If you look up in this thread there is a black screenshot that shows it is applied in the same way VW does but it’s still a bad lease and I would advise against it either way
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They baited me to order with the $250/mo headline 24-month lease for the base Model 3 before fees with $4,500 down. I applied the same day I ordered. For a full-priced based M3 reducing the down to $0 should have only increased my payment to about $470/mo. Instead of giving me the $250 headline lease, they’ve been trying for 6 weeks to switch their current headline lease of $330/mo headline lease 24-month lease with $4,500, but I wasn’t having it. Accordingly, they’re saying go “$0 Down,” my payment would be about $550/mo. At that monthly payment, the car isn’t worth it to me.
The solution I suggested to them was to switch the VIN in me to the same build that’s showing in my local inventory discounted to $36,260. Then they could keep their unattractive lease factors and I could get roughly a $472/mo payment with “$0 Down.” However, they’re saying they can’t change my VIN because they can only change VIN once per order and they already took the liberty of changing mine once to give me the “Price Adjustment” of $1,950. Mind you, they had they could have chosen the VIN with the $2,730 “Price Adjustment” to $36,260 but they deliberately tried to give me the more expensive VIN.
The solution I suggested to this current problem is for me to cancel this order and reorder if they agree to credit my current $250 deposit to the new order in addition to the new $250 deposit I would have to make. After 7-weeks and 3-days of backing forth, I’m waiting for a manager to approve this proposal.
I think base 2023 Model 3 prices should drop even more if I hold out until Dec 15th. I think that because many base M3 buyers should prefer the point-of-sale credit next year, even though it will be cut in half next year, if they don’t pay enough taxes to qualify for the full $7,500 credit. Also, many base M3 buyers should prefer to wait for their tax refund and to order the 2024 Highland early next year instead paying thousands cash due at delivery near Xmas time to take delivery of a 2023 that is already a little outdated compared to the refreshed 2024.
On my lease, the $7,500 seems to be coming pretty much directly off the cash due at signing. It’s off by a several hundred though, so I know my math is wrong somewhere.
I’m not accepting these lease terms by the way. Just providing these for reference. I told Tesla the payment is supposed to be about $459 instead of the $539 they were trying to give me. Instead of increasing the residual value and/or reducing the money factor, they tried have me pay more down payment. They are supposed to refund me all but $1,154 of my $4,862 when I take delivery. So, my refund at delivery should -$3,708, not -$1,786. $1,922 isn’t a fortune but it’s not nothing and it’s the principle of the matter to at this points.
My order was on October 14th! That’s how long I’ve gone back and forth with them via email, texts and calls. I think they know a lot of people will just get confused or roll over and say it’s good enough. Not me. I will die on this hill to get the approx $2K cheaper total lease payments I’m supposed to be getting. Lol.
If they don’t do me right by December 15th, I’ll figure something else out. I bet a 2021 or 2022 used Tesla with Enhanced Autopilot can be had for well under $30K the week before Xmas. Also, a car that’s taken the big 2-3 first year depreciation hit already, I wouldn’t mind paying cash for to avoid more expensive used financing. Plus, I really Enhanced Autopilot but would never pay several grand upfront for it or even $100/mo indefinitely for it. So I would always be annoyed about that.
Now I’m even more confused. Did you actually put $4862 down, or is that the credit they are giving you?
So your payment will be 458 a month with zero do it signing?
For you all that like to see every detail, here’s the real lease details from the lease document. The low residual and high money factor make it seem more like subprime financing despite 800+ credit. $26,516 residual / $38,680 car price means they are giving only about a 68% residual ratio for only 24 months of depreciation. If they’re trying to move metal, 68% should be their 36-month residual ratio, not 24-months. The Money Factor of 0.00406 is equivalent to a 9.744% interest rate. That’s also not doing me any favors. They’re giving me a free Mobile Connector and the free 6-month super charging but that doesn’t seem like an equitable trade to me for such piss-poor lease terms.
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Yeah, sorry about that confusing part of my deal. Yes, initially I put $4,862 down, but then I decided that several hundred dollars it would save me in finance charges wasn’t worth the risk of losing $4,862 if I total the car.
They’re saying to reduce my payment to $459 payment, my “Amount to be Paid in Cash” has to be $3,326, which is totally bogus only gives me a $1,786 refund at delivery. If they give me the money factor and residual the ratio I’m supposed to get for the $250 headline lease, I should only need about $1,154 “Amount to be Paid in Cash.” which should make my refund at delivery about $3,708.
Thanks for posting the contract. I don’t think 68% is low for a 2 year lease on an EV. It’s probably pretty average, and the MF is higher than most competitors, but it’s not anything extraordinary.
What made you lease a base Model 3 over competitors like Ioniq 5, C40, and Q4 etron? Not judging, just curious. Tesla still has the best charging network.
Is there a way to negotiate the horrible Tesla MF. Here is my Model Y lease they are offering. Any thoughts? This is in NJ.
Looks like they are applying $7500 federal credit (which I wouldn’t qualify for if I purchase) to take off that amount from DAS. No trade in here.
I have a Model Y, and wouldn’t buy it/lease it again even if the MF was negative 
They are doing you a favor with this MF
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Ha… curious why you say that.
For background- i have been driving Audi and BMWs inly for last 10 years.
Are you actually putting down $11,000 cash or $5000?
