Hello. New to leasing so glad I found this site. I have never had a nice car before. I have a max budget of $600/month with 0 down. At first I thought all I could afford was Audi A4/S3 or MB C300. Looking on here I might be able to do better for this budget. I would qualify for the fleet bonus at MB. I currently live in upstate NY but I am moving to Chicago mid June.
Any recommendations in regards to car choice or whether I should look in NY or Chicago?
Thanks for all the help and the great information on the site.
You can search and read the S3 and E300 threads here (mid to high $400s)…also Jag F-type for around the same if you can go without 4 doors. C43 AMG for a bit more.
Be aware that if you are living within the city of Chicago when you lease a car, you pay an extra 8% tax on top of what ever the current city tax rate is. If you register the car in the suburbs, the extra 8% doesn’t apply.
Mb would be a good choice and if you can float 4-5k for the duration of the lease you can do MSD and lower your payment as long as you purchase outside NY.
You can’t really avoid the taxes of where you live, what @vhooloo is saying is that you should avoid the double taxation of paying full upfront tax in NYS, then a few weeks later start paying tax in Chicago/IL.
You would pay $600 * 36 * 8.875% (give or take, depending on which county in NYS) = almost $2,000 in taxes on day 1 of leasing while being an NYS resident. To pay that amount of money for just a few weeks of being a resident is a waste, so wait til you are an IL resident before signing a lease.
That’s what I figured. I can’t believe how bad Audi lease deals are. My “lowest they can go” for an A6 today MSRP 55330 with 0 down ended up being $690/mo. Awful
