Lease Questions - Ask Here

CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Hi cjs2002. Let's calculate a sample lease payment on this truck for you and see what we come up with. According to my calculations, if you were to lease a 2004 Nissan Armada SE 4WD with a full MSRP of $33,950 and a selling price of $32,000 through Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. this month for 39 months with 12,000 miles per year, your zero down, pre-tax monthly lease payment should be around $445. You never mentioned the exact trim level that you are interested in in your post, so I guessed. This truck's lease payment may be slightly different if you are interested in a different trim level.

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njgladiator · February 2004

The selling price is $38,545.

thanks carman.

cjs2002 · February 2004

thank you I didn't want anything special just the very basic with no options. our local dealor wouldn't let me look at one nor test drive one. I sent my father back up and we got to look at one just fine. the only ones they have are the ones with the sunroof package or the stereo so we're gonna try to get them to deal esspecially after the way they treated me. I wrote a letter to the owner of the nissan dealorship in hopes of getting a response as to why I was treated in such a way. though I'm 20 I wasn't dressed like a punk or anything, I was dressed in a business suite from work earlier. I'm actually considering not getting a nissan car from this dealor or not getting a nissan at all. I can't believe dealors would do this.

love_2_drive · February 2004

What are the rates on the GX470? I live in Florida, Price like $51 after options, I would like it for 36 months. Any body know?

moeronn · February 2004

Hi Car_man,

I have been sifting through this post for the past few weeks and have found it very useful. I am currently looking to lease one of three cars:
2004 Acura TL (with and without Navi)
2004 Acura TSX (with Navi)
2004 Infiniti G35x
and was wondering if you have seen what the March lease terms would be, considering a 36 month lease with 15,000 miles per year. I'm trying to decide on which car (and no, price isn't the only factor, but it is one of them

and whether or not to get it this weekend or wait for the new lease terms.

Thanks in advance.

itaback · February 2004

I would first like to thank Car Man for his excellent assistance.

Second, I would like to share my recent lease experience for a Volvo S60R. As many of you know Volvo is offering a $4500 dealer incentive if you lease this car through a bank other than Volvo's captive financing company. In addition, there may be other dealer cash available as Volvo is trying to move this car.

As for me, I leased a loaded S60R for 39 months, 10,000 miles per year with $1,555 cash due at signing for $397.97 per month (including tax)!! It truly was a deal I couldn't refuse. (And for those interested, I LOVE THIS DAMN CAR.) I got to this deal through Eddie at Regency Leasing in Brooklyn (and picked up the car from Volvo of Edison in New Jersey). BTW, I only need 10,000 miles a year for those thinking I'll get killed on the overage.

As for specifics, I know the MSRP was $41,820 and the residual was 58%. I'll check my papers to post other relevant numbers.

Good luck to you all.

jasonah · February 2004

I am currently leasing a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee and have 14 payments left at $606. The residual is 15K. I am at 81K miles and only have 1500 more before I start paying 15 cents a mile. By my estimates I will owe another $3300 at lease termination due to excess mileage and whatever they nail me for excess wear and tear.

I am looking for any advice on what would be best to do either now or at lease end. I called the bank and I can buy the vehicle now for $19700(not including tax and misc). I was thinking that since I have to pay the remaining 14 payments in any case...that this wouldn't be too bad of a deal. Or is it? Should I look to try and trade it in? Or just suck it up and eat whatever penalties I have at lease end?

Any advice would be appreciated.
-Jason

gordo95 · February 2004

Car_Man: Hoping you can "look over my shoulder" on the following numbers for a 2004 ES330 Lease in the DC area:
MSRP: $37934
RV: $21,243 (56%)
Monthly Depreciation: $368 -- $34,500 (Negotiated Cap Cost, including Acq Fee) less $21,243 RV, divided by 36 months
MF Component: $89.19 -- $34,500 plus $21,243 X .00160
Total Lease Payment without tax = $457
Taxes: $22.85 -- $457 X .05
Total Bottom Line Lease Payment: $479.85 ($457 plus $22.85)

On a separate question, do you have any sense of how flexible dealers are to assume/payoff a few months remaining on an existing lease? What is the best way to approach this issue when negotiating the lease?

