New to leasing, motivated by the deal!

Ask the Hackrs
1

Hello, this is one of my first posts here, but I have been lurking around and trying to learn more about leasing for a few months now. I feel like I made progress, but still have a lot to learn to achieve those highly coveted LH deals.

Anyways, I am in the market for my first lease. I do not have any vehicle to turn in, so I don’t qualify for any loyalty or conquest. From my research, I read that november/december is a better time than ever to get into a lease especially if I am ok with MY2017 vehicles.

As my title says, I am largely motivated by the deal, and this makes it difficult for me to narrow my options. I do not NEED a car, but I really would like to get one sooner and later. With that being said not having a car, makes the research process very difficult, as it is not easy to go to dealerships to test drive or negotiate.

I’m hoping to find a lease that gives me the most car for my money. I am aiming to stay under $500 monthly including taxes + insurance. So, that probably translates to around 350-380 per month with some flexibility. If there is a really great deal outside my range, I could make it work. I should have Tier 1 credit, but my credit score is currently in a slight dip around 705-710.

Based on my research it seems I should be looking into Infiniti, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz in the luxury segment, but I welcome other suggestions. I also looked into Honda, Hyundai and Mazda. Cars of a similar class are fine as long as it would have options I am looking for.

The issue I’m having is I do not have a reasonable amount of cars on my target list, as it is very difficult for me to get to dealerships to look test drive this process has been much more difficult than I anticipated, which is why I hope to not waste time on cars where I cannot score great deals.

So far, I’ve only attempted to negotiate a BMW 330i xDrive loaner and a Mercedes Benz E300 loaner, but haven’t had much success discussing numbers via email. Sorry for the disorganized post, but was hoping someone can give me some pointers to head in the right direction.

I am in the northeast and was hoping for some recommendations on vehicle models to try and leasehackr. Or any tips on email negotiations you have for a beginner like myself. I hope to handle most of the initial interest and discussion via email, but it seems like that will be difficult.

2

Maybe use Uber or rent a car to go on test drives?

3

With the end of the year around the corner, I am slammed with work. So, I’m going to have a difficult time getting down to dealerships even if I had access to a vehicle. I am hoping to try a few dealers located in my downtown area after work this week (only 3 I’m interested in). But, that being said I think I’d have to rent a car or borrow one on the weekends. I usually have availability Sunday, but not as many dealers are open. An Uber ride to some of the dealers are like $80 round trip. That will get costly, especially when I don’t have any strong preferences.

4

@moa why not approach it like this:
narrow down your selection to 3 different cars and negotiate on those three cars. When you feel like you have a deal, you go and test drive it before signing paper work. If you HATE it, then you just walk away.
I personally think test-driving is very time consuming and overrated for the person who is hunting the “deal” more than being in love with a particular car. It looks to me you’d rather have a really good deal so with that you need to have some sort of flexibility.
Truth be told, all modern cars drive just fine. So for example, if you were to shop for an C class, or 3 series or A4, they are all similar cars and they all drive fine/similar. One might be slightly more sporty than the other but they are all similar. So if you were to get $100/mo less on a 3 series than on a C-Class and your primary concern is to get a deal, you’re likely not going to pay $100/mo more on the competitor car anyway just for the subtle difference on how they drive.
Going to test drive is going to rob you of so much time dealing with these sales people. They’re trained to keep you around and push a deal on you. You’re better off test driving on the back end on a deal already in place IMO.

1 Like
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I agree with you, that is what I am trying to do, but not having much success. That is why I am asking for some suggestions on models that may be easier to get a worthy deal. After I make progress on a deal, I would test drive to confirm I like the vehicle and finalize everything at the dealership.

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If you really need to physically determine a vehicle, go to Carmax where you can sit (and if you really want to) test drive many of the vehicles on your list all at once. I do this to see which vehicles fit the best.