This is the vehicle (white one). It is $52,888 - RAV Prime XSE w/technology package and a bunch of other options, every one I think they offer. Dealer price is $48,774 (or at least was when I started talking to them). It appears to have gone up by $500 over the past few days. It’s Still $3614 below MSRP (and I’m not sure where they’re hiding their $899 doc fee).
Anyway, the point is now moot, I think, since I realized that the leasing company is not Toyota Financial Services. Again - I’m totally new to leases, so I didn’t even consider this at first. I just figured all of these leases were held by TFS.
I would steer clear of doing a lease buyout if it’s not TFS. Not that it couldn’t work but seems suspect. Why is a Toyota dealership not using TFS for leases?
Toyota has regional banks that they work with. A large amount of Toyota leases are done with banks other than TFS. In many regions, TFS isn’t an option.
I wouldn’t give up on the deal. Find out what the Money Factor (MF) is for this lease, and ask if it is through Toyota. If not, ask why they are using a different bank. Dealers make money in many different ways, so they may be incentivized to use a different bank which may not be best for you.
TFS is not even an option in many states. Toyota has exclusivity agreements with different banks in different regions. There may be no choice in the matter here to use TFS.
Ultimately, what’s important in the buyout discussion is the actual lease terms. Until the entire contract gets posted, it’s just educated guesses being made based on typical lease terms.
Worry less about the bank and more about the actual contract.
Contract does not show MF. I am calculating about .00334 or roughly 8%. According to Edmunds that is the same rate available from Toyota. Too high in my opinion to make this a great lease, but not important if OP is going to buy out immediately.
Why are we talking about MF if this is a lease buyout? The only thing that matters is the adjusted cap cost. As long as there is no language in the contract about paying unrealized rent, which seems like it would be illegal, adjusted cap cost is the number that matter. Who cares about the monthly lease or MF if you are paying it off a week after signing.
I can do 3k off 23 primes if this deal doesn’t work out for you. Agreed mf means nada…prefer mf to be marked up for a higher discount actually. Just don’t tell them your plan to buy it out. Play dumb.
I recently got my buyout quote from TFS. I sent the cashiers check to the Tempe AZ PO Box on th buyout paperwork.
A day ago (1/29/24) the tracking said delivered to agent for final delivery. About how long from this will TFS get my payment? Has anyone experienced this? Any ideas on who or what this agent is? This is a lot of money in the form of a cashiers check hanging out there. I’m going to call TFS and USPS tomorrow but assuming I’m going to get the run around from both
Talked tonUSPS this morning. As expected they told me what the tracking said. I called TFS and according to the auto me system my payment was processed 1/29 and documents are being prepared to be sent to me so everything looks to be on track.
The delivered to agent threw me off but I think it has something to do with a PO Box.
Curious if you sent it certified, but chose the option not to have it signed by a specific party? If so, I think agent is the default when no party is specified. Their way of saying that your certified letter sent to a PO Box was picked up by an agent who is allowed to collect the mail, which for a business like this could be multiple people
That seems to be the case. All said and done I think it’s all good. Just waiting for the title so I can pay the taxes and close this out.
For anyone concerned about the lease buyout process I can say it works. Just maybe find a better way to not sweat sending a 30,000 check through the mail.
I did give up on the deal - I didn’t trust the dealership.
I went with another, very reputable dealership that uses TFS. I picked up my 2024 RAV4 Prime XSE yesterday. MSRP was $52,833 (pretty much every option). The dealership took $2400 off the MSRP + $6500 lease cash. I did a 24 month / 12,000 mile lease with zero down - just gave them the first month’s payment. MF was 0.00345, but that and everything else is kind of irrelevant since I will - probably - be requesting a buyout as soon as TFS has my account set up. I’ll post an update after I complete the buyout - which I’m 99% sure I still want to do. But before I do, I’m going to run some numbers to see if keeping the $45-46k in the bank for 2 years is the better option. You can get a 2-year CD @ 5.25%. While it’s no guarantee, the market historically averages 7-8%. I’d still probably come out ahead buying it out - but with the dealer discount and lease cash, maybe it’s worth spending a couple of thousand dollars in financing/lease costs to hold onto $45k.
Side note: I love the RAV4 Prime - drove it back to North Carolina from Maryland yesterday. Smooth and fast. Got almost 48 miles on all EV before it kicked over to gas, averaged about 41 mpg for the 300 mile trip.
Can you tell us the name of the dealer, or does that violate some protocol of the site?
I’m also looking for a Prime XSE in MD or VA, and the best dealer discount I’ve found is $100-200 off MSRP, plus the Toyota incentive. Some dealers are still marking the price up!
