So i’m only 22 and this is my first time leasing, i’ve been researching leases in depth in order to prepare myself and hopefully not get ripped off. I believe I got the gist of everything but one thing i’m curious about is how much should I look to get off msrp for a newly released car. My top two choices right now are the new 2018 Nissan Leaf and the 2018 Honda Clarity plug-in and both are brand new cars. I know everyone says start at 10% off msrp but I feel like if I even ask for 10% off msrp with these new cars they wont even take me seriously. Thanks so much for your help, this forum has been an amazing read!
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2018 Honda Clarity - For comparison —
I appreciate your situation and have the following deal to compare
Salesman said my discount was $500 under invoice?? what?
MSRP 34,290
Discount (dealer cash) $ 6872 (about 14% I think) Which I thought was decent.
Sale Price - $ 27,418
------After Market
Vehicle safe guard - $ 368 (plastic strips on door edges)
Pulse safe brake - $ 195 (should be standard)
total Adjusted cap cost - $ 28K (approx)
MF - .00120 (2.88% not great, but I’ve seen worse) Tier 1
Drive off (including tax, license, doc fees, acquisition, ) $ 5 ‘fricking no way in hell’, thousand dollars
Monthly : $290.70
Tax (Concord,ca.) $ 25.44
Total – $ 316.14
I asked the salesman - "can you lose the $500 and i’ll consider it and give you a decision in the morning after talking to my partner. He said "I think we can make this deal work if you commit to sign. I declined until I could have overnight.
The 1% rule would fail on this . By my calculations the cost for 3 years would be $15,465 (approx)
average monthly - $ 431 (1.25% of MSRP I think) Poor lease IMO
The 2018 Nissan Leaf - Wait if you can. All the dealers and brokers I’ve called have turned up bupkiss. zip.
The car is in high demand at present . I would imagine the next window of opportunity to be
Memorial day weekend. There should be a better supply of Leafs .
I’m trying to determine if they will be announcing what is coming out in Fall 2018’ and that will put price pressure on the Leaf as well.
The Bolt is getting more competitive with their offers .
Please note: On a Broker deal Jan 31st, 2018, for a 2017 VW eGolf - I was quoted a discount of about 14 or 15% so this seems pretty typical of the best I could get. Not sure what the consensus is with the advanced users on this site. I’m still Newb and still fighting to land my first lease for 1% of MSRP ‘including drive off’ (total 3 year cost avg. all in) .
Best of luck
Wow thanks for the response and what your offer was, really useful. I asked a honda dealer what they could bring down the price of the car for before any rebates were applied, and they emailed me a quote of $29,570. I emailed her back making sure this was without the $5,200 rebate the honda clarity gets and she said the price quoted was just for the vehicle and incentives and rebates can be discussed if I come in. For reference this is the deal I thought I was going to get. I know, so naive 
.
However seeing the deal you posted I think they are going to switch it up once I actually go in and say that price is including the $5,200, bummer. I wish I could hold out longer but I start work in March so am trying to get a lease before then.
I’ll start looking into the eGolf as well and see what deals I can find!
Appreciate the help!
just curious why only those 2 ev cars?
have you read the extensive forum convos on the bmw i3?
Sort of a messed up reason, but i’m a 22 year old computer science student and love tech so if I can get a car loaded with tech, specifically acc and lkas i’m going to prioritize it 
. Also my new job has free level 2 chargers and it’s only going to be ~45 mile roundtrip commute so I don’t need crazy range. Ultimately I have until I start in March and if the deals don’t get better I will opt for something cheaper, probably the fiat 500e.
Did u end up going to the dealership and find out the final price?
I did! Here was the final negotiated deal
$500 was for the grad bonus and the $1950 post-rebate is the $1500 cvrp rebate and $450 socal edison rebate.
I ended up not accepting the offer, not that it wasn’t decent but I am in no rush and want to see what I can get at the end of the month. The salesperson was a great guy, I didn’t feel pressured at all and he was clear in all his calculations (which matched up to mine).
Did you try Clarity Fuel Cell? I hear they give you $15,000 worth of fill ups with your lease.
Do you know any dealers have clarity fuel cell in stock ? Looking to get one but all of them told me there is a waitlist
Sounds like they make them for each order. What does it take to get on the waiting list?
Talk to the dealer in socal they don’t take you seriously just saying I can be placed on a waitlist but don’t take any deposit ATM and wait time is 6~8 mo
That entire concept of a car is not serious, imo. Why spend so much in r&d, manufacture, infrastructure, when electric cars are the obvious end game? Maybe the whole hydrogen thing is a hoax and none will actually be made.