Signed a lease in the Seattle area on May 31st! I know, I know, how boring, it’s not BMW X7 for $499/month, what can I say. A Honda may not lease well but there are specific reasons why I signed this. Read on…
Attached is the lease calc sheet. Here are the details:
2019 Honda CR-V EX-L AWD
36/12k
MSRP $32,195
Sell Price $28,900
Total Cap Cost $29,994 (includes $595 acquisition fee, $499 “value added theft protection package”)
Adjusted “Net” Cap Cost $29803.87 (after $190.13 cap cost reduction payment at drive off)
MF is 0.0014
61% residual = $19,638.95
Total lease payments $12,656.88
Base Monthly payment $351.58
Monthly Sales Tax $36.21 (tax rate 10.3%)
Total Monthly payment $388
Total Drive Off at signing =$1,200 (Cap reduction $190+ $20 tax, Doc Fee $150, First Payment $388, WA state license fees $452)
A few comments about this deal. First, I certainly don’t think this is a world-class deal. I had to work hard to get it to this, but I still think I should have fought a little more to get that $499 theft protection package off. I had to reject their offer multiple times as they kept trying to convince me to pay something, anything, for their special package of nitrogen tires, oil changes, etc.! I could have walked, but did have a few vested interests in getting the deal done. My wife and I moved from FL and were approaching the 30 day window of residency here, so FL state was going to make my current vehicle registration invalid (since I had changed over my auto insurance to WA state). I certainly was not going to spend $350 to register that car here only to trade it soon and pay again to register a new car.
The current car was my wife’s 2016 Honda CR-V SE lease. It was ending in July and she had just last week hit a pillar in a tight parking lot and caused quite a fair bit of damage along multiple body panels and a wheel. Rather than just pay insurance deductible and risk the likely rate increase, I had the car inspected by Honda’s 3rd party SGS for lease-end appraisal. To my surprise, the total damage came in at a very reasonable number. This meant if I re-signed a Honda, I could use the $1,000 damage waiver to wipe out most of it and only write Honda Financial a check for a couple hundred.
All that being said, I got this Honda dealer to make the last payment on that damaged lease vehicle and turn it in early for me in order to make this new deal. My goal going into negotiation was $380 a month with minimal drive off, which would have been everything listed above minus that Cap Cost Reduction fee.
I did compromise a little but got pretty close and the benefits of getting that other car off my plate was well worth it. So overall, success!
Even better, when I called Honda Financial to talk over a few things, they waived the remaining damage amount as a courtesy! No money out of pocket for a pretty nasty amount of body damage!
Feel free to message me with any Qs on the process I went through, etc.
Thanks to the forum for always providing valuable info!