Thanks!

superman5 · February 2004

hello carman , quick question, i am 2 year into my lease, my lease buy out amt is $25,000. if i send a check to my lease company for that amount, they will send me a pink slip right? then i can sell my car to whoever i want right? If i have a buyer already, do i have my lease company change the title to the new owner or the lease company sends me the pink slip in my name and i have to do tranfer of title?

ipoddin · February 2004

Hi Car_Man. I'm wondering if you could help me figure out my lease payments for both situations below. I think I got it right but would like to hear from you to be sure I calculated properly. This is in Los Angeles if that helps (8.25% sales tax).

Option 1:
'04 AWD Chrylser Pacifica
Sticker = $37,010
Selling price = $34,452 (at invoice)
Rebate = $3,000
Cap Cost = $31,452
Term = 39 months
Miles = 15k/year

Option 2:
'04 FWD Chrylser Pacifica
Sticker = $33,825
Selling price = $31,600 (at invoice)
Rebate = $3,000
Cap Cost = $28,600
Term = 39 months
Miles = 15k/year

Let's assume I have excellent credit, so give me the best money factor.

Thanks!

CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Hello Tim. Here is the information that you are looking for. The following are the base lease money factors and residual values for the vehicles that you are interested in if you were to lease them through their captive finance companies for 3 years with 15,000 miles per: 2004 Infiniti G35 AWD & 2WD - .00180 / 59%, 2004 BMW 325i - .00125 / 61%, 2004 Acura TL without navigation - .00215 / 58%, 2004 Audi 1.8T Sedan with quattro - .00090 / 54%, 2004 Lexus ES 330 without navigation - .00160 / 57%, & the 2004 Nissan Maxima SE - .00168 / 54%.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Thanks for the additional information, neptunedude. The last time that I saw its lease program, American Honda Finance Corp.'s base lease money factor for Acura models was .00215 for 36 month terms. This base factor would increase to .00225 if you were having this car's lease security deposit waived. Let's calculate a sample lease payment on this car for you and see what we come up with. According to my calculations, if you were to lease this 2004 Acura TL with navigation (MSRP: $34,650 / selling price: $34,000) through AHFC this month for 3 years with 15,000 miles per, your zero down, pre-tax monthly lease payment should be right around $521. The reason that I calculated your payment without any money down is that it is in consumers best interest not to make any sort of down payment when leasing. I say this for two main reasons. The first is that if your vehicle is stolen and not recovered or totaled in an accident during your term, your insurance company pays off the bank that you were leasing it through and your down payment essentially disappears. The second main reason is that down payments on leases do nothing to reduce their lease-end purchase prices. So if you were to put $5,000 down on this car or absolutely nothing at all down, its lease-end purchase price would be exactly the same. If you sill want to make the $1,665 down payment that you mentioned, it would reduce this car's lease payment to around $471 pre-tax for an otherwise identical lease.

Looking at your deal, I have to say that I personally feel as though you should be able to negotiate a lower selling price for this car. Your deal only includes a $650 discount off of this car's full MSRP. In most areas there is an ample supply of Acura TLs out there. By shopping around a little bit, I have a feeling that you should be able to get at least $2,000 off of MSRP, unless you are in an area where there is not a lot of competition for your business.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

It was a good idea to have your credit union run a lease for you on this car, steeler_fan. It gives you something that you can compare to the deals that dealers offer you. I am not surprised that your bank uses ALG's residuals. ALG's residual values are often slightly lower than the residual values that captive finance companies use to calculate payments, but since they are supposed to be an accurate estimate of vehicles' future values from an independent source most independent banks use them to calculate payments. Even though this bank is using lower residual values than AHFC does, its low money factor makes up for some of the difference. If you do not have to pay any sort of acquisition fee on this deal, that would be a big savings.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Thanks for the additional information, njgladiator. Here is the sample lease payment that you are looking for. According to my calculations, if you were to lease a 2004 Acura MDX Touring without navigation or the rear entertainment system (MSRP: $39,000 / selling price: $38,545) through American Honda Finance Corp. for 48 months with 15,000 miles per year, your zero down, pre-tax monthly lease payment should be right around $574. If you were to put $2,500 down on an otherwise identical lease, it would lower your monthly payment to around $499. You may want to look around to see if this is a good selling price for this model. Make sure to stop by the Acura MDX: Prices Paid & Buying Experience discussion to speak with other community members on this subject.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Greetings love_2_drive. Lexus' lease program varies slightly depending upon what part of the country one is in. Here is what I believe is the latest info for your neck of the woods. Lexus Financial Services' base lease money factor and residual value for a 36 month, 15,000 miles per year lease of a 2004 Lexus GX470 without the rear entertainment system or night view option should be around .00170 and 49%.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

