Lease Questions - Ask Here

nchockeyfan

Thanks Car Man for the quick reply. My request was for a FX35..not a FX45...I don't know if it matters...but, please advise.

Thanks...David

tstarks33

As always, a big help!

sjmurray3

CarMan, I plan to lease for 42 MOS 15,000 miles. Been looking at the convertible, but my wife and I decided that the drop top may be too much of a stretch financially. I heard a couple talking at a dealership last weekend about the great rates on the sedans, so I need to ask before I commit to the CiC. I'm military, so I never know how many miles I will drive, so I need to plan worst case of 15K per year. I did get the MF down to .00145 on a CiC with no CAP reduction.

joestein

Car Man,

What have you heard about Swapalease or any of the other services out there? Do you know if anybody has been happy with their experience or if Swapalease is reputable?

Thanks for your help
Joe

CarMan@Edmunds

Hi ogbuffguy. Toyota Financial Services current 3 year, 12,000 miles per residual value for the 2004 Highlander Base V6 2WD is 59%. I do know that Toyota is providing lease money factor support on the Highlander in its Los Angeles region this month, however I have not seen its exact base factor for this vehicle yet. Last month TFS' Los Angeles region special money factor for the '04 Highlander was .00173 for consumers who qualify for its top credit tier. I suspect that its March factor is very similar to, if not exactly the same as it was in February.

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CarMan@Edmunds

You know what they say, vsroman, "Early to bed, early to rise" still makes me tired as heck, or something like that. You are absolutely correct, nchockeyfan was looking for the lease program for the 2004 Infiniti FX 35 AWD. I think that I saw the "4" part of the "'04" and assumed that we were discussing the FX 45. Arrrggg. Sorry about that. Anyhow, if you were to lease a 2004 Infiniti FX 35 through IFS this month for 42 months with 15,000 miles per year, its base money factor and residual value should be .00184 and 49%, respectively. The base money factor for an otherwise identical 48 month lease would be the same, but the residual value would fall to 45%.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Hi sharkala. I would be more than happy to calculate a sample lease payment on the Lexus RX 330 that you are interested in for you. It would be a big help though if you would provide me with an approximate selling price for the model that you are interested in. You should be able to get a good idea of what the market is like for this model right now by looking up its Edmunds.com True Market Value in the New Vehicle Pricing section of this site and also by paying a visit to the Lexus RX 330 Prices Paid discussion that appears on the "What Did You Pay" section of the Smart Shoppers Message Board. Once I have this additional piece of info I will be able to help you out. Talk to you soon.

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CarMan@Edmunds

You're absolutely right, nchockeyfan. I just provided you with the info for the right vehicle in post #9740 of this discussion. Sorry about the confusion.

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CarMan@Edmunds

You're very welcome, tstarks33. I am always goad to help. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Sjmurray3, BMW's base lease money factor for the 2004 325i is exactly the same as it is in the 325i convertible right now, .00125 for all leases of up to 42 months in length.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Hi Joe. The main problem with Swapalease is that it is difficult to convince consumers to assume a lease on a used vehicle that may not even be that good a deal, when they can lease an identical brand new model for the same, or even a lower payment. Many people find that they have to sweeten their deals by paying money out of their own pockets before anyone is willing to assume them. Another problem with this service is that some banks do not allow lease transfers. I have not tried to transfer one of its leases, but I have heard that American Honda Finance Corp. no longer allows consumers to transfer leases to others. Furthermore, some of the banks that still do allow lease transfers hold the original lease-holder liable if the new lessee defaults. As you can imagine, no one wants to be left holding the bag if the complete stranger who assumed their lease runs into financial difficulty.

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nchockeyfan

Thanks Car Man! You da best. :-)

David

tgp1810

Car_man,
Thanks for all of your help...I just have one last thing for you to look over. I e-mailed my dealer with the lease payments that I figured and he responded saying that they were correct however, there is an additional $750 rebate that I qualify for, bringing the total to $2500. He then broke down the lease like this:

At 3.5% 47%
MSRP $25,495
GMS $22,686.00
$2,500 in rebates
$292.82 + tax, $311 per month with only $173 due at sign!

I get $274.83 + $16.49 tax for a total of $291.32.

The difference is small...does this sound good or should I press the numbers I get?

sharkala

Hi Carman,
According to the posts people are getting a price of $38,000 for the RX330- I appreciate your time

ger3sf

Greetings, car_man! I am thinking about leasing one of the following (both at 36-mo, 12K/yr, $2500 cap reduction, $5000 trade)...

530i (MSRP $44100) with: Leather $1450, Cold Weather Pkg $750, Sport Pkg $3300, Park Distance $700, Steptronic $1275, Xenon $800, Nav $1800

According to the BMW USA website, the lease rate (before CA sales tax) would be $586.

