As I was searching this thread. I saw a lot of success stories (i.e. lease deals that they were proud of), which was great in differentiating a good deal vs a bad deal. However, I learn best from my mistake, so I’m posting this to learn and hopefully others can learn from my mistake too…
Intro
To set the stage: I’m in SoCal and I currently have a lease that I was looking to trade in that has the following:
$1497 left on the lease
2200 miles over the mileage cap
Got in a “bad” (airbag got deployed) accident
Also, my credit score is in the mid 600s
Climax
I did my research and I know that given my current lease, I have limited negotiating power to get a really good deal. I looked over the internet to find comparable situations/deals and created an acceptable price range based on what I’ve read ($320-$390). I also read that end of the month is a good time to shop for a car. So I decided to shop around today (knowing full well that I would up for 30 hours when the deal is finished–I work graveyard). I talked to 4 dealers in my area and surprisingly I got a deal that makes sense (thanks to the help of research, the internet and this forum) given my sitz:
Model: Honda Civic EX Hatch
MSRP: $25205
Sell Price: $23000
Incentives:none
MF: .00061 (way lower than I expected because I ask edmunds and edmunds gave me .00215)
RV: 60%
Months:36
Mileage:12K
Monthly: $369
DAS: $697
Twist
So I got to finance satisfied and as we were doing the last bit (the contract) the finance manager was telling me how honda is making them do this new beta system where pen and paper are out and tablets and the cloud are in. Since they’re beta testing this new system, the system is far from perfect and it decided to get buggy on me. Because of this the dealer realized that the MF they gave me was for the sedan (which they were out of stock on) and not for the hatch… And so a curveball was thrown and it felt like I was a pinch hitter facing Sandy Koufax on the 9th inning of the WS. I did my best to push back, but I was just really tired and sleepy (have been up for 34 hours around this time). And so I agree on the following offer:
MSRP: $25205
Sell Price: $22400
Incentives:none
MF: .00225
RV: 58%
Months:36
Mileage:15K
Monthly: $444 (I also got wear and tear, platinum protect included in this price)
DAS: $697
After waking up from a nap, I feel that this was not a good lease… Any constructive criticism on what I could have done better will be appreciated. I know I made mistakes and any help on turning me from a leasenoob to a lease(whatever-level-is-after-noob) will be appreciated.
2nd twist
P.S. as I finished signing the contract. The finance manager next door walked into the room I was in and shared that the bug was caused by the pending time change (Daylight Savings Time). Meaning that I could have gotten the original deal ($369 monthly) had we done pen and paper or if DST did not exist!!
Moral of this post TLDR: Daylight Savings is the bane of modern society!!! #AbolishDST
What people here would say is to never shop monthly payments. It’s difficult to say how exactly you arrived at your monthly payment after you did your research. Did you plug numbers into the calculator? The 15k miles per year isn’t helping your deal either. Why did it go from 12k-15k? Also, you rarely need those add ons you mentioned.
In the future, if you want to shop a monthly payment, know exactly how you arrived at that payment. I.e use the calculator and plug in the appropriate numbers after doing your research, the most important of which is determining your goal preincentive discount and confirming your MF/RV with Edmunds.
Live and learn. Most people on here have had less than ideal leases in the past. Some likely far worst than this. Just enjoy the car and learn for next time.
Hate to break it to you, but I think the finance manager’s story about the “beta testing” and DST is total BS meant to deceive customers like yourself who are already at the dealership and are desperate to sign the deal. Plus you went in on little sleep? Dealers can pick up on customers that they can coerce into making last minute mistakes like this.
Remember, they have every advantage once you are there in person - don’t let them pull this sort of nonsense. Either they give you the deal terms you agree to…or you walk.
Nonetheless, enjoy the car - that’s all that matters now and the deal isn’t horrible given your parameters. And yes, most dealers suck.
Thanks @navidg for that input about the 15k not helping. This was the first lease I negotiated myself so I really did not understand the 12k vs 15k cost benefit analysis. Can you elaborate on why the 15k miles isn’t helping?
As for how I arrive at the monthly. The goal price I had was 21000-23000. And yes I played around with the numbers for the calculator. I mostly played around with the three numbers: sell price, RV and MF. The other numbers were too complicated to play around. I also had a concern given my trade-in. The calculator (as far as I know) do not account for trade-ins with a bad value so I was thinking that once I got them to my price range (even the upper limit) I would then use monthly payment as a parameter to measure an acceptable lease given that my trade-in was bad. Additionally there was a comparable post by @DASfine88 around June and I used that as a reference for what is an acceptable offer.