I am glad that you have found the posts in this discussion so helpful, moeronn. Let's take a look at the current lease programs for the models that you are interested in. If you were to lease a 2004 Acura TL with 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 around .00215 and 56%, respectively. The money factor for a 2004 TL without navigation would be exactly the same, but its residual value would be 2% higher. AHFC's 3 year, 15,000 miles per base money factor and residual value for a 2004 Acura TSX with navigation should be .00215 and 55%. If you were to lease a 2004 Infiniti G35x through Infiniti Financial Services this month for 3 years with 15,000 miles per, its base money factor and residual value should be .00180 and 59%.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

You are very welcome, itaback. Thank you for taking the time to come back and let us all know how everything turned out. I am glad to hear that you were able to negotiate such a great deal. Enjoy your new car.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

I am sorry to hear that you are in such a tough situation, Jason. Purchasing your leased vehicle certainly is an option that you should consider. Take the purchase price that you were quoted and compare it to what this truck is worth on the open market right now. You should be able to find out its approximate value by looking up its Edmunds.com True Market Value in the Edmunds.com Used Vehicle Appraiser section of this site. You also may want to stop by the Real-World Trade-In Values discussion where one of our most knowledgeable community members, Terry, is often kind enough to share his opinion on vehicle's current values with others. If your purchase price is less than this car's current value then you are in great shape and probably should buy your truck. Even if it is not less, as long as the difference between your purchase price and this vehicle's actual value is less than your estimated lease-end penalty you will likely come out ahead by buying it.

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jasonah · February 2004

Thanks Car_man. I looked at the TMV and it is at $12,100. Thats a good deal less than what I can buy it for now, but, should I be considering the $8,600 I have to pay in any case since I have 14 months remaining on my lease? I think my math may be wrong....but what I am seeing is that I can pay approximately $12,600 for the remaining lease payments, mileage penalty, and wear and then walk away with nothing to show for it. Or I can pay $19,700 and purchase the vehicle now. Does that make sense? It would seem to me that my better option would be to purchase it now in this scenario....but I think I am missing something.
-Jason

kyfdx · February 2004

The missing part of the equation is that the vehicle will be worth even less in 14 months. It sounds like you rolled a lot of negative equity into this lease. My advice would be to keep making the lease payments until near the end of the lease (1-2 months left). You may be able to negotiate a lower price to buy the car than the residual value. At that point, you could make the decision on whether it would be better to buy or pay the charges, and the variables will be easier to compare.

This is going to be a pretty high-mile car by the end of this lease.. If you have the wherewithal to make the payments, then pay the charges at the end of the lease, I would go that route. Then you can start over with another car, and no debt to roll into your next car payment.

regards,
kyfdx

Also..take TMV value with a grain of salt. They generally don't penalize for mileage the way the real world does. Your car may already be worth significantly less than the TMV value.

ashleyandersin · February 2004

Car_man,

You requested that I post a reminder to you (see below) to see if you found anything about the enhanced lease program for the BMW X-3 as I was having a hard time getting the facts!

Thanks so much, AshleyAndersin

"I have not seen this new, enhanced lease program yet. I will take a look around and see if I can find anything out for you. Please post a quick reminder for me in this discussion in a few days and I will be more than happy to fill you in on what I have been able to find out. Talk to you soon.