545iA (MSRP $55000) with: Cold Wthr $750, Sport Pkg $3300, Park Dist $700, Nav $1800

Per the website, the lease rate would be $650.

What are the money factors and residuals for these models? Are they reasonable? Would the MF and residual be different for a European delivery car? Thanks.

hartt

Does anyone know what the acquisition fee is for Lexus? I have been told $795 by one dealer and $600 by another.
Also, what is the average doc fee? One of the dealers is trying to charge me $295.

Thanks for the help.

Tim

sjmurray3

If I can get 42mos/15,000 lease, with MF .00125 and $1500 off MSRP on a 325CiC with PP/Auto/CWP/LTHR should I go for it? I know people are getting the sedans $500-$1000 over invoice, but convertibles are normally only discounted 2% from what I see on this board?

crashtestdingo

Well, folks, when my sister and I went to close the deal and pick up her car on Saturday, there was good news and bad news. The good news was that the lease contract the salesman had ready for her to sign had the best possible terms available (.00125 money factor, 63% residual value) for the type of lease my sister wanted (36 months, 10K miles annually). (I didn't realize until later that the money factor isn't explicitly given in the contract, so a would-be lessee has to do some calculations in order to discover what it is.) The bad news was that the selling price was $35,000 instead of the $33,575 the salesman had offered her back in December. (The MSRP was $35,120 – for the base car plus premium package, cold package and metallic paint – $300 more than in December, due to BMW's price increase.) Still, the monthly payment (about $471) was quite a bit less than what it would have been had the deal been closed back in December (about $485), before BMW sweetened the lease support of the 325xi sedan last month.
 
Nonetheless, my sister pointed out the higher selling price to the salesman. Rather than openly confront him about it, though, she treated it as an error. The salesman was (or pretended to be) perplexed. He played around with his calculator and eventually pointed out that the monthly payment was quite a bit less than what he had offered in December. But my sister insisted that it should be even lower because the indicated selling price of $35,000 was in error. The salesman didn't concede that right away, and said that the dealership's finance department was closed because it was Saturday, so a new lease contract could not be prepared until Monday. My sister said she would wait, so we left without the car.
 
On the drive back (in our father's car), she expressed her anger that the salesman had tried to get her to sign a lease contract with a much higher selling price. We both believed, and still do, that the figure of $35,000 wasn't put there by mistake. I was of the opinion, though, that morally, she didn't have a right to be angry since the monthly payment he had offered her was less than the one she had agreed to in December. But that doesn't mean I thought she was wrong to try to get a lower selling price. She said she was angry that he played dumb and pretended that he couldn't figure out what was wrong with the figures, and that had he leveled with her and said that $35,000 was now the selling price, she would have accepted it.
 
Anyway, after we got home, she received a call from the salesman, who conceded that the figures on the contract were wrong, and that he would have a new contract with the correct figures ready on Monday. Come Monday, he faxed her a copy of the new contract. (She had instructed him to do so, to make sure we would not make another trip there for naught.) Since the numbers were correct – the selling price was exactly what he had offered in December, he didn't even add the $300 price increase – we drove to the dealership, she closed the deal (monthly payment: about $425) and drove off in her new Bimmer, happy as a clam. As a bonus, we got to see the arrival of that dealership's first 645ci convertible.
 
Once again, Car_man, I must thank you for all your help!

CarMan@Edmunds

No problem, David.

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CarMan@Edmunds

You're welcome, tgp1810. GM did indeed introduce an additional $750 bonus cash on the Chevrolet Malibu this month. You were fortunate to have waited until March to finalize your deal. I wouldn't worry about the difference between the lease payment that you calculated and the one that the dealer quoted. It's only a dollar.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Thanks for the additional information, sharkala. OK, if you were to lease a 2004 Lexus RX 330 AWD without navigation or the rear entertainment system with an MSRP of $41,838 and a selling price of $38,000 through Lexus Financial Services this month for 36 months with 15,000 miles per year, I believe that your zero down, pre-tax monthly payment should be right around $539. The 39 month payment would be right around $536.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Greetings ger3sf. If I understand your post, you are planning on putting $7,500 down on this lease, $2,500 cash + $5,000 for your trade. Let me begin by saying that I would not put as much money down as you are if I was leasing one of these cars. I say this for two main reasons. First, if your leased vehicle is stolen and never recovered or totaled in an accident, your insurance company pays off the bank that you were leasing it through and your down payment essentially disappears. Also, down payments on leased vehicles do nothing to reduce their lease-end purchase prices. So these cars' lease-end purchase prices would be exactly the same, regardless of whether you were to put $7,500 or nothing at all down.

