2023 Volkswagen Arteon SEL Premium in Missouri.
$392 monthly pre-tax, $427 w/ tax.
36 months, 12,000 miles
Would be an even better deal if my credit was tier 1, but it ended up being tier 2.
The original offer prior to running my credit was $399/month with tax included.
The dealer agreed to the $41,000 selling price before rebates, VW incentive was $5,000 so the actual selling price for the dealer was $36,000 from the $52,759 MSRP.
They said that they’re losing $8k on the deal and the sales guy said he’s not making any commission on it.
I put $1,250 down & paid the government fees and dealer fees at signing.
This was a very hard car to hack because of it’s abysmal residual value and dealers not wanting to discount it much, so I contacted 15+ dealers and eventually ended up making a deal with a local dealer because I had an offer on the table from a dealer out of town, so they buckled and met me at my desired numbers.
This dealer has one 2023 VW Arteon SEL Premium left over in black color.
The MSRP is $52,813.
I can probably help you get a deal if you’re interested.
St Louis, MO.
BIG SHOUTOUT TO @holeydonut guided me through my first lease signing, gave me valuable info as a complete lease noob. Can’t thank him enough and the rest of LH community.
Congrats @mankizord - you maxed out the difficulty sliders for this hack. Most people stick with easy stuff, but you succeeded in spite of all the challenges. Great work hacking!
Your Difficulty Modifiers:
ICE instead of EV (and with a dual clutch transmission!)
VW instead of an automaker that commonly provides hackable leases
You picked a car with zero broker support or LH frenzy, so there were no existing deals to emulate
You didn’t hunt a clapped out loaner with over 8k miles
Fully loaded with massaging seats, maximum premium trim
You’re in the Midwest instead of the coasts where LH users typically hunt
The Arteon is a meme car, that was usually met with ridicule on LH
Most dealers didn’t even want to hear my offer even thou this car is on average 300+ days old.
I ended up reaching out to 15+ dealers and eventually got the car from the same local dealer who were the first ones that I reached out when I started my search.
They declined my offer the first time, but then took it once I showed them an offer that I already had on the table from another dealer.
I also find it very interesting that you wasted the dealers / salespersons time out of state to give you that much of an aggressive deal just to go back to the original dealer that was tryna fuck you the first time. and you want us to hit them up to play the same charade? Probably why dealers dont like giving numbers out over email. They don’t feel like getting stroked anymore
He didn’t intentionally set out to do the out of state thing then deflect to a local deal. The out of state dealer knew he was serious, but not a local and quoted him. But then later surprised that he’d need to be a local-ish resident to buy.
If you live in IL or WI, there’s another Arteon that could have your name on it.
I’m also personally appalled at how much bait and switch he endured at the hands of the dealers. Some had hidden fees they didn’t disclose or explain. Some lied about the odometers. It is not fun hacking cars in the Midwest lol.
Also if you’re a resident of WI or IL, I already had a deal worked out with a WI dealer on the SEL trim Kingfisher Blue color, but I couldn’t pick it up from them because you need to a resident of either WI or IL to do so.
That’s not how that worked but I see why you’d get that idea.
I actually had a plane ticket in hand to go to WI and pickup the car from them but then he tells me he can’t lease to me because I’m not a resident of WI or IL…
So I just used his lease sheet to negotiate other dealers down.
That’s true. They only sold about one thousand units in 2022, and about two thousand for 2023.
Once my credit came back as tier 2, they marked up the MF I believe.
Sorry to be obtuse, but it’s different if they raised the money factor to the new buy rate for a Tier 2 underwriting compared to the dealership taking points/profit by marking up the MF above the Tier 2 buy rate.
On the flip side, I spent a day and a half emailing a sales manager on an offer I made and they countered but would not provide any details, even after I provided all line items in my offer.
I then told him another accepted my offer and they were still trying to get me to come in for an appointment.
The next day, he emails me saying ‘if you sign today I’ll meet your offer +$30.’
I already signed the day before at the dealer who first accepted my offer.
TLDR: They like playing the game too. In fact they invented it.