$5078 (including 1st monthly payment). Tesla uses the EV credit of $7500 to reduce DAS.
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I currently own a hybrid. For that, I chose a Lexus ES 300h because Toyota/Lexus has made the best selling hybrids for decades. Tesla has built and sold more EVs than any other company available in the US since 2018, when the Model 3 launched. They’ve had 5 years to work out the kinks too. Now, there are 3.9M of them on the road with so we know they’re known issues and there’s an endless amount of inexpensive accessories to upgrade them away.
Also, a discounted inventory Model 3 is as good as those other cars for my needs and it’s several grand lower priced.
Lastly, I like how aggressively Tesla ships cool new software features. A main one is their autopilot system, which is ahead of competitors by a couple of years.
That said, I haven’t taken delivery of this car yet. If the Ioniq price gets slashed majorly, I would consider it too.
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The same company that had serious issues with vision-based parking sensors, right?
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Yes, but this is a good example of a known issue. Tesla is very aware of it so it is temporary because they can improve it a lot with software updates. Meanwhile, it’s creating a buying opportunity for me because other car buyers won’t buy the car until that issue is fixed. I’m willing to trade saving money off the price in exchange for parking this small car with excellent driver visibility without good parking sensing because I used to park a lifted full-size truck without parking sensors.
However, I bet the Christmas software update will bring at least a little incremental improvement to the problem. I’m confident Tesla will have it significantly improved before the 2024 Highland refresh goes on sale in the US. After seeing him push his Space X’s engineers to build rockets that land themselves on moving platforms in the ocean, I have a hunch Elon knows he can push his Tesla engineers to make vision work well for parking.
At first I just thought of it as just a knee jerk ill planned move by Elon. I still think that, but from the perspective of it helping to improve the car price, betting on Tesla to improve the vision based parking system significantly within a few months has a reasonable risk/reward ratio, IMO. For example, the inventory price is already down from about $39K to almost $35K. Tesla has been reducing the price a few hundred per week for the last several weeks. Hopefully, if I reorder the week before Xmas, the price will be down to the car’s $35K base, or even less. All this said, I’m also open to better lease offers from competitors as well.
Fair enough, but going from an ES to a Model 3 might be a little rough, in terms of ride quality. There are quite a few people in the neighborhood who have gone from Prius to Model 3/Y. But typically, people with nice gas/hybrid vehicles have switched to nicer EVs. There’s still couple people in the neighborhood that have the Model X, but since all the new EVs have come out, I’ve seen more Rivians, Lucids, eTrons, and i4.
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I have switched from BMW 5 series → Model X → EQS. Model 3/Y was not even considered coming from 5 series. Test drove model 3 with wife and she’s appalled by the crappy nissan leaf-esque suspensions.
I always tell people, for first full electric cars, people usually go for tesla just because of all the perceived advantage of great software, great tech etc. Then after actually owning the tesla for a few years and realizing that all of it is mostly BS, while they live with a crappy ride and build quality for years. Then they look for something better. This is a standard pattern for most tesla owners.
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One is required to seek medical attention for a hardon lasting for more than 4 hours.
As a Tesla owner I highly recommend taking the rose-tinted blinders off.
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It depends on your priorities. Everyone I know loves their Teslas, I drove a model 3 for 4 years, and I think it’s the best appliance car for commuting. It’s got an ultra fast 10:1 steering rack, super chuckable, tons of acceleration if you have dual motor/performance. It’s a really fun car, and autopilot is the best in the business. I’ve only recently sold it because i now am in need of a bigger car, but if you don’t care about old-school “luxury” like pillows on your headrests and metal/wood buttons everywhere, i think the model 3 is helluva lot of fun to daily and tune out/relax with autopilot and idk how it’s possible, but their killer audio system
I can understand someone who appreciates EQS or higher end Lexus level of luxury/materials might not appreciate a model 3 bareboned interior, but it’s so easy to use. If I didn’t need a bigger family car i would get a model 3 performance again.
It will be a lot smaller than the ES300h so that’s what I would be careful about if one is expecting similar space, but otherwise model 3 is super fun! I’ve driven EV6s and Ioniq5s and other EVs as well, nothing comes close to the tech and ease of use of Model 3s
I also wouldn’t lease one, it’s cheap to buy and the resale value isn’t far below the price of a new one.
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I appreciate the candid feedback of the others but my thoughts are more inline with yours. I drove the bigger and nicer Lexus when I had to haul customers around occasionally. In the field I work in now, my vehicle only needs to be an appliance. However, I would like for it to be a car that’s more fun and interesting than others for its lease cost. Also, now that I don’t need a more luxurious car, I can save myself at least a couple hundred off my lease payment.
Side note, I’m buying the the Lexus hybrid because it’s worth several grand more than my payoff. I wish the Tesla lease came with this same beneficial option. However, I don’t for see this car being worth much more than it’s residual near lease end due to the flipped downward trajectory of car values. The 2024 M3 Highland will only magnify that.
I also have a Cybertruck reservation. That should get me another $1K off if I re-order before Xmas. Lastly, I like the idea of a lease that’s only 24-months because so many cool new cars and refreshes should be readily available then. Also, on my 3 year leases, I usually ended up paying for new tires and expensive maintenance around 2.5 years in. Granted, I drove about 15K miles a year with a lot of stop and go miles. Now, I should only drive about 10K miles annually and with less of it being stop and go miles.
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