This is my first time leasing a car. I’ve been lurking in this forum for the past few months to try and learn about the numbers.
I’m using the Costco discount, which should make things somewhat easier, but I cannot figure out how the dealer is arriving at these numbers. At this point I’m likely to walk away from the deal for a number of reasons… but maybe I’m missing something obvious.
2020 Audi S4 Premium Plus
Months: 36 months
Mileage: 10,000
MSRP: $60,190
Dealer Discount: $6,019 (10%, Costco)
Rebates/Incentives: $2,500 ($1,000 loyalty, $1,500 lease cash)
Acq/Reg/License Fees: $1,524 ($895 Bank Acquisition, $629 ‘Dealer/State Fees’ broken down as a $459 doc fee, $170 state fees)
‘Sales Tax’ (more on this below): $1,521
MF: .00131 (inflated, Edmunds said .00071)
Residual: 56%
Monthly Payment ‘including tax’: $672.86
‘Drive-Off Amount’: $4,021
My attempt at fitting the dealer sheet into the calculator here.
Questions
- What is the $1524 ‘Sales Tax’? My understanding is that in MA, the sales tax is 6.25% on the lease price applied to the monthly payment. I asked the dealer why this $1524 figure was listed separately if the monthly payment listed under Payment Options already included tax. The dealer responded saying ‘MA charges you a sales tax over the overall lease plus a monthly tax on the payment’. I also confirmed that it’s not the excise tax, which I know will get billed to me directly.
- Why is the ‘Total Price’ listed as $54,714? Is the dealer determining my payment based on this number, not the Cap Cost? (I thought it should be the cap cost.)
Reasons I’m likely going to walk away from the deal:
- The dealer said they are not able to negotiate the MF, which is inflated compared to what I found on Edmunds
- The dealer is not willing to add any other incentives. I have another offer from a separate dealer, no Costco discount, on a similarly priced S4; the separate dealer offered me $3k lease cash + $1k loyalty. It ends up being a comparable deal with a smaller discount/less inflated MF.
