There is a Chevy Equinox lease trade-in offer I was sent (Buffalo, NY) for $149/mo, and I also get the GM (factory/employee…not sure on name) discount. I plan on calling the dealership tomorrow to discuss a lease trade-in offer that was sent to me. I don’t want to go the dealership until I have an offer, but I’ve never done this before, so I could use some advice…
What I planned on doing was calling them (good first start, right?) and saying:
I received the offer for the early trade-in, and am 100% leasing a new car within the next 2 weeks, whether it’s from them or somewhere else
I have over a 700 credit rating (I actually do), and I do not want any soft or hard credit inquiries being pulled, so as to avoid further delays on this quote I’m calling about.
I have a dollar amount in my head, and I’m not negotiating; I want to know what the absolute best price is that you can offer me for the Equinox, and if it’s at or below my amount, I will 100% be leasing this car from you within the next week. If not, I’m looking elsewhere.
I want to pay absolutely $0 down (which is what the offer says), but any unavoidable costs like taxes, signing fee, etc. I want built into the lease.
Any tips on what to change or add? There’s 3 models of the Equinox I’d look at, so I figured with point #3, I’d ask "what’s the best price I can get for model ____, ____, and ____.
Also, as far as asking about the financing %, is there an average amount I should be looking to get? I did not do the negotiating for my last car, so I’m sort of in the dark on this topic.
Although a novice, I’ll give my thoughts. You might be better off going on the dealer website and narrowing down specific stock #'s that meet your criteria and ask the dealer for quotes on those specific cars so there can be no bait and switch tactics. Secondly, having a dollar amount you will not exceed is great but make sure you know the going, average lease rates for the Equinox. Do you know how realistic your dollar amount is for the car? If your bottom dollar is $300 per month (made up #'s), but others are getting the same car for an average of $250 per month, then you lose. Inversely, if you stick to your $300 and the car regularly lease for $350 per month, most dealers might not respond to you. I guess the moral of the story is know your #'s inside and out before even attempting to negotiate. That was the best lesson I learned in my short time in this forum.
JCN
Tip 1: don’t call
Tip 2: email them
Tip 3: keep it short and sweet. That wall of text above no dealer rep is going to take all that in. They’ll ignore most of it.
Research the price you think you can negotiate to and email them to see if they can make it happen. Be specific on the car, MSRP, price, terms etc. Talking about credit score etc is a waste of time at this early stage.
If the offer is $149/mo, 36mo and the only real upgrades I’d look to get off of the base model are heated leather seats and automatic starter, is there any way to find out what a would be a good offer for that? I obviously don’t want to come in too high. Sorry if that’s too vague of a question, but I’m pretty new to this whole thing.
Don’t look at the payment. It can be $1/mo with a huge down payment. Like others said - start with the sale price. Then you calculate payments yourself once you have all the numbers.
Find the MSRP and selling price (SP). Then calculate the % discount. You can apply that discount to a slightly higher MSRP car to see the new selling price.
E.g. $20K MSRP, $18K SP = 10% discount
You can apply that same discount to a car with some more options, e.g.
$21K MSRP = $18,900 SP <-- plug these into the calculator.
Listen to the advice here, don’t focus on the monthly payment yet, that is what the calculator is for. You need all the other numbers to get to the monthly payment.
Read “How to Calculate Lease Payment by Hand” so you know what numbers you need to have like MSRP, RV & MF. Just play around with some numbers and you will get better at doing the calculations.
If you want to get a good deal, you will need to put the work in. We are here to help guide you but it is really up to you to learn. If you want a target MSRP of car to look for, assume $149 x 100 = $14,900. However, you should be able to read the dozens of Equinox deals in this forum. Again, it is a lot of work but it is worth it since you will be doing this every 3 years