Ride With G--Auto Leasing De-mystified
Hey everyone! Welcome back to this month’s Round-Up!!! For those who are new to the site, here is a quick explanation of what this Round-Up is all about:
Towards the end of every month, I examine the Top Ten leases based on the information I have collected. …
Image via CrunchBaseFYI, according to
TrueCar’s “TrueTrends Report”, the best time to get a car is 9/2/2010. Truecar projects approximately 11.23% discount off MSRP on average. …
- Participating vehicles will be based on the lease rates gathered on this website throughout the corresponding month (and limited to a maximum price of $50,000). I encourage you to share the information you’ve gathered during your research so we can make The Round-Up more complete each month.
- Only 36-month/15k lease terms will be examined since it’s the ideal lease term.
- A $1650 drive-off fee will be assumed for all cars. Remember, this is ONLY an estimate, the drive-off could be lower or higher depending on the car.
- Estimates will be based on the Southern California region using Truecar.com data, so your numbers may vary.
- All estimates assume you qualify for the base rate. A minimum FICO® Score of 700
may be required.
- Sales taxes not included in order to keep things simple. Please refer to “Understanding Sales Tax” to learn how taxes affect your monthly payments.
- The rating system used is based on my Lease Calculator, which assumes that 1.09 or a monthly payment of 1.09% off the MSRP (or less) is a GREAT lease deal.
HERE IS THIS MONTH’S ROUND-UP!
MSRP $44,595
Sale Price $39,500
Monthly $405 + tax
(0.91) …
MSRP $31,790
Sale Price $26,630
Monthly $323 + tax
(0.93) …
MSRP $37,500
Sale Price $31,296.00
Monthly $351 + tax
(0.94) …
MSRP $39,400
Sale Price $30,671
Monthly $384 + tax
(0.97) Big families rejoice! If you are shopping for a minivan with the works, the Routan may be for you. Assuming TruCar is not screwing with me on the “sale price”, you can knock off almost $9000 off the MSRP, making this a fantastic deal! This actually makes the residual tolerable and can even qualify this van under the “Lease-To-Buy” category! If you managed to get this deal from your local VW dealer, please come back with your comments because I am interested in seeing how you pulled it off or not. If this is still a bit beyond your budget, try the SE trim.
MSRP $40,065
Sale Price $35,300
Monthly $387 + tax
(0.97) …
MSRP $27,580
Sale Price $22,800
Monthly $279 + tax
(1.01) …
MSRP $24,652
Sale Price $21,581
Monthly $250 + tax
(1.02) Some of the Jettas are great deals right now due to the low money factors and decent residual values. Unfortunately, availability could be an issue in some areas since VW is in “clearance” mode right now. The SE trim priced itself out of the “Great Deal” category due to a higher money factor. It is still a good deal, just not a “Great one”. The Limited edition model also makes the cut as a “Great Deal”, scoring a 1.08 on the rating system.
2010 Acura TSX
36-month | 15k miles | residual 58% | .00100 base money factor
MSRP $30170
Sale Price $27,500
Monthly $322 + tax
(1.07) …
MSRP $40,925
Sale Price $38,000
Monthly $440 + tax
(1.08) …
MSRP $28,200
Sale Price $26,000
Monthly $304 + tax
(1.08) …
Parting Shots
…Got comments? questions? Disagree with my analysis? Please chime in with your thoughts on what you think this month’s Top Ten should be.
Image by crazytales562 via Flickr... The seats were uber comfortable. The Routan is a rebadged Chrysler Town and Country. In fact, my new name for it is the Grand Caravagen. It's tweaked a little from the standard Dodge/Chrysler faire... some reviews say it's suspension and steering are much tighter. … But it does sport some nice VW type interior items and probably most importantly, they DO NOT have the Stow 'n Go middle seats. The VW seats are removable but not stowable. The bins that they fold into are still there, and these are spacious and will get use. But most importantly, the seats are COMFORTABLE... it's like a Lazy Boy... The front seats are heated, there are power windows everywhere, including the vents in the back... The rear seats have the same Tailgate seating option, and the cargo room behind them is amazing... A trip to the warehouse club with a full cart equates to filling up the bins the rear seats fold flat into... TONS of room. I'm very happy with the van. But back to the test drive...
… And the nice thing is that I can go to a Chrysler/Dodge dealership for that, or the VW dealership, and bid them against each other on it!Image via WikipediaOn Sunday, the family piled in and took a beautiful ride through the Berkshires to look at the foliage. Everyone was impressed with the van, and all agreed it was a great car. So the family gave it a thumbs up. I averaged 23 MPG on that cruise, … Fairly impressive for such a big and heavy van.
