Just picked up this slick A-spec as a push gift for my wife and she is very happy! I believe I got a pretty good deal on this despite the high MF/rent charge compared to Audi, BMW, etc, and the dreaded extra 9% lease use tax in the city of Chicago.
Not sure how to correctly reflect the taxes and down payment in the calculator. Illinois has a strange state tax repayment formula that also taxes the additional rent charge from the capitalized sales taxes, so the 9.5% actual tax seems to be like a 14% effective tax rate before the 9% use tax is then applied.
Question for the community. I wanted to have the Acq fee, doc fee, and registration fees listed in the lease due at signing section instead of in the capitalized cost itemization, but the finance guy was adamant after my continued persistence that Acura will not accept the lease if those fees are not capitalized. Since the state tax formula includes tax on any cap cost reduction (Depreciation+rent charge+cap cost reduction), it seems I’m getting taxed extra since if fees were listed in the DAS section, it would have lowered the cap cost reduction amount. I could understand if the sales taxes need to be capitalized based on tax calculation laws, but seems like we should have the right to pay these extra fees up front. My $1,250 down payment was meant to cover those fees so I’m not paying additional rent charges and use tax on top of them.
2020 Acura RDX A-spec:
MSRP: $47,025
Monthly Payment: $511 with state taxes, $557 including Chicago use tax
Drive-Off Amount: $1,250
Months:36
Annual Mileage:10k
MF: .00215
Residual: 58%
Incentives: $2000 loyalty
Region: Midwest
Leasehackr Score: 8.5 years (before use tax)
Leasehackr Calculator Link:
Sure, that could be adjusted in the selling price and added as an untaxed incentive, which would then be a 8.9% dealer discount from the MSRP. Still not bad, and no other dealer in the Chicagoland area was willing to beat that price as I shopped around.
State sales tax of 9.5% is taxed on your total of depreciation + finance, in addition to taxed incentives, in addition to anything you DIDN’T roll into cap cost (in this case your fees). Use the ST-566-LSE tax document to figure this out. It has a line item called “Selling Price Definition”.
Your Chicago use tax of 9% is added onto your monthly and it is 9% of you total depreciation + finance. That total amount is divided over 36 months and added to your monthly.
Two things you need to know. You can absolutely have those fees listed DAS. However, when calculating sales tax, the number sales tax is based off includes the fees you paid DAS. Paying fees DAS doesn’t mean it is exempt from sales tax.
You are not getting taxed extra. Those fees are taxed once. They don’t get taxed DAS.
His drive off is 1250, it only says 3250 because they’re including the 2k in rebates. His actual CCR is 470. The rest of the 1250 is covering first payment and taxes on the 2k rebate.
Thanks for clarifying. The ST-556-LSE has a selling price of $39,700 and tax of $3,375 at 8.5%, and nothing listed for the county tax. Not exactly sure how the capitalized taxes work out from that, but taking the 58% residual value x $3,375 makes it pretty close to whats on the contract
Yes had dealer cut me a check for the trade. The number listed was my payoff amount on the current loan on the TLX. I asked why that number was on the form, but the finance guy said it didn’t impact anything since the number netted each other out.
This deal is alright, but as others have said, there was meat on the bone still. You could have saved a bit more money not capitalizing your fees, which led to some extra finance charges. That and the marked up MF didn’t really help your deal.
Holistically, 511 a month for a 47k RDX isn’t very good. I’m not sure how it compares to other RDXs, but you can get more bang for you buck on other vehicles. But what’s done is done. You have a happy wife!
For sure happy the wife is happy when you say marked up MF, are you comparing to other luxury models? This is the lowest loyalty MF Acura currently offers per Edmunds forum. Also got quotes and pushed dealers hard on a P+ trim Q5 and a X3 i30 with MSRP’s in the $52k range that are comparable in features to the A-spec RDX around Chicago, but they couldn’t get me below $500/month before use tax without at least a $5k down payment, even with the lower MF’s.
I guess I could have put $2,000 down to pay all the fees up front + 1st month payment and save a little on finance charges and use tax, but that was the max I was willing to put at risk of losing in a total loss situation, so would have capitalized the sales taxes anyways. Now I’ll know to stay firm about moving those fees up to DAS when we upgrade to the MDX after family expansion plans. Thanks all, very helpful
Yeah, comparing to other luxury cars. Near 5% interest means just Acuras aren’t super hackr worthy.
You’ve leased a car during an uncertain time where deals aren’t the best. I am in downtown Chicago and I leased my 2020 XC60 Inscription with a slighly higher msrp of 55k for exactly 500 including use tax a month, with das sales tax, fees, first month. Notwithstanding this pandemic, you could have gotten a much more optioned car for a lower payment. But that’s behind you.
Got it, I had seen some good XC60 deals out there during my research, but my wife didn’t want to drive a Volvo, so that one was checked off the list unfortunately.
Chicago BMW dealers weren’t budging. They were telling me I would have to put $10k down to get payments to $650/month, and that was on a demo with 2375 miles. They apparently don’t sit on the lots long here, and they laughed at the 17-19% off MSRP ask I had given after seeing them listed in the broker forum elsewhere. Guessing it’s probably harder to get better deals in the Chicago area due to the higher taxes dealers have to pay on sales as well.
when you say marked up MF, are you comparing to other luxury models? This is the lowest loyalty MF Acura currently offers per Edmunds forum. Also got quotes and pushed dealers hard on a P+ trim Q5 and a X3 i30 with MSRP’s in the $52k range that are comparable in features to the A-spec RDX around Chicago, but they couldn’t get me below $500/month before use tax without at least a $5k down payment, even with the lower MF’s.