My current lease is up in 2 weeks, so today I went to look at vehicles. A local dealer had a 2024 ford explorer timberline advertised on their website for $48395 (sticker is $53395).
Intrigued by the sales price I inquire about the vehicle, also knowing I have about $4500 in incentives to apply (loyalty and private offer). Utilizing the LH calculator I had a rough idea of the monthly payment.
He comes back with the numbers and they’re significantly higher than I anticipated. So I start to question the price of the vehicle, RV and MF. He tells me the price of the vehicle is $50395. I show him their website ($48395) and he says that’s the price to buy it, the lease price is different. That didn’t sound right to me but I don’t know much about the car biz. Is that correct? Does the selling price of a vehicle differ if purchased vs leased?
I don’t know anything about Ford leases (so wait for specific input on that), but generally speaking it isn’t uncommon for lease incentives to differ from finance incentives, on the identical vehicle.
This is why we recommend only going to dealer to test drive or sign, and making an offer in writing that can be “yes/no”. Most sales people don’t understand how to calculate a lease.
The MF and RV he gave me matched what I got on Edmunds for that particular model and he informed me of the incentives I qualified for…
Even using the $50395 he quoted me, the monthly payments were off by $50/mo with all other variables the same. He couldn’t explain why other than saying sometimes those online calculators are off.
Got it! I’m just trying to educate myself for next time. I’m still new to leasing, this was actually my 1st in dealership lease. Overall, I’m happy with the deal…$479/mo with $2,4xx DAS for a $53k suv.
