I just leased a Jetta Hybrid and have some concerns about the actual lease. This isn’t my first time to the rodeo so I was a bit surprised at what went down. After much negotiation, I had an out the door price of 27,6. Once I mentioned the lease aspect, the numbers all managed to change. Now I know that the capitalized cost is negotiable and thats where I was headed with this. I managed to get the capitalized cost at 28,999 and a final lease price of $387 per month. I plugged the numbers in and it was pretty close. I had them send a signed purchase order before I drove there (about 2 hours away) as well as the lease agreement. When I first saw the agreement I was livid as the amount due (supposed to be $0) had ballooned to $2700. I called to find out what was going on and was assured that was just how they had to work the numbers to make this work. I have an email where they have stated no money down and the monthly rate also. So, I went there and signed the papers. Before I signed the actual lease, I asked where the $2700 was coming from? The finance manager stated that $1500 is from VW rebate and the rest would be “taken care of by JP(sales manager).” The MRSP on this vehicle is 32260, the residual is 47%, MF of 0.00005(ridiculous huh?) at 36mos and 12K miles per year. I walked out with the car and nothing out of pocket but am I right in thinking there is something fishy going on here? Reminds me of the movie Fargo! Anyone else experienced something similar?
Can I ask, which dealership is this?
This was Midlands VW in Columbia, SC. I woke up thinking of the whole thing this morning and what I was going to do. Just didn’t have a good feeling in my gut about it and thought my first step would be to reach out to others. As it stands, if they came back on me I could potentially be out another $1200 (since the other $1500 is rebates). I’m planning on calling VW lease tomorrow and giving them a heads up. If the you know what hits the fan, I’m going social media and the local TV station to give my story.
They’re not going to burn a customer over $1200.
The amount is called due at signing for a reason. They won’t give you the car and registration if you haven’t paid your obligation. The rest of your monthly payments are set in stone by VW Credit. They can’t change the amounts without your signature.
It sounds like it’s just an accounting maneuver on their end to make it look like they didn’t discount it as much as they actually did.
Yep, this is exactly what happened OP. It is a trick dealers use to make the monthly/ down payment lower. Nothing suspicious, gets the buyer the price they want while allowing the dealer to get to that price.
Nothing suspicious. I have been told before that something down is required. If there is an incentive, then no problem with zero down.
If there is no incentive available, the dealer can obviously put money down from its own commission on the sale. Although this seems rare as they could just as easily discount the car the same amount. Anyone know why the dealer would choose either scenario?