First lease and pretty damn happy with it!
I will upload the contract and get the numbers exactly right in the AM, but off the top of my head it was something like this (whew! been awhile since i registered a new car in MN!)
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I must have contacted 20-30 dealers around the south when I was down there, but so much easier up here where they are plentiful - best I got was $400/mo with $2 or $3k down and then a bunch of phone calls/emails/etc -
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and now a TLDR negotiation story
this guy i wrote, he wrote back with numbers quite a bit higher than this right away, i said that’s better than quite some others around town, but still too high, here’s my reasoning and numbers. It’s not about being able to afford that or not, that’s a good deal, but there are lots of good deals right now.I could go a little more if you need but not much - no big deal if you can’t do it, but also you won’t convince me to lease it at that price. We can both go have our weekends.
And he wrote like I talked to my GM he’s gonna email you and the GM wrote basically like, i am scraping bottom and feeling dirt already. And I know you aren’t gonna buy $5000 in protection packages. This is really it, it’s a good price, prob best in town, but also best I can do.
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so I wrote back
p.s. - there’s at least another $1k incentive that can be in here for aged inventory I think? Might get us closer…I need a car, you need more space for cars, but if you can’t do it, thank for being clear and just having a normal conversation by email. It’s already 7pm. Tell me tomorrow if you can make it work. You seem smart and nice and you know how long that car has been there and how many are on their way. Plus, it’s my favorite color unexpectedly and I had a really crappy year. I believe in you! Do some number magic!
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This morning he said “here’s what we can do, i think I’m off by two cents” And I wrote back shit, looks like I’m getting a car then. And I did 
and free charging
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Best part as I was driving away (as he started a small spiel about sparkplugs and oil changes and I was like yeah, I’m still signing my checks 2023 too sometimes) I was like look man, I prob talked to 50+ dealerships in past month. You were the only one that didn’t try to jerk me around just a little, you never called when I said email only, you were clear, I tried to be clear, I was in and out of here in an hour. I even bought the tire/rim/glass/paint insurance cause, you’er right that one is not so bullshit. I really do love the car, thanks.
And he smiled and was like well, look, you were like the easiest person ive talked to in three months, i didn’t even have to do any work. Didn’t know if the GM would say okay, but made sense to me. Thanks for being clear about what you wanted and would pay for it and keeping your word when I got it done.
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Actually the /only/ super pleasant experience i’ve had front to back with a car dealership. Even got a nice cracked joke that 2025s were coming in soon and if I didn’t like it, could probably work out some way to take it off my hands and put me in a more normal lease. And I smiled and said don’t push your luck, I even got a protection package! and we laughed
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And I do actually really effing like the car. I have never had a car that can accelerate that fast. I don’t have anywhere to accelerate like that, but fun to play with. Now to settle into EV life.
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Thanks to all of you - I would have absolutely ended up paying at least $4k more over two years! or never even considered it and only used evs under $25k. And I learned a lot