Car_man"
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jratcliffe · February 2004

Remember, you're not throwing away $12,600 - that money is getting you the use of the car for the year. If you buy the car for $19,700, then if you can sell it in a year for at least $7,100 ($19,700 minus $12,600), you'll come out ahead (remember to take sales taxes into account - you might have to pay more than $19.7k, I don't know how those affect you)

gordo95 · February 2004

Curious if anyone has had the following experience when researching lease payments. After obtaining a money factor quote from Car_Man, asking a dealer to run lease numbers who comes back with a higher payment than you initially calculated (based again on Car_Man's MF/RV numbers). When asked as to the discrepency, the dealer indicates that a higher MF was used in their calculation, and that this was perhaps due to the fact that no credit report was run prior to them running the numbers (quote was provided over the phone). Is this accurate? I would think national lease programs should be adhered to by dealers, regardless of credit reports, or other factors, but maybe I'm missing something. Are their specific tactics to use in bringing the dealer's numbers more in line, or should you just look elsewhere? Thanks!!

joatmon · February 2004

good rates, just like for regular financing. A 600 beacon is not going to get you the top tier rate.

ipoddin · February 2004

The money factors you're getting here are the best rates...and only those with excellent credit will qualify for those, just like regular financing. Without knowing your credit score, the dealer is going to quote you a price with an average money factor (just like you see when you build a price a model on a manufacturer's website).

My thoughts, if you don't want them to run a credit check just to get a quote (and you don't) ask them for their best money factor rate assuming you have excellent credit (if you don't have excellent credit, don't say this)

mmmc · February 2004

Car_man:

I'm interested in leasing a 2004 BMW 325ci (prem pkg, spt pkg, leather, auto). Got a couple questions and hope you can help me out. Note that I'm very new at this (reading up though) so apologies if I'm asking silly questions.

1) From the posts, I understand there's a special leasing offer on the 325ci's w/ the money factor at 0.00125. Do you know when the offer ends? Also, how does one find out about these specials? (maybe I missed it but didn't see it under the rebates/incentives section of edmunds)

2) Timing - Is it better to lease towards the end of the model year (Jul/Aug) when they try to get rid of all their inventory? Perhaps better selling price?

3) Auto Broker - I am thinking of getting the lease through an autobroker. Any watchouts or comments on that?

4) Selling Price - what's the fair selling price for this model? how much above or below invoice.

Thanks for your help.

moeronn · February 2004

Car_man, Thanks for the response. You mentioned that the lease terms provided were for the current month. Would you by chance have the terms for March at this time or is it too early to find out that information? I am wondering if I would be better off getting the car (one of them) now, or waiting until next month. My main concern is that Infiniti will be completely redesigning the interior of the G35 and it may affect the residual value. Thanks again for the help.

kyfdx · February 2004

I've got some answers before Car_man replies.

1) This is the only place on Edmunds you can find out about the money factors.

2) In my experience, good lease deals seem to peak about March. While later in the year seems to be a good time to buy, the residuals seem to really start falling off quickly in the summer, and the lease incentives don't seem to keep up. Of course, there are always exceptions.

3) I think if you arm yourself with enough data, you can negotiate the same price an autobroker can. If your local dealer won't deal with you, and you have few alternatives, then a broker may be able to get you a better deal, but it will likely be with an out-of-town dealer. Then you will probably be taking your car back to your local dealer for service. Depending on the dealer, you may get second choice on service appointments, no loaner cars, etc. I would at least try to negotiate on my own, before turning to a broker.

4) Most of the deals I see on new '04 3-series seem to be about halfway between invoice and MSRP. For most cars that is about $1500-1700 over invoice and $1500-1700 under MSRP. Is that fair? Who knows?

My opinion is you can always make a better deal on a car that is on the lot, than a dealer trade or an order. A solid offer for $1000 over invoice might do it, but may not. The lease deals look awfully good right now, with .00125 and 61% residual on 3yr/36K.

If you are negotiating, keep in mind that most BMW dealers mark up their MFs, and sometimes add up to $200 to the $525 acquisition fee. You might want to let them know up front that you expect the base MF and acquisition fee(known as the buy rate by BMW dealers).

Hope this helps and I'm sure Car_man will have plenty to add.

kyfdx

crashtestdingo · February 2004

Hello again, Car_man (and everyone else). You may recall me as the NYC resident whose sister special-ordered an '04 BMW 325xi sedan back in the beginning of December. Well, she's been away almost all this month and doesn't return until tomorrow. That means she'll have only three days (Friday, Saturday and Monday) to get insurance and get over to the dealership before BMW FSNA's current lease terms expire.

