Working out a lease deal...
 

Hi all,

New to the forum, and hope to be a permanent member :)

Been spending alot of time at a local dealership, as I'm looking to lease a Z for the next 3 years. I know I'll be going through some life changes by the end of that time (marriage, kids...you know the deal), so it's not practical for me to purchase for long term (which is why the fiance is also cool with this haha).

That said, I managed to find a 2012 Metallic Gun 370Z Touring Coupe tonight, loaded with the Sports/Nav packages and just about every option. Sticker price was $43k.

I haven't got all the details yet on paper, but I'm looking at trading in my '04 Eclipse GTS at $5000 appraisal (which I'm ok with, it's old), and $1000 cash, for $455/mo. lease payment. While my credit isn't perfect, I'm thinking I should still try to get them to take off that cash component. With the trade in and cash, it's basically $621 mo, and this seems way too high. I'm not sure of the gross cap cost, residual cost or money factor at this point, and I need to get those.

That said, been reading about 2013's, and wondering if this lease deal is solid or I can work it better. I *think* it might be ok without the cash component, considering it started at $589/mo with $3k in cash. I think I need to act sooner than later, considering it's exactly what I want and few of these are left.

Thoughts?

-Mike

That sounds high. Nissan has a lease deal for 2012 370Z base Coupe 6MT with Splash Guards and Mats Lease 39 Months - $329/Month - $2,999 initial payment.

I thought so...they're not really budging either. Tried to do so through email, breaking down some numbers to make my case, but they're saying the $455/$1000 cash (plus trade in) is the lowest they can go.

This would be easier to deal with if I could find the car in other dealerships, but that's not been the case. Been to 3 here in the Bay Area, and this was the only one to have a number of Z's in stock (1 had 2 roadsters, another a few other colors and no nav). Wondering if that's a sign :)

What is the money factor and residual value? I am looking at a Lexus (which has better resale) for around the same price, payment is in the 3s with $5000 down. It seems too high. With 0% financing, you might as well buy an invoice and finance it. I don't know why you would lease.

If you're not prepared to walk away from a bad deal, there's a really good chance of getting screwed.

The difference between a base and a fully loaded touring is going to be $10k or more. Look for a base with the sport package. You can always add nav and bluetooth later if you really wanted to. That's what I did. Maybe you can find one closer to your wants and price range at a dealer outside of the bay area. A lot of times dealers are willing to trade with each other to keep a customer from going elsewhere.

Well like I mentioned, I don't think I want the car long term. 36 months makes the most sense for me at this point.

I haven't been supplied the money factor and residual value yet. They want me to come in to go over the numbers. Last night, the only thing they did was pressure me with monthly payment numbers - not negotiate a sale price or anything else - and try to not let me leave without signing. I left.

If I do this, I'm making the cash piece of the deal go away at a minimum, or I walk out, as w0rM suggests. Even though with my average credit I can't qualify for the 0% deals, I still think the $5k trade in should cover everything and get me near $400/mo. They're trying to say that's impossible.

w0rM, given it's a lease, I wouldn't want to add a bunch of stuff to a car I don't own, so I'd rather it come with everything already.

I can understand that. Good luck bro! I hope you can make it work. :tup:

Nissan's usually gives 0% down to tier 2, better than Honda and Toyota for sure.

Here is the math. Let's say they sell your car for $3000 below MSRP, it puts you at $40K, before $5K in trade in. I assume you pay tax on your own. With zero %, you pay $583 a month. Even at 2%, you are still looking at <$620 or so.

On the other hand if you lease. Let's assume the residual value is 52% on that car. It means you are basically paying 18K on the car. With your $5K on the trade, you are still looking at nearly $450 a month with taxes anyway as 13K cost around that much to lease.

If $400 is all you can afford, I suggest you get a base model. Leasing a fully loaded car is a dumb idea, especially when the base is $10K cheaper

It's just so much to lease them! Hope your able to find a good deal.

im paying 350 a month for a base model with no credit at all. I had to put down 6,000.. but at least i got a Z somehow and im only 24. Base model kind of blows though, I cant mod it either which sucks.

