Car Buying Advice - 2017 RX450H Lease doesn't make sense - Help

Aprel

2017 Lexus RX450H MSRP 58,124 - my price $54,928 - 5.5% discount. Lexus's current program is as follows:

2017 RX 450h AWD 36M/10K miles a year, 3999 down $499/mo. Offer based on MSRP of $56,129 including delivery, processing and handling. The residual is 57% in Hartford CT. (With tax the payment would be $536.43.

In CT - they tax 7.75% on anything over $50K - and the dealer quoted me a payment of $581 (and that includes the 7.75% sales tax each month). So there's a $44.58 difference in payment (~$1,600) - and I'm trying to figure out why.

The dealer stated there was a $499 conveyance Fee, License and Title paperwork of $186 that was not part of the my original price.

My credit is at the highest of tiers.

From my understanding of leases - we pay the difference of the final negioated price and the residual value. In my case the residual is based on MSRP of $58124 @57% = $33130.68. Subtract my purchase price of $54,928 and the amount funded would be $21,797.32 minus the $3999 down - and the amount is 17,798.32 (or about 494.40 per month principle). If my payment is $541 per month (that's before the sales tax) - 19,476 over 36 months. If you subtract the fees on top of this ($499 + 180 = $679) - I'm still looking at $1000 in interest (or some other fees I don't know about).

Any thoughts?

kyfdx

Aprel said:

2017 Lexus RX450H MSRP 58,124 - my price $54,928 - 5.5% discount. Lexus's current program is as follows:

2017 RX 450h AWD 36M/10K miles a year, 3999 down $499/mo. Offer based on MSRP of $56,129 including delivery, processing and handling. The residual is 57% in Hartford CT. (With tax the payment would be $536.43.

In CT - they tax 7.75% on anything over $50K - and the dealer quoted me a payment of $581 (and that includes the 7.75% sales tax each month). So there's a $44.58 difference in payment (~$1,600) - and I'm trying to figure out why.

The dealer stated there was a $499 conveyance Fee, License and Title paperwork of $186 that was not part of the my original price.

My credit is at the highest of tiers.

From my understanding of leases - we pay the difference of the final negioated price and the residual value. In my case the residual is based on MSRP of $58124 @57% = $33130.68. Subtract my purchase price of $54,928 and the amount funded would be $21,797.32 minus the $3999 down - and the amount is 17,798.32 (or about 494.40 per month principle). If my payment is $541 per month (that's before the sales tax) - 19,476 over 36 months. If you subtract the fees on top of this ($499 + 180 = $679) - I'm still looking at $1000 in interest (or some other fees I don't know about).

Any thoughts?

The advertised lease and the vehicle you were quoted don't have the same MSRP, so the lease prices wouldn't be the same, all else being equal. Also, as they dealer has pointed out, there are charges that aren't included in the advertised lease.

On the advertised lease, the $3999 isn't all down payment. It's the amount due at signing.
1st payment ($499) + $795 acquisition fee + $2705 downpayment.

So, when you do your calculations, only subtract $2705 from the CAP, not $3999.
That makes the depreciation portion of the lease payment $530/mo, not $494.
With a money factor of .00080, the finance portion of the lease would be about $68/mo.

So, we're up to $599/mo.+tax, without even accounting for the extra CT charges the dealer told you about.

So, how do they get to $581/mo. including tax? There is a $2000 rebate on this vehicle.

Ask the dealer for the "adjusted CAP cost", and your total amount due at signing. With those two numbers, things should be much clearer.

Aprel

Sweet - thx. You rock.

Aprel

Dealer got back to me with a cap cost of 51,775.44 and $3999 due at closing. Is this a good deal? Remember - the initial price of the vehicle is $58,124. My payment is $581/mo 36M / 10K miles a year.

kyfdx

Aprel said:

Dealer got back to me with a cap cost of 51,775.44 and $3999 due at closing. Is this a good deal? Remember - the initial price of the vehicle is $58,124. My payment is $581/mo 36M / 10K miles a year.

The payment looks correct, given the numbers provided. If you are happy with the sale price, then it all looks good.

Aprel

The total cap cost on the Lexus is 51,775.44 and my payment is $581 (includes tax) with 36/10 and 4K at closing. I am also looking at an Audi - and the total cap that is $1660 less than the Lexus - but the payment is $118.00 more per month. Am I missing something? The Lexus has a lower residual (57% vs. the 62%). The numbers are not adding up for me. If I purchased them both outright - they’d be about the same amount of money (give or take a few). The Lexus I’m looking at has a MSRP of $59K - and the Audi is $53.5K. Why the heck would the Lexus payment be so much less?

Michaell

Aprel said:

The total cap cost on the Lexus is 51,775.44 and my payment is $581 (includes tax) with 36/10 and 4K at closing. I am also looking at an Audi - and the total cap that is $1660 less than the Lexus - but the payment is $118.00 more per month. Am I missing something? The Lexus has a lower residual (57% vs. the 62%). The numbers are not adding up for me. If I purchased them both outright - they’d be about the same amount of money (give or take a few). The Lexus I’m looking at has a MSRP of $59K - and the Audi is $53.5K. Why the heck would the Lexus payment be so much less?

Audis do not lease as well as Lexus. Lower residuals and, likely, higher MF account for this.