If you haven’t done that, you need to drop everything you’ve doing and go ask that for the specific options you’re looking at, so you know where you’re working from.
If they’re using a different bank, it’s important to know that. I’d pay extra money to not use US Bank, for example.