Having said this, let's take a look at the current lease programs for these cars. Interestingly enough, their programs are exactly the same. If you were to lease a 2004 BMW 530i or a 545i through BMW Financial Services this month for 3 years with 12,000 miles per, their base lease money factors and residual values should be .00225 and 64%, respectively. This isn't the lowest money factor in the world, at lease BMW is offering some sort of support on this car now. A few months ago you would have had to pay BMW FS' standard lease money factor if you wanted a 5-Series. I believe that BMW's money factors would be exactly the same if you purchased one of these cars through its European Delivery program.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Tim, Lexus Financial Services' base lease acquisition fee is currently $600 in all states excluding Rhode Island and New York. A $295 doc fee really is not that outrageous, but it is important to look at doc fees for what they really are - nothing more than additional dealer profit. The bottom line is that you want to drive off in the vehicle that you want having spent the least money possible. If you feel as though the dealer that is charging you the $295 doc fee is offering you the lowest total price, it really doesn't matter how they break that price down.

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CarMan@Edmunds

The deal that you were quoted looks reasonable to me, sjmurray3. The money factor that you are being charged is right on the money and even though I am not all that familiar with what the current market for this model is like in your area, but the selling price that you were quoted looks decent.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Thanks for taking the time to come back and let us all know how everything turned out, crashtestdingo. It definitely look as though the dealership tried to increase the selling price of your sister's car and was hoping that she wouldn't notice because the enhanced lease program actually provided a lower monthly payment. Your sister did a good job in being so thorough in reading over the lease contract before signing it. I am glad to hear that everything worked out so well and you lucky dogs got to see the new 6-Series to boot. I haven't seen one in person yet, but I love the pictures that I have seen of it. I've always been a coupe lover. Anyhow, I hope that your sister enjoys her new car.

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joe1220

The dealer teold on a 2004 clk55 that I qualified for Tier 2 Credit and the rate is .00335. This seems VERY high. Is he marking this up? He also quoted me a rediual of 63% on a 30 month and 60% on 36 or 39 month. Thanks for your help.

nchockeyfan

Car Man,
I assume the money factors you quote are based on the 'Factory' financing of a particular brand. For example, I am looking at an Infiniti, so I assume your info is based on IFS.

So here is my question. Assuming for a min. that I have very good credit, is it safe to say that if a dealer is quoting me rates that are noticibly higher then what you have quoted, then they are making extra profit on my deal...or is there some other explanation.

Thanks...David

vyacha1

Hello Car_man. Did you have a chance to look at the lexus lease program? I'm still interested in
leasing GX470 for 42/48 month with 10K.

jefe

Carman-
  Can I please have the current lease numbers for a 2004 Toyota 4Runner Sport 4wd V8. This will be for 36 months at 15,000 miles per year. Location in Missouri. Thanks

ger3sf

Thanks, car_man...I was plugging the downpmt totals to see if the monthly pmt falls below $600 (530i) and $650 (545iA). Also, I was using the trade-in amount as a proxy for the ED (euro delivery) savings.

But you have an excellent point...if the car is totalled, most (if not all) of the downpmt wouldn't be recovered. And that is also true when a car is financed with a loan. So, leasing can be advantageous on that point. I could just keep the downpmt amt in an acct and use it to "fund" each monthly pmt. Thanks for your valuable input (and patience)!!

mcwenzel

CarMan,

Can you give me the money factor, residual and sample payment on a Honda Accord EX-V6 sedan automatic without navigation.

MSRP: 26,890 (including destination)
Invoice: 24,244 (including destination)
Selling Price $23,360 (including destination)
12,000 or $15,000 miles per year
zero down payment
36 month lease

Looking for the monthly payments for 3 years on both the 12,000 and 15,000 mile lease.

Thanks!

mellis

Car_Man:

Regarding post #9699, what was the money factor and residual value you used to calculate that lease payment? Thanks!

Mark

crashtestdingo

Mike, how'd you get a selling price less than invoice? Is there factory-to-dealer cash at this time for the Accord?

lexlease

Thanks for the valuable advice. Have learned something new from your comments everyday. Do you know what the Lexus "Lenders and Members" (L&M)Fee is about? I was told it was 1.2% of selling price in lieu of paying sales tax in Texas?

mcwenzel

Hey crashtestdingo,

I asked for quotes through Edmunds, and received several. Each was at least $400 below invoice. Must be competitive here in NorCal.

iwantfx

Hi Carman -

Based on the response you've provided in one of the posts above, IFS offering the following terms for the FX 35 through end of this March:

42 months, .00184 money factor, 49% residual

My negotiated price on the FX35 AWD is $39,080 with the technology and touring package.

