SIGNED 2020 Bolt LT - $5402 one pay, $402 after NJ rebate and GM points

Signed Deals & Tips
,
82

I just think that the general public in NJ is willing to pay the 3% off price for a Bolt. And that price is so cheap and accessible that many NJ residents will scoop them up at 3%.

Chevy dealers will be selling Bolts to NJ Residents with Costco memberships in droves at 3% off. Buyers aren’t forcing sellers to sell, but I think you’d be surprised how many people would line up to pay 3% off and see that as a great deal and great value.

The dealers will soon be selling so many so quickly at that price, that it will be very hard to find a Bolt in stock in NJ. There already isn’t much inventory already, although I suspect more will be trickling in for the rest of the year.

When that is happening, the dealer will have zero interest in 8% off. They won’t even have to take your offer seriously because the cars will be sold at 3% off, or even MSRP, to someone that wants “the cheapest lease in NJ for under $200/month” before you have a chance to ask for more off. I think if you try to hold firm and ask for more off, NJ dealers will be out of 2020 Bolts completely before you find the trim/color/price combo you want.

But, please prove me wrong!!! I’ve been trying to nab one of these Bolts and have been unsuccessful so far. So, this is just my prediction. I think there are enough “cheap people” that would take the $150/month car that will buy up all the inventory before the “ultra cheap people” get a stab at a higher discount.

83

Not necessarily.

I ageee that as more people (and dealers) learn about how attractive pricing will be, demand will exceed supply and prices will inflate.

But - 1. Dealers are still getting new inventory. 2. At some point, there will be a new model. 3. The promotions may stay for months (maybe after top off offer is made), so buyers don’t need to buy now at supplier. 4. There is competition at the $100+ price range (eg ioniq, i3, etc).

84

Completely agree with all 4 points.

  1. This is especially true for the Bolt. We are in “wait and see” and a smart dealer will capitalize on this and offer a reasonable, repeatable Bolt sale, if they’re willing to take the floor plan risk and order a bunch from Chevy. If I can find a reproducible deal on the Bolt, I will bring it to LH!
  2. The new model is highly anticipated to fix the biggest thing wrong with the 2020 Bolt: the uncomfortable seats.
  3. I think it’s safe to say the promotions will stick around until the 2020 Bolt is sold out and replaced with the 2021, given the timetable for Costco incentive.
  4. Absolutely! We live in exciting times! I look forward to seeing how all the EVs compete with this. Hyundai is doing $132/month on the Ioniq EV through the end of November, which is a good chunk of this Chevy program. Some Bolt deals are cheaper, but some are not. Will be interesting to see which econo-EV reigns supreme!
85

I think that the mistake a lot of people are making is giving the dealer the upper hand when it comes to the NJ rebate. That should be completely ignored within the scope of the negotiations. The BUYER has the upper hand here because the dealer cannot claim the money. And make no mistake, once they are able to apply it at point of sale they will make back whatever they may lose on these at the moment sevenfold. @HN308 said it best, what if you are from Pennsylvania or another neighboring state with no post sale incentives? Negotiations on pre incentive selling price should be exactly the same. I look at it this way: How many NJ residents currently are A) Looking for a new car B) Are open to an electric vehicle and are comfortable with their charging options C) Are employed or are not worried about losing a job with 17% unemployment D) Have the credit needed to get a good deal and E) Have a Costco membership/Supplier/LEASE Loyalty or LEASE Conquest all at the same time? It might be a smaller pool of demand than the dealers think.

86

It might, but good luck convincing them of that that while they’re trying to sell you a car.

The “how many people are interested/qualified for this?” is THE question, and I’d reckon that most dealers would rather wait and see the answer to that question themselves before they start accepting skinnier deals on the basis of a bunch of "what IF"s or "how many NJ residents actually would"s.

If the Bolt inventory sticks around by late November, we should have no problem coming in to scoop up all those leftovers at 10% off. Your guess is as good as mine on whether or not the inventory sells out before they consider accepting a steeper discount.

87

There should be more inbound. Best guess is that production will end at some point in early or mid November as the 2021 begins production then. @jeisensc pointed out that they will probably take a week or so to retool for the new model refresh.

1 Like
88

Here’s to hoping that “good” dealers order enough of the inbound units for their lots. I’m looking forward to seeing what the pricing landscape and supply/demand is like when they arrive.

89

The other wild card would be dealer trades. Lots of these in Pennsylvania at the moment that aren’t being bought.

90

$269/mo and $1200 DAS will almost get you a Tesla Model 3 in NJ. The Bolt is OK but it’s no Model 3. Sub $100/mo is probably where this outgoing model needs to be to compete.

From the data on this forum, we’ve got 6 confirmed Bolt sales now at better then 7% discount. One forum member got one for himself and 3 for his friends, wiping out 1 dealers entire inventory of Premiers. The dealer commented it was the first Bolt(s) they sold all year.

Also, this is leasehacker, not buy-at-full-MSRPers … You’ve got brokers on CA opening selling these for 10% off with similar rebates to NJ. Clearly enough money can be made on a Bolt to justify 10% off MSRP. Why should the more savy buyers on this forum settle for less.

But this is the typical MO for GM dealers. The discounts are always poor, on any model. It’s not surprising that it’s any different for a $44K Bolt or my $72K Denali – they rarely want to discount past supplier.

I suspect this will loosen up a bit when we get to month end and dealers want to start talking about volume targets and not margin. Their are a few dealers sitting on large quantities of Bolts still (15+) and I’m just gonna keep pinging them until they want to move a few.

2 Likes
91

This is called the Leasehackr effect.

The dealers get tons of calls and email for the few cars they have on lot from members here, that makes them believe the demand is way higher than the supply they have on lot and what is in the delivery pipeline for them.

