What residual are you getting on leases?

[kevin]

Hi,

I'm thinking of a 1LT with the $199/month offer but I have never leased before and have a couple of questions:

1) What residual is in the contract.

2) What was the negotiated price of the car - MSRP? Any lower?

3) For people who have leased before is there any difficulty at the end of the lease with agreeing what is an acceptable condition for the car? After 3 years I would expect some wear and tear, are they reasonable?

4) Are there any fees beyond paying the residual if I decide to keep the car at the end of the lease?

thanks

kevin

 

[ecilopaveht]

Here are my initials numbers, I just started negotiating but the car is not even on the lot yet so it may make it hard to get a good deal on it.


I don't have the numbers for the residual yet. This is a 1LT Titanium

MSRP: $27,495
Lease Price: $26,345
Doc Fee: $75
Title/Lic: $298
Down: $2,000


36 months @ $165.70 / 12,000 miles per year /OAC

 

[fengshui]

Hi,
I'm thinking of a 1LT with the $199/month offer but I have never leased before and have a couple of questions:
1) What residual is in the contract.
2) What was the negotiated price of the car - MSRP? Any lower?
3) For people who have leased before is there any difficulty at the end of the lease with agreeing what is an acceptable condition for the car? After 3 years I would expect some wear and tear, are they reasonable?
4) Are there any fees beyond paying the residual if I decide to keep the car at the end of the lease?

Here are the answers for my 36-month lease. 2LT, a small amount of negotiating to get the price close to the stock 1LT lease:
1) $20,575 after 36 months, or 76.7%.
2) Gross Capitalized Cost: $26,800.
3) We won't know until it's over, but my understanding is that most leases are pretty reasonable on wear-and-tear.
4) If you decide to keep the car, there's a purchase option fee of $350. However, if you do that, you probably won't be able to claim the Federal Tax Credit, as that should have already been claimed by the Leasing Bank. I don't see any evidence of the Federal Tax Credit on my lease documentation, but the residual they're using is quite high relative to other cars. For example, Nissan uses a 48% residual on 36-month LEAF leases. If you apply the $7500 tax credit to the residual numbers above, you get 48%, exactly the same as the LEAF. If you want to keep the car past 3 years, and have the income to recognize most of the tax credit, a purchase is much more to your advantage.

I hope that's helpful. Let me know if there are any other numbers you want me to look up.

 

[SanDiego]

kevin wrote:
Hi,
I'm thinking of a 1LT with the $199/month offer but I have never leased before and have a couple of questions:
1) What residual is in the contract.
2) What was the negotiated price of the car - MSRP? Any lower?
3) For people who have leased before is there any difficulty at the end of the lease with agreeing what is an acceptable condition for the car? After 3 years I would expect some wear and tear, are they reasonable?
4) Are there any fees beyond paying the residual if I decide to keep the car at the end of the lease?

There are so many posts about the $199/month lease offer. When we leased the car in July it became clear that offer is pretty much a marketing gimmick that dealers have no obligation to honor. Our local dealer informed us that offer was only through Ally Bank, and they wouldn't do business with Ally; they would only use CapitalOne, with a much higher monthly payment. We walked away & went to another dealer out of town. That dealer was more willing to negotiate, and they used Ally Bank, but their numbers were still all over the map and we dickered back and forth.

The residual was thousands higher than the residuals that Leaf dealers were using. We decided we won't buy the Spark at the end of the lease, so the ridiculously high residual meant nothing to us. Only the monthly payment and the amount down were important to us. Otherwise, if we wanted to really have the option to buy at the end of the term, we would have gone with a Leaf.

On the other hand, we read about the sneaky surprise fee that Nissan dealers were forcing people to sign off on when they picked up the car. It was a fee to be paid upon turning the car in at lease end, and I think it was $300. That was a turnoff. On the Spark lease through Ally there is no end fee at all, and Ally publishes their very clear and reasonable End of Lease Process: http://www.ally.com/auto/lease-end/maturity.html Click on all the tabs.

P.S.: Of course the local dealer called us back after a week to say they wanted to give us a lower price. Sorry guys. We wanted to stay local and give the sale to the salesman who took us out twice, but your sales manager wouldn't even sit down to talk.

 

[kevin]

Thanks - very useful information

kevin

 

[ecilopaveht]

Just got mine! Titanium 2LT

36 Mo. 12k year
$2500 Down (Incudes first payment)
Residual $17,237
$149.71 mo. payment

 

[kevin]

That's extremely good - where are you?

Which dealer?

thanks

kevin

Just got mine! Titanium 2LT

36 Mo. 12k year
$2500 Down (Incudes first payment)
Residual $17,237
$149.71 mo. payment

 

[ecilopaveht]

Carr Chevrolet in Beaverton Oregon.

It was the last Spark they had.

That's extremely good - where are you?

Which dealer?

thanks

kevin

Just got mine! Titanium 2LT

36 Mo. 12k year
$2500 Down (Incudes first payment)
Residual $17,237
$149.71 mo. payment

 

[dutyfree]

Just got mine! Titanium 2LT

36 Mo. 12k year
$2500 Down (Incudes first payment)
Residual $17,237
$149.71 mo. payment

I could not even get close to your price with 1LT in SoCal.

1. Is $2500 out the door?
2. 149.71/month with tax or without

Hope your reply is in time for my lease this weekend.
Thanks

 

[ecilopaveht]

Yes, this is $2,500 down out the door. First payment was included.

I am in Oregon and there is no Tax.

Try emailing several dealers let them know you are ready to buy tell them the price you are willing to pay. If you get attached to a color you will pay more, I would have got any color other then the blue.

I checked cars.com and there are 39 Sparks within 75mi of LA. When I bought mine there were only 4 available in the Portland area.

Just got mine! Titanium 2LT

36 Mo. 12k year
$2500 Down (Incudes first payment)
Residual $17,237
$149.71 mo. payment

I could not even get close to your price with 1LT in SoCal.

1. Is $2500 out the door?
2. 149.71/month with tax or without

Hope your reply is in time for my lease this weekend.
Thanks

 

[drchocotaco]

Holy smokes, this is a good deal!

I called around to all the local dealerships in LA area and asked them for out-the-door pricing, I then had them compete off each other, I was amazed at the variability!! Ended up getting the 2LT with 15,000 miles/year for $999 down and $233.35 including all taxes/fees/etc -

Taxes in California don't help, but at least we get the $2500 rebate and HOV sticker

dutyfree- where in SoCal are you? I can recommend a couple of dealerships in greater LA.

Just got mine! Titanium 2LT

36 Mo. 12k year
$2500 Down (Incudes first payment)
Residual $17,237
$149.71 mo. payment

I could not even get close to your price with 1LT in SoCal.

1. Is $2500 out the door?
2. 149.71/month with tax or without

Hope your reply is in time for my lease this weekend.
Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

drchocotaco - good strategy and excellent deal! I wish I could bargain deal like yours. Where did you get yours? Any recommendation of the dealerships around Long Beach? Appreciated.

 

[saintyohann]

I got mine from Harbor Chevy, can't beat the service I got from Bill Ortiz in their Internet department. He beat every one else's prices, drove up to LA to swap for the color I wanted, and had me in and out of the dealership in about 45 minutes.