In your case, you will need to put alot down and still probably be paying anywhere from 550-650 for a touring package. Too bad the lease special is only for the lousy Base model which i got. If you have to stay stock you have to have the sport package.

I managed to get it for $6000 trade in, $500 cash, at $469/mo. Then I added on a maintenance plan (which seems like pretty good value that pays for itself), and had a final deal at $489 for 39 months.

It wasn't perfect, and I hated the whole experience (yet, they want me to post about how great it was on Yelp), but I now have a Z Touring that's pretty loaded in my garage. I couldn't be happier...it's alot of fun to drive after having 3 different Eclipses since '97, and the last one being 8 years old.

Now to figure out all these buttons and the Nav stuff...

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...10298870_n.jpg

dayuum congrats, auto or manual?

I never understood the concept of leasing. Someone throw some knowledge on me. You lease a car for a anywhere bettween 24 and 48 months at a price that's typically (rough estimates from observation) 75-80% of finance cost (depending on APR). In that time you are limited in the amount of miles you can drive and are unable to change anything about the car. At the end of this you give the car back and are left with a sore *** from when they stuck it to you for the last several months. The option to buy always comes out to thousands more than MSRP.

So someone explain to me why you would ever lease a vehicle for anything other than as a corporate vehicle that a company is giving you as an auto allowance. Why not just buy the ******* car and sell it when you're done with it to recoup some of the money to put towards another vehicle or your pocket? Particularly a car that holds its value as well as the 370z. It sounds like a really ignorant decision.

Even if you're planning to make some life changes just keep it for 3 years like you plan and sell it out and get a prius after you have kids and they eat your soul.

My post was too late... guess I'm the douchebag now... -.-

Thanks...and manual, of course :)

Congrats on the car. Regardless of my personal outlook towards leasing you still have yourself a beautiful machine. Still waiting to pull the trigger on one myself.

Nah not a douchebag.

Leases are not a bad deal for pricier cars that you may not be able to afford. I can guarantee you that a good majority of the luxury or 'exotic' cars you see on the road weren't purchased. If you can get a good leasing deal with a good buyout price at the end of the lease, then it's not a terrible thing...just need to understand the math.

For me, aside from the changes I mentioned in the next few years...I'm not ok with putting money into something that continually depreciates with time and never builds equity. Sure, you can add on to it with mods and such to give it some added value, but in the end you'll never recoup the full cost you put into the car. And then as it ages, an older car will kill your savings account.

With leasing, while essentially a rental, I'm spending about half the cost of the car to drive it for half the time before it's really down in value (6 years).

But don't you only have it for 39 months? (480*39)+6000+500=25220 + whatever other fees such as tax etc etc. For simplicity's sake lets say $25220 otd.

in just over 3 yrs you've spent over half the price of the car (assuming 43k OTD: this is based on the invoice price for sport touring + nav and INCLUDES california TTL)

If you take the same car purchased and resold it after 39 months. Just speculating from what people have been asking for on 2009 touring nav models and from what I can find on autotrader really quick people are TRYING to sell at an average of $32,000. Lowest I could find was $23,000. Now call me crazy but that means, for these owners anyway they've lost between 11,000-20,000 respectively (keep in mind the '09 models cost less than the current models). The math just doesn't add up to me.

Now you might argue that 20k vs. 25k over a three year period isn't a big difference but what you can DO with the car makes a difference. Because you own the car you have the freedom to drive it as much as you bloody well want and modify it in any way you see fit.

Now I'll admit I've taken a lot of liberties with the math here, if you see some kink somewhere in the reasoning let me know. Also I'm not here to belittle anyone's decision, this conversation is meant for my knowledge only. I know you just got the car and the LAST thing I want to do is ruin that wonderful experience.

I have purchased and leased before. You are right more people lease expensive cars than cheaper car, yet the math never works in the favor of leasing (unless you can claim business expenses). If you look at the math of leasing, you will see you are always paying more in interest. A typical car loan is 0-3% right now, while leases are between 2-5% even for the great ones.

There is no value added by adding stuff to car, you only make it worse. You find value by buying the least amount of options with the right incentives. Anyway whatever makes you happy and glad you got what you are looking for. I was close with my numbers at least.