My first question is, Is this enough time? I guess if all she needs to do is get insurance (she currently doesn't have a car, so she doesn't have an auto insurance policy now) and get to the dealership long enough before closing time in order to take care of the paperwork, it is, but I'm wondering if there's something I'm leaving out. Also, I remember reading that a buyer / lessee should test drive the car prior to taking delivery of it to make sure everything's O.K. with it. (I guess she should also make sure it's not missing anything  recall that other poster whose new 3-series didn't have BMW Assist like it was supposed to.)

My second question is, Do you have any inkling if BMW FSNA will continue to offer the dynamite lease terms it's offering now? Have you heard anything about how the 325xi has been selling this month? I ask because I'm wondering what my sister will face on Tuesday if she doesn't close the deal before then.

My third question follows from the second. How soon do you think you'll know what BMW FSNA's lease terms will be for March?

My fourth question is one I think you answered before. Is the dealership obligated to offer her the lease terms being offered by BMW FSNA at the time she closes the deal on the car instead of the ones that were being offered and that the salesman put in writing at the time she ordered the car?

Thanks in advance for your help!

steeler_fan · February 2004

Hey Car_Man,

I pulled the trigger on the credit union deal. Yes, the payments were a little higher than others have been quoted, but the value of the car won't be overinflated at the end of the lease. I might even be tempted to buy it if at the end if I don;t have any issues during the lease. A credit union representative is actually dropping off my Nighthawk Black Pearl/Quartz non-Nav TL at my house after work tomorrow. Thanks again!!

jumper4 · February 2004

Hello Carman,

Could you please post the rates for the Audi A4 1.8 and 3.0 sedan for a 36 month/10,000 mile lease and do you know how long these rates will be in effect? Thank you very much for all your help.

ipoddin · February 2004

Just want to make sure this doesn't get buried. Thanks!

ipoddin Feb 25, 2004 1:30am

Would also like to know what the difference would be for 12k miles/per year as well.

CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

I would be more than happy to take a look at the deal that you are working on, gordo95. I just calculated a sample lease payment on this car for you. According to my calculations, this car's 36 month payment should be around $457, which is exactly what you came up with. I am not familiar with how tax is calculated in your area so I can't help you out with that aspect of this deal though. It is good to see that you have gotten the hang of calculating lease payments. Understanding how payments are arrived at will definitely help you to get a good deal.

The dealership that you are working with may indeed be more than willing to pay off your current vehicle's last couple of lease payments. Keep in mind though that the money that they use to do so has to come from somewhere. If you have them help you pay off your current lease, it will cut into their profit on your deal and definitely have a negative impact on your ability to negotiate an attractive selling price.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Greetings superman5. Every bank's procedures for purchasing leased vehicles are a little different. The best way to find out exactly how purchasing your leased vehicle will go is to place a call directly to the bank that you are leasing it through. You should be able to deal directly with them, sending them a check in exchange for your vehicle's title without ever having to involve any dealerships.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Hi ipoddin. There sure has been a lot of posts in this discussion lately, but I would never let you get buried

. Let's take a look at the two deals that you described in your first post. The prices of Pacificas sure have dropped quickly haven't they. I remember how DaimlerChrysler was trying to sell them without any incentives when they were first introduced. Now they have $3,000 on them and they are going out the door at invoice minus any incentives. Ouch. According to my calculations, if you were to lease a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica AWD (Option 1) with a full MSRP of $37,010 and a selling price of $31,452 through Chrysler Financial right now for 39 months with 15,000 miles per year, your zero down, pre-tax monthly lease payment should be right around $396. The monthly lease payment for an otherwise identical lease of the second vehicle that you described would be right around $367. I hope that this helps you out and please let me know if you have any other questions.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Thanks for the reminder, AshleyAndersin. I was able to find out that BMW reduced its base lease money factor on the 2003 X3 to .00225 for all leases of up to 42 months in length. This is a little better than its standard money factor. They may also have made a few minor changes to this vehicle's residual values, but I haven't heard anything specific about that. Is there a specific model / length of lease that you are interested in finding out informaiton on? If so let me know and I will try to find out the exact money factor and residual that you need.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Gordo95, most banks allow individual dealers to mark-up their base lease money factors. Doing so enables dealers to add additional back-end profit to deals without consumers knowing. So even through Lexus Financial Services' base lease money factor on the model that you are interested in is currently .00160, your dealer may be marking it up to say .00190 or whatever and getting a kickback from Lexus Financial Services. This is a very common practice in the auto industry and it is completely legal. Many of the community members that you see posting in this discussion ask me about their vehicle's current lease program so that they can make sure that their dealer is not trying to mark up their factor and add hidden profit to their deals.

