Car lease Q

I've never leased a car, so forgive my ignorance. I've read on these boards over and over that when you lease you should negotiate the car price, not the monthly payments. But when you lease a car, you're not buying it, it's more like a long-term rent, right? So why does it matter how much the car price is, if you're not buying the car? If I'm going to be giving the car back in 3 years, wouldn't it be better to pay a smaller monthly payment on a car that's priced higher than a bigger monthly payment on the same car at a better price?

Re: Car lease Q

you're not necessarily negotiating a "purchase price" but rather a "price" upon which the entire lease (and the lease payments) will be determined.

Re: Car lease Q

I've leased 2 cars and we always negotiate the monthly payment.

Re: Car lease Q

You should never negotiate a lease based on monthly payment.

Dealers will try to get you the payment you want to pay by either removing options on the car, selling you a cheaper car, or having you put more money down.

With a lease you should NEVER put money down. There is absolutely no reason to put money down on a lease and dealers love it when you do this because it makes them look like they are giving you a better deal.

They will trick you into seeing a monthly payment you like, but you don't realize you are getting a bad deal because you are paying a high price for the car and padding their pockets.

If you force them to drop the price of the car, the lease payments AUTOMATICALLY come down because the "Capitalized Cost" (which is the actual price of the car) goes down.

If the "purchase price means nothing" as some dealers will try to preach, why do you think you can get a Honda Civic lease for under $200 a month but a BMW 5 series is around $500 a month? That's because one car's purchase price is 16k and the other is 50k.

I would suggest if anyone wants to know the real details behind leasing, the following article is very good.

What Auto & Lease companies don't want you to know!

Re: Car lease Q

Posted by ave1024

You should never negotiate a lease based on monthly payment.

Dealers will try to get you the payment you want to pay by either removing options on the car, selling you a cheaper car, or having you put more money down.

With a lease you should NEVER put money down. There is absolutely no reason to put money down on a lease and dealers love it when you do this because it makes them look like they are giving you a better deal.

They will trick you into seeing a monthly payment you like, but you don't realize you are getting a bad deal because you are paying a high price for the car and padding their pockets.

If you force them to drop the price of the car, the lease payments AUTOMATICALLY come down because the "Capitalized Cost" (which is the actual price of the car) goes down.

If the "purchase price means nothing" as some dealers will try to preach, why do you think you can get a Honda Civic lease for under $200 a month but a BMW 5 series is around $500 a month? That's because one car's purchase price is 16k and the other is 50k.

I would suggest if anyone wants to know the real details behind leasing, the following article is very good.

What Auto & Lease companies don't want you to know!