Texas: State of Leasing Despair

I’m having an issue finding something that I really want to pursue that fits into my budget.

None of these luxury car deals work out nearly as good for us in Texas because of the fact that you have to pay sales tax on the entire value of the car. I saw the one Lyric deal that is recent and it’s a great deal but he had a sales tax credit from the dealer, and unless you can get that same sales tax credit it’s not nearly as good.

Other than @Ryan_S and @ChevyCoach, where are the deals on normal car leases? It’s all high end luxury marques in the Marketplace it seems like.

I’m really looking for sub-$300 and ChevyCoach has definitely offered some one time pay that are effectively in that category, but then I have to consider how I’m going to pay for it because I don’t have $6250 lying around which was a deal OTP on a BlazerEV he had last week. Putting it on a credit card is an option for me but because of the interest it doesn’t make much sense.

Headroom and legroom are a problem for me as well, I’m 6’7" 300 so I’m definitely not going to consider leasing a Corolla.

Under the way things here maybe it’s better to just buy a 1 or 2 year old used EV, I’m seeing 2023 Ariyas that stickered north of $40K new, used in the low $20s popping up, for example, on AutoTempest and other sites. The only question on that would be the financial stability and warranty support of Nissan long term, saw some articles this month in the media that they only have cash flow for 12-15 more months of operation unless they turn it around.

We love my wife’s Mach-E and didn’t want to get another gasser but maybe I’m coming around to it, as long as it’s fuel efficient. Hybrid would be idea but the lease deals on those don’t have the tax credits.

Or the last option is to just fix the transmission in my beater Navigator, I’m probably going to at least get a quote on it. It’s Texas so it’s not going to rust out, and the paint looks pretty good. The interior is a little faded from being parked outside in the heat, but I can live with it. The major downside is 13-14 mpg. But I drive less than 7500/year so leasing or buying something else is having a hard time competing, plus with the poltical change I expect gas to be cheap the next 4 years. It’s only the fact my transmission’s been going into limp mode that has me seriously considering replacing it.

You are actually luckier than buyers in MD or VA because you can find leases with tax credits and pay only 1.25% tax.

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I have never seen a dealer advertise sales tax credits for a lease.

You need to ask and hunt for it.

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Did you try asking ChevyCoach if you wanted monthly instead of one pay?

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Lincoln Navigators are sick. Are you an old money country club owner? A drug empire kingpin godfather? A successful rap producer? Nobody will know, but they’ll make their assumptions.

You’ve got a paid off car that says “I’m large and in charge”, with a burly sexy grumbling V8 that have since simply gone extinct. You sit high above the world of peasants, in a classic piece of Americana that commands the road while being able to tow anything short of an M1 Abrams behind it.

Do you really want to jump into an extra payment to get into a girly jelly-bean shaped minivan thing with no soul, distinction, or character? That’s the car market of 2024. I’d make a u turn.

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It’s actually not that bad. When I moved from IL on average I saw an increase of $20-$60 per month increase in my monthly payment. Although it does increase your total TCO but I usually swap lease them.

It sounds like you like EVs, have you looked at i4/i5 leases, they include TCs. Even Audi gives TCs

I remember GM used to give TCs on trucks (1500), I might be wrong.

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I don’t know if the dealers can legally advertise it. There are some weird legalities on what can be used in a published ad I think. I don’t know if the ad rules are a TX legal thing or if it’s nationwide.

Also, because of your size do you think you’d be comfortable in anything much smaller than your current vehicle?

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I fit fine in my wife’s Mach-E with the seat all the way down and back. You can’t always tell how well a car fits me just by the exterior size. I actually fit really well in an Elantra, because the front seat legroom is good. The headroom is not the best, but workable. Sunroofs are the enemy in many cases, even in my Navigator I can’t sit up straight, I’d really rather have an Expedition XLT with no sunroof if I ever had a vehicle this large again.

The seats in the Mach-E do get a little squishy on a long road trip as they’re not the Recaro seats you can get on the GT, but it’s fine. It’s a Premium AWD standard battery, so there are no shortage of charging stops to get out and stretch on a road trip and rest your backside. Effective range on 80% charge is 140-150 miles tops at highway speeds. In colder weather, it’s worse lol. Even at 100%, getting to the southern suburbs of DFW is pushing it, and I live in the far northern suburbs of the Austin area. Driving “Out of Spec Motoring” style might be required, i.e., back off your speed to make it to the charger.

No, because I don’t want AWD if I get an EV. We already have an AWD EV and I want something more range optimized as our AWD Mach-E only has 228 miles of range around town and less than 150 on the highway.

If he had been advertising a 2WD Blazer EV, I would have asked.

That range diff between 2WD and 4WD is probably specific to the Mach-E, not necessarily an overall behavior in all AWD EVs.

In most cases the AWD variant will come with a bigger battery to compensate.

I would advise against this so that you are not mistaken for a low level cartel el jefe by other factions or the po po.

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Monthly payment lease on Equinox might be your best bet.

You can try to have local dealers match the payment and DAS of a Marketplace listing if the LH seller is out of stock.

Yes but some are quite cheap. Recent posts on MB EQB and Audi Q4 in other states (low 300s all in)—you can match or exceed those deals in Texas with tax credits

Yes, I’ll definitely be looking for one of these leases for my wife on a luxury vehicle the next time around when we are done with the Mach-E. I’m glad I joined this forum to learn about these leases. But right now I’m just looking for a cheap 2nd car for me to take to the office a couple of times a week and occasionally around town when my wife and I need to be using separate vehicles.

I’m really leaning towards a buying cheap used EV and financing for the length of the battery warranty. My credit union will finance 110% of the purchase price and with my loyalty points, I can get the interest rate down below the prime rate. I am cheap when it comes to cars also, really cheap, my wife usually has the “nice” car. I bought the Navigator during Covid before the big runup in prices, when it was peak lockdown as prices went down before they went up and I got it cheap, cheap, cheap.

Ideally, I would be waiting 6 months for this car acquisition, because I would have a major expense paid off by then. I don’t like having 2 car payments, and I usually keep the “old” car. But the transmission situation and the fact we’re getting called back to the office 2 days a week January 1st is kind of forcing the situation.

Yes, I texted him about 20 minutes after I saw this.

Dealer’s don’t like handing out free money, you have to work for it.

Chevy Bolt? They’re super cheap. Also, look at in-stock Teslas discounted up to 10% off, and then some have 0% financing + incentives.

I am trying to understand how sales tax credits work in Texas? do all brands do it ? or just a few?
or is it straight up discount from Dealership?

It’s from the makers! I’ve been dealing with this as well. A lot of dealers don’t mention it and especially brokers OOS (that ship) won’t offer or deal with it.

As far as I know Acura has the sales
Tax credit right now in TX. I’m most likely getting a Solterra tomm as a 2nd car with $299/mo and $299 DAS. (36/10) Not ideal but the best deal I could find in DFW on a second car.