Also, the rates that I provide consumers with are indeed for consumers who qualify for banks' top credit tiers. If your credit is not perfect you may end up having to pay a higher money factor.

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suka · February 2004

Is this a good deal for a Subaru WRX? $1,000 down, $259 per month, 48 month lease w. 12,000 miles? Thumbs up or down. I am tempted by the price but the dealer is annoying. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks.

Suzanne

gordo95 · February 2004

Thanks Car_Man, your information was helpful. The line I'm getting from the dealer is that the lowest money factor quote (the same as the one you quoted, and the one applicable to top credit rating) is a "special rate" only available on a certain model (in my case, a Lexus ES330 without Navigation). Also was told that in such cases, the residual is a few points lower. This supposedly came from the finance manager of the dealership. I am in the process of requesting a more detailed breakdown of the costs, but needless to say, the differential is significant (about $70 a month) as the model I want is the one with NAV. Does this practice sound right to you? I am not sure if your prior comment re the ability of dealers to manipulate these numbers extends to this scenario. If so, it seems that a potential lessee is at somewhat of a disadvantage and ends up having to negotiate lease payments, which I've been told is not a good position to be in. I wonder what good national lease programs are if dealers need not adhere to them for top qualified applicants. Thoughts?

CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Hi mmmc. BMW's current lease program is scheduled to run through March 1st. It is difficult to say what it will do with its lease program after that date, but I suspect that its March program will be fairly similar to its current one. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any site on the Web that provides consumers with detailed information on manufacturers' current lease programs. If you have a question about what the lease program is like for a particular model or models, your best bet is to just ask me.

While one certainly can often negotiate a very attractive selling price for the vehicle that they are interested in when dealers are making an effort to unload all of their leftover vehicles at the end of the model year, that usually is not the best time to lease vehicles. This is because vehicles' residual values gradually fall as the model year progresses. These residual values are used to calculate the depreciation portion of lease payments. As they drop, your lease payment will increase. In fact, late in the model year vehicles' residual values have dropped so much that many manufacturers actually stop providing any sort of lease support on them and just use dealer cash to help their dealers sell them. I would say that right the he middle of the model year is usually a pretty good time to lease. In the beginning many automakers do not provide much in the way of lease support and at the end the residual values are too low. In the middle of the model year, many vehicles have a reasonable level of lease support, dealers are somewhat willing to negotiate on them, and their residual values have not fallen too low yet.

Manufacturers' captive finance companies usually are able to provide the most attractive lease payments on vehicles that have lease support available on them. I personally would be very surprised if you were able to lease a 2004 BMW 325Ci through a broker for less per month than you would have to pay if you had negotiated a solid deal with a BMW dealer on your own. In most cases, brokers only add another person who needs to make money off of your deal.

As far as this car's selling price goes, you should look up its Edmunds.com True Market Value by visiting the Edmunds.com New Vehicle Price Guide. You also should pay a visit to the "BMW 3-Series: Prices Paid & Buying Experience" discussion that appears in the "What Did You Pay" section of the Smart Shoppers Message Board. There you will be able to interact with other community members who have either just bought or who are in the market for this car. They should be able to give you a good idea of what you will have to pay for one at this time.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

No problem, moeronn. I believe that both Acura's and Infiniti's lease programs are scheduled to expire at the end of the month. They will not publish their programs for the next month until March 1st or so. So neither I, nor even their own dealers, will know what the March program will be like until then. Please feel free to post a reminder for me in this discussion late in the first week or March and I will be more than happy to tell you if I have heard anything about the new lease programs for the models that you are interested in.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Congratulations on your new car, steeler_fan! Enjoy and thanks for taking to time to come back and let us all know how everything turned out.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Hello jumper4. Here is the information that you are looking for. If you were to lease a 2004 Audi A4 1.8T Sedan with quattro (let me know if you want the 2WD version) through Audi Financial Services on or prior to March 3rd for 3 years with 10,000 miles per, its base lease money factor and residual value should be .00090 and 57%, respectively. The numbers for an otherwise identical lease of a 2004 Audi A4 3.0L Sedan with quattro should be .00070 and 56%.