Question 1: Is my price a good deal?

Question 2: Can you help me calcuate my monthly payment based on the IFS term above? Is this the best rate out there for this car?

Question 3: Is the term above applies only to tier 1 credit? If so, what is the term and lease payment for the tier 2?

Thanks a lot for your help!

iwantfx

Hi Carman -

Sorry about another missing info for your calc. I want a zero down, drive off down ($1500-$2000 down payment), and lastly $5,000 down scenarios. Would you recommend doing a $5K down to lower the payments? Sorry, I'm a newbie to leasing. Thanks!!!!!!

CarMan@Edmunds

Hi joe1220. I don't know what Mercedes-Benz Credit Corp.'s Tier 2 base lease money factor is for the model that you are interested in. However, I can tell you that its base lease money factors for consumers who qualify for its best credit tier are .00295 for up to 30 months and .00265 for 36 to 48 months. If I had to guess, I would say that your dealer is probably marking up MBCC's base Tier 2 money factors a little bit, but I am not positive about this. If you doubt that this is MBCC's base rate, ask your dealer to show you a copy of MBCC's rate sheet. It will break down all of its base money factors for the model that you are interested in, which is a sweet car by the way .

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CarMan@Edmunds

You are correct, David. Any time I give community members an idea of what a vehicle's current lease program should be like, I am talking about what it would be like if they were to lease it through its manufacturer's captive finance company. There are two possible explanations why a dealer would quote you lease money factors that are significantly higher than the ones that I have provided you with. Either A) you don't qualify for the bank's top credit tier or they are marking up the bank's base money factors to add additional back-end profit to your deal.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Hello vyacha1. I don't believe that Lexus is providing any sort of lease support on the 2004 GX 470 at this time. So if you were to lease one through Lexus Financial Services, you would have to use its base standard lease money factor of .00200. This truck's 39 and 48 month, 12,000 miles per year residual values should be 52% and 48%, respectively. I have not seen its 42 month residual value, but it should be right in between those two numbers. Also, I am not sure that LFS leases vehicles with only 10,000 miles per year. If it does, its residual values for such leases are probably 1% higher than the ones that I just mentioned.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Hi there jefe. Toyota is not providing any sort of lease money factor support on the 2004 4Runner in most of its regions. If this is the case in your area and you were to lease one through Toyota Financial Services, you would have to use its base standard lease money factor of .00220. The 3 year, 15,000 miles per residual value for a 2004 Toyota 4Runner Sport 4wd V8 should be 61%.

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CarMan@Edmunds

You are very welcome, ger3sf. I like your idea of keeping the money that you would have used as a down payment in an account and using it to subsidize your lease payments. That is much safer than using it as a down payment.

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CarMan@Edmunds

I would be more than happy to help you out, mcwenzel. Thank you for making such a descriptive post. OK, if you were to lease a 2004 Honda Accord EX-V6 Sedan without navigation through American Honda Finance Corp. this month for 3 years with 15,000 miles per, its base lease money factor and residual value should be .00146 and 57%, respectively. Its 12,000 miles per year residual value would increase to 59%. According to my calculations, using the aforementioned numbers, an MSRP of $26,890 and a selling price of $23,360, your three year, 15,000 miles per, zero down, pre-tax monthly payment should be around $280. With only 12,000 miles per year, the payment would drop to around $266. Man that sure is a heck of a car for the money.

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CarMan@Edmunds

Hey Mark. Chrysler Financial's current 39 month base lease money factor for a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica AWD is .00110.

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CarMan@Edmunds

You're very welcome, lexlease. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the "Lenders and Members" tax that you mentioned in your post. Sorry.

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tstarks33

I'm looking to lease a car, so I have been on top of my credit score and whatnot. I have been told that most car companies look at the equifax score, where I have a 703, but my experian score is 751, a huge, almost 50 point difference. Is there any way I can "make" them use my experian score? I just want to increase my chances of being approved and getting the lowest money factor possible. Thanks in advance!

CarMan@Edmunds

I have had an opportunity to take a look at the lease programs for these models, jas413, but in order for me to give you an idea of what they are like, I need to know the exact trim levels that you want to get, how long you want to lease them for, and how many miles per year you need to be able to drive them.

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vyacha1

Thank you Car_man. Is at true that if I choose
a car with a Mark Levinson/Navigation package it
will affect (increase) the residual?

kyfdx

On almost all Japanese makes, Navigation equipped cars have a 2% lower residual value. I don't know specifically that its true for this model, but that is the way I would bet.

regards,
kyfdx

jefe

Thanks Carman,

Just one more question, do you take the 61% from MSRP of the 4-runner or purchase price. I am 95% sure its MSRP, I just want to verify.

Thanks again!!!