They believe that there will be enough uninformed buyers who will take it looking at the attractive monthly payment even if they let it go for 2-3% off MSRP.

I have seen this happen for i3 in Jan/Feb 2018 where I got mine for $54/mth and by the time the hackers finished off all the NY tristate inventory people were happily paying 150/mth for the same car.

No one shopping for this car should ever mention anything to the dealer about the NJ 5K rebate. You will be amazed how many dealers don’t know much about it.

2 Likes
92

No one is saying you got hosed…but you shared your deal on a site dedicated to maximizing lease deals and have to expect there will be feedback on how you could have done better - especially given other specific comparable examples of buyers in NJ paying thousands less.

That’s why this site exists: to track and assess a range of deals, and yours sets a good measure for the consumer who goes into a dealer and gets talked into paying MSRP and doesn’t really care because the end result fits your expectations fine. That’s probably the vast majority of buyers, and because of this, dealers will soon respond to the demand at this level by no longer allowing negotiation anyway.

93

Not quite. I’ve heard about an “Unlisted” cheaper Tesla, but the cheapest Tesla lease I could find came out to $5566 DAS and payment of $371. Even with the 5k rebate, Tesla is a good bit more than Economy EVs.

Playing devils advocate in the dealer knowing about the $5k rebate: They will all know about it by the time LH is done with the Bolt! Also although the dealer can’t access it without you, you also can’t access it without buying a new EV from a NJ dealer: so a bit of a standoff. I recommend a constructive and collaborative approach versus a combative or secretive one every time. Nobody should have to go to war to buy or lease a car.

94

I personally look at the rebate as a non factor in negotiations. NJ offers rebates on all sorts of energy efficient appliances and I wouldn’t let Home Depot or Lowe’s use that to try and make me pay more for one of their products. It’s an added bonus between me and the government, especially if the money is never passing through the hands of the merchant.

1 Like
95

You are looking at a one-pay of $12,600 for a 36 month lease of a base Tesla Model 3 in NJ after rebate and with no sales tax. If you are lucky enough to find a demo vehicle it can be even lower. If you don’t qualify for Costco and Loyalty/Conquest, and you are paying full MSRP, it’s pretty competitive to the Bolt (which has a higher MSRP).

96

Can you link an Ad or written quote? I thought Tesla was all “no negotiation”. That price is highly competitive with a well-equipped Kona EV. What is the EPA-rated range of this cheapest Tesla?

Thank you!!

97

I understand wanting to think about things in a personal way, but economically, this is a naive approach.

The $5k rebate significantly alters the value proposition of the car lease. You know this, which is a big part of why you want the car to begin with. The dealer also knows this, as their primary businss model is selling people on the value proposition of driving a new car.

It’s not “your rebate” intentioned to personally make your life more cost-effective. The purpose of the rebate is to make a statewide economic impact. That is why it exists. The same way that the rebate on an energy efficient washer/fridge at Lowes is designed to reduce the overall greenhouse emissions of NJ more than it is designed to save you a few bucks.

Furthermore, the design and intention of the rebate IS for the money to pass through the hands of the merchant and for it to be a Point-of-Sale rebate. The only reason why it is not YET implemented that way, is due to COVID-19 related delays in local government. The fact that the money is between you and the government, without passing through the hands of the merchant, is a loophole/oversight/race condition that you have a limited window to take advantage of.

The rebate not only impacts the purchase price of your Bolt, but it impacts the nationwide used car value of Bolts, trade-in values down the line when all these leases are up, purchase value in other states, the degree in which dealers in other states will play ball on dealer trades, and tons of other stuff.

This is a complicated economic system, but the state of NJ throwing $5k/lease at EV leases absolutely has wide-reaching impact to the overall value of EVs (both in terms of sell price, and in terms of value proposition), nationwide.

Finally, when the rebate is transitioned to being a POS rebate, versus one you can claim yourself, you would NOT want the dealer to say “I can claim this $5k, you cannot. I will not pass any of it to you so it is not a factor in negotiations”. This is why I recommend a collaborative approach. If you get real defensive and say “its my $5k, you can’t have any of it” - you shouldn’t be surprised when it’s the dealer’s turn to say the exact same line to you. Better off splitting it with them than getting none.

1 Like
98

It may be naive, but it DID work.

So where do you go from here? OP here beat my number and got $402. What should I shoot for now? One dollar? I’ll let the legendary soldier Big Boss answer that for me:

“Everything has its beginning. But doesn’t start at “one.” It starts long before that, in chaos. The world is born… from zero. The moment zero becomes one is the moment the world springs to life. One becomes two, two becomes ten, ten becomes 100. Taking it all back to one solves nothing.”

1 Like
99

Your deal included $1500+ worth of credit card points redemption which I count a bit differently because of the opportunity cost of earning points on non-GM CC. (nonetheless, you’ve inspired me to open a BuyPower Card account :slight_smile: ).

For a quick, easy, and fair deal, I’d recommend trying to pull this off at Supplier pricing for around $133/mo effective.

For a great deal, for someone willing to put in a few hours of work and go up against a dealer, I’d recommend calling it once finding a deal like yours: $7214 one pay before CC points. Effective $62/month after rebates.

For someone with an unlimited amount of time on their hands:I’d try to get them to pay you to take it because it’s probably possible if the right person finds the right dealer and the right car at the right time.

100

OP had Buypower too… And so do I at the moment, albeit not quite as much this time. But I have the Costco incentive and the programs are virtually the same now. $1,000 more in lease cash on the Premier too. Plus I don’t need the car. john_doe_has_the_upp383f94094b

101

250 miles for SR+, demo units are no negotiation but discounted. Autopilot no FSD at that price (probably).