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CarMan@Edmunds · February 2004

Hi again crashtestdingo. Your sister should have plenty of time to finalize the deal on her car. In fact, as long as she has the insurance all set up, she could go in on the last day of the month an hour before closing and I am sure that people would be tripping over themselves trying to fit one more deal into the month. I personally would want to test drive the vehicle that I was getting prior to officially buying or leasing it and it is a good idea to do so, but there are some people who buy vehicles without having driven one foot in them.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it is difficult to predict what a manufacturer will do with its future lease program with any degree of certainty. BMW dealers probably don't even know exactly what their March lease program will be like at this point. I suspect that its March program will be similar to the one that it is running right now, but there is no guarantee that it will be. A lot of what BMW does with its March program will depend upon what its February sales results look like.

Your sister will be eligible for whatever lease program is running when she physically takes delivery of here car and will not be forced to use the program that BMW was running when she ordered it a few months ago.

Car_man
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jratcliffe · February 2004

Typically, the residual % for a vehicle with NAV will be lower than that for the same vehicle without NAV, since NAVs don't add a lot to the used value of the vehicle (figure $500-700 extra on the auction value for a NAV which raised the new price of the car by $2k).

vsroman · February 2004

I read your response to AshleyAndersin and am wondering if you could answer some questions about this quote I just received:

X3 3.0, MF .00225, Conveyance Fee of 299, Dealer Acquisition Fee of 625, Sales Price of 41,545 (1800 off of MSRP), Res Value 53%, 42 months, 15K miles. PMT = $639.95 incl 6% CT State Sales tax.

My question:

Conveyance Fee: 299 --- is this legit?
Deal Acq Fee: 625 --- another post indicates that the "real" dealer acq fee is 525, so it looks like my dealer is adding on?

Are these fees negotiable? My dealer said both go to the bank (which is BMW finance.)

Do you think that BMW will lower the MF on the X3 3.0 as it appears that sales are slower than the 2.5? In the past, has BMW ever offered better MF on the 330 sedan vs. the 325 sedan?

Thanks for your feedback car_man and same to you kidfx, keep the hints coming!

dwightex · February 2004

We are ready to lease a volvo s60R with NAV tonight. I have read posts here that say that we should have a money facor of .00041 with a 46% residual for a lease of 48 months with 12K per year. The MSRP on this car is $44,070 plus 385 transportation. The invoice is 41819. What payment should we be offered for this lease. They are saying $581/mos., but they say that they are using .00081 as the rate, not .00041. What should my payment be??? I think that since the car has NAV, the residual should be lower by 2%. CAN YOU HELP ME on this?

As an option, they will give us $4500 cash back if we go to private leasing, but they claim that they are including personal property tax on the payment, vs me having to pay the personal property tax annually on the car in addition to a 3rd party lease.

mmmc · February 2004

Car_Man and kyfdx,

Thank you both for your helpful responses on my questions re: 2004 BMW 325ci.

joatmon · February 2004

Car Man,

You can apply for BMW credit on-line and lock up a rate for 45 days. At contract signing, you pick the lowest rate.

Example: Apply today, close deal on April 3rd. You pick the best rate from February, March and April.

neptunedude · February 2004

Car_Man

I wanted to say thank you for your help. I was able to get a 2004 silver Acura TL auto with Navi for a much better deal with another dealer for $490 36months 15k/yr--and a drive-away price of $2200, $843 of that was the capitalized cost reduction rest with 1st months payment and other misc expenses. The money factor was .00225 since the bank security deposit was waived The dealer said I was making out with a steal, though I am not sure about, but finding a TLs with Navi is hard in NJ. Once again thanks for your help.

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