I am looking at 2020 Acura ILX at Houston , TX. Base MSRP $25,900. Total after Dealer Fees & Accessories $22,690. According to truecar, 2 year lease is $312 and 3 year lease is $253 per month. Driveoff amount is $1350 and does not include first month payment. Trying to figure out how to reduce the cost since i am new to leasing. Emailed 10 other dealers and they couldn’t match the price.
Fine print: 36 monthly payments of $252.69 includes Lease Acquisition Fee of $595.00, County Fee of $16.25, Documentation Fee of $149.00, Inspection Fee of $7.50, Registration Fee of $51.75, Title Transfer Fee of $33.00. Total due at lease signing, $1,354.78. Additional taxes, finance charges, and fees may apply and may increase the price shown in this tool. $0.00 down payment, and first month’s payment of $252.69.
I’ve never seen the TrueCar lease thing make any sense. You’re better off working out the lease details yourself to verify things.
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 (Blog | LEASEHACKR) to understand how to calculate a lease payment and the variables. Monthly payment is an output, not an input!!
Pick a specific vehicle that you want to target
Gather the current MF, RV and incentives from 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, 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.
That would definitely contribute to the TrueCar thing not making sense. $1500 in missing taxes will make a big difference. Bumps that 24 month lease over $400/mo effective which is attrocious for a 2012 civic in drag.
Thanks for your input! I don’t really care much about which car to get. Has to be Corolla or similar. I intend on keeping it after the term is over. I’ll be checking edmunds for incentives but let me know if I should be checking out any other cars. Chevy volt is giving out great deals but that’s too compact for my needs.
You can wrap aka extend the 5yr/60k B2B and 10/100 powertrain warranty into a 10/100 B2B warranty.
But like Matt said, buy it and finance it brand new. Don’t waste money on the acq fee to lease something you’re going to buy. Any lease-end purchase option fee is another waste of money. Second time title and reg charges. Used car loan APR will sting in 3 years. You get the point.
Then you should be looking at a Civic instead, which is a less expensive and better vehicle in all aspects except for the stereo. The ILX is based on the previous gen civic.
In Texas without tax credits this is typically the case, given that you’re paying full taxes up front whether you lease or buy.
Kia Forte
Hyundai Ioniq
Toyota Corolla
Honda Civic
If you are looking for value for your lease then any of the above.
the only issue with Leasing in texas is the Tax, it’s on 100% of the MSRP where in other states it’s on the reduction of the price.
The ILX is honestly not that great of a car for the $, get the civic if you want a similar ride.
I just realized the tax dilemma! Should I bother contacting my bank for an auto loan instead of acura loan? Only reason I was interested in the acura was due to the 20.3% off msrp. I am leaning towards forgetting about leases since I would like to keep the car.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you could get a massive percentage discount for a purchase on an outgoing 2020 Elantra. Seen some deep discounts on Jettas and Fortes on occasion too.
I believe the ship has sailed on 2020 civic, but as @TypeSH said I’d look for 2020 small cars that still have finance support and incentives whether you lease or buy.
At the end of the day you need to spend the time and effort doing the math on the cost of buying versus leasing.
Sounds like a cash offer for 2020 models would be the best way to go. Plan on using it for 12 to 15 years. Accord has the best resale value and again got 20% off msrp like the ilx. Is there any other strategy to lower the price besides making the dealership complete against each other. Sent out my contact info to a few in town deals. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
I saw them on truecar.com. I am a total noob when it comes to buying cars. Would you be able to point me to a few discussions where buyers bought new cars with cash from previous year models?