As I’m typing this I think that when the floor manager came in with the curveball and with a lower sell price,22400 (down from 23000), but a higher MF. I was a little thrown off because they were playing good cop. Do you think that I can push for even a lower sell price than 22400, given that it was their mistake?
I negotiated the first deal virtually:
Sell Price: 23000
MF: .00061
RV:60
3/36
Monthly: $369
I came in manager talked to me a lil bit saying that my credit is low yada, yada, yada. But I did not budge and sticked with the 369. So after 30 mins they sent my to finance. But the wait for finance was loooongggg. I waited 1.5 hours for finance (the dealership was relatively busy, there were 4 people ahead of me). I feel like the wait time made me anxious and desperate to sign the deal because I did not want to waste time, sacrifice my sleep and walk away with nothing…
I guess pulling out of a deal (even at the last minute) is not always bad sigh lessons learned…
But I still stand on my statement that DST is the bane of modern society and #AbolishDST.
The difference between 12k and 15k is 2% RV or about $500 plus MF. It’s not a lot but you’re trying to save every dollar. What was your mileage allowance on your previous lease? If youre over mileage maybe you need the 15k. You shouldve double checked the MF discrepancy prior to going in. Next time walk out and regroup. You can skip the add ons finance got you with. That added who knows how much. There are a lot of good brokers and dealers here based in So Cal you could’ve reached out to. Better luck next time.
You should be able to drop the add-ons now and lower that monthly payment. Why on earth did you chose those especially on a Civic. As mentioned, you should not have accepted 15K mileage since your goal is to save money. Unless, you know based on prior lease that you will be driving that much. So if your prior lease was 10K and you went over you should have use that to calculate your annual mileage used and determine what to get.
In addition, why were you set on a Civic? In your position, it would have been more prudent to look around on here and see which cars can be had with good incentives, ala lease cash, loyalty etc. From there you narrow down on what you’ll get. I mean a Civic is not a special car IMHO so something from all the mainstream brands that has the tech and whatever you deem mandatory for you should suffice.
So they essentially added $2k from your current lease into the new one. Another thing that people don’t mention if you are trying to squeeze every dollar is insurance rates for civic is higher then accord or similar car. That difference can basically get you better car for same price
With the miles, payments, and disposal, you probably rolled about $2500 into this deal. That accounts for about $75 of that new payment.
You pressured yourself into signing. Given you were only 2200 mi over, and you are paying for it anyway, you could have stayed in your current car another month and likely rolled in even less.
As others said, see about dropping that coverage and how it affects your payment.
Live and learn. You’ll benefit from this experience.
As others have said, it’s extremely difficult to negotiate once youre in the dealership and ready to sign. It sounds like you did your homework for the most part, but your mistake was rushing into this decision. You still had three months left on your previous lease. You could have easily left the dealership, went home and re-evaluated. Some wise people once said never make a decision when tired or hungry. I suspect you may have been both. I still wouldn’t beat myself up over it. If this is the worst financial decision you’ve made then you ok be just fine. Just learn for next time. Negotiating Should never happen at the dealership(sounds like you knew this one) and you very rarely need add ons. Call and try to cancel those.
Idk much about what discount you can get on a civic, but I do know that most of your negotiating power is futile once youre tired and sitting in finance waiting to sign unless youre ready to walk if they don’t give you that number. Even then it’s a maybe.
How many payments were left on the car you turned in? Honda may have forgiven a portion of the mileage overage and/or damage at return, especially if your plan was to get another Honda anyway at lease end.
Surprised nobody mentioned, how abt getting platinum coverage and excess wear n tear removal? If Platinum coverage is what they are calling service maintenance plan, thats is an almost $700 bucks which you dont need.
If the MF went up from 0.0006 to 0.00225, thats inflates the total lease cost by 8% of MSRP, and puts you here:
I still don’t see the numbers lining up. Im sure they packed something else in there, maybe jacked up the MF further or something. Mind posting your contract to understand how badly things went south. But overall, you are married to this for 3 years. Make the best of it
You need to wake up and get out of the cycle of making bad financial decisions. You’ve done yourself no favors on this new lease, and you’re also paying for your prior mistakes.
Meaning that I could have gotten the original deal ($369 monthly) had we done pen and paper or if DST did not exist!!