I have never leased a car before, but given that most of the non-Teslas are going to switch over to Tesla charging standard, and given the fact that battery tech will likely be way better five years from now, I’m heavily leaning towards leasing.
I’ve done a lot of research on this site/offsite, and my impressions are:
VW ID4 would be the cheapest lease
Tesla requires a lot down, which y’all do not recommend (4500 down)
Has anyone here used AutoCompanion to get a lease? They are saying they can get $359/month for an Ioniq SEL RWD, which is $300/month less than what one local Hyundai dealer is advertising online! (And that $600+ monthly is with $2,000 due at signing)
In all cases, I’m looking at mid-level trim with extended range.
I know that the non-Tesla chargers are a suboptimal experience, but I think I can manage inconvenience on a handful of long road trips a year to save between $5,000 and $10,000?
AutoCompanions is legit, but they are also very busy. Unless explicitly stated, their lowest numbers are typically for NJ which doesn’t tax EVs, so remember to calculate tax for your state. Also, there is a brokers fee. Best way to get in contact with them is to fill out their inquiry form, and then message them on LH if you don’t hear from them.
For Tesla, you pay what everyone else pays - not horrible, but not great. No lease deals on any Fords, at least on LH. ID4 and Ioniq 5 are very similar. It’s just personal preference.
It turns out Tesla does not require $4500 down… you can have $2,100 due at signing, but then that’s $674 monthly for a three-year lease, including $63 monthly in taxes.
I’ve gotten several from LC, including an ionic 6. I had several maches. The 6, and the LC experience, have been my favorite by far. Would do it again in a heartbeat. Public charging is awful however - would rent a gas car or do serious charging planning with backup options.
I have never leased before, and have always paid cash for cars in the past. I also have never driven a ‘fancy’ car before – my last two new car purchases were a 2007 Honda Fit and a 2000 Honda CX (no power steering, yet!) [Currently, we are a one-car family with a 2007 Prius that belonged to my spouse before we met]
We are considering leasing a VW ID4 or a Ioniq 5 or leasing or buying a Tesla Model Y.
I have read a lot on this board, and folks are adamant that downpayments for leases are bad news, because of the risk that your car is totaled in the first year. But, philosophically, how is that different than a total loss on a new car you paid cash for?
Given how high money factors are these days – I was quoted .00391 for a 2024 Ioniq 5 SE, .00342 for a Ionic SEL SE (8.21% APR), both for three year 10k leases, and .0035100 for a Tesla Model Y – why is it better to finance document fees, acquisition fees, taxes, registration if you have it in cash (earning 4.5%?)
Why wouldn’t it be advantageous to do one-pay, if available?
My assumption is that for the VW or Ioniq, I would not want to buy out the lease, because the newer versions will have Tesla-style chargers in two or three years.
One other question – we have driven 8,000 to 8,500 miles annually the last two years. Is a lease a worse deal for us because there is no ‘buy back’ of unused miles?
A one pay is different from a down payment. A one pay is paying the entire lease all at once and, in a way, the bank draws from that “account” each month until your lease is paid off or the lease is terminated (trade, sell, etc). A down payment is just a way to get your monthly payments lower and often times a dealership will use this for dealer fees, or other fees that don’t even actually reflect the value of the car.
To answer your question about the miles, let’s say you have a 12k miles per year lease for 3 years. You have 36k miles to use however you want over those 3 years, whether it be 30k miles year 1, and 3k miles years 2 and 3; or as in your case, 8500 miles per year. This would be about 24/36k miles. What this basically equates to is your car is “worth” more since it has less miles than expected/anticipated. Think of it as two identical cars on a used car lot, but one has 50k miles and one has 30k miles. The one with 30k miles will most of the time be significantly more expensive than the 50k mile car because of wear and tear, etc. So in your case, the extra miles would be beneficial assuming you are looking to sell/trade, or buy out the car yourself at below market value. Or course as you mentioned, with changing technologies, you could get the short end of the stick with market/trade values as new technologies come about and a 2 year old car is worth way less than a new car because of battery size, range, etc. If I were in your shoes I would look for the best terms for a 24 month lease one pay.
In many cases, if the car is totaled, the insurance pays market rate to the owner of the vehicle. On a lease, that isnt you, so if you put a big down payment down so your buyout is way under market price, you dont get the delta back to offset your initial payment.
Walper, thanks for your advice, and yes, I am not expecting to want to buy the car at the end because the charging standard will be different by then and the range may be better, as well (or there may be new models available that have better range at a lower cost).
Does one pay change what is capitalized? I’m taking about documentation fees of $948, acquisition fee of $650. Taxes are only $159.29, and registration is $209. (This is on a Hyundai sheet, but it seems that VW should be very close?)
How is the lease taxed in DC? I assume added to the monthly payments since upfront taxes are so low. It seems many states tax the down payment and rebates as a way to ensure they get taxes on full sales price of the car.
In some cases it does make sense to put down money to reduce overall interest rate, but it is often better to use the down payment to reduce the MF through use of multiple security deposits (MSDs). Need to do the math to see what works out best. The potential of losing down payment due to total loss is small, but not zero.
The better thing to do is lease a car with a big discount AND low money factor.
You may be in luck in DC that purchase of an electric car means no upfront tax, but I think you still will get hit with a 10.25% use tax on each payment. Might be better to lease then buy out quickly to take advantage of the rebates.
I had not seen that. What does ‘normal inceptions’ mean? We drive a little too much for 7,500 annually, unfortunately – we’re averaging 8,000 to 8,500 (1 car family).
