Just missed out on $239/mo lease nothing down in Western NY

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

I'm in Western NY and last week a dealership had a newspaper ad giving out new 2012 Leafs at $239/month, 12k year 39 month lease, $400 disposition fee at lease end was the only extra fee. This was $0 down, $0 taxes, $0 anything. I mean it: zero capital reduction and this included taxes, destination fee, etc. I triple checked this fact.

It was a stunning price and frankly I stared at it for a couple of days wondering what the catch was. I finally called the place, they said no catch. I went in and test-drove it at lunch. The salesman said they had sold 4 this month and needed to sell 5 to hit some quota to be able to order additional vehicles and they were taking a $5k hit on it. Sounded like salesman nonsense, but I checked about 15 other dealerships in Western NY online and the best other deal I found was $280/month with $3k cap reduction, plus regular tax title fees, so his $5k hit makes sense, though it's possible they have some rare dealer hold back thing going on with Nissan.

Yesterday another local dealership had $259/month but required $2k cap reduction and then tax, tag, title.

Anyway, after my test drive I thought on it a few hours, and then after work went back to get a trade-in estimate on my current car. Unfortunately, somebody had already bought the 5th, so no more steals like this from them.

I wasn't even in the market for a Leaf, but at $239/month it is a ludicrous deal. It is also lower than I've seen anybody anywhere post about what they paid for a Leaf.

I'm posting this thread in part to see if this really is as crazy a price as I think. I am thinking they may never repeat this kind of thing, but on the other hand when the 2013 come out and IF there are growing concerns about battery longevity, the PR fallout from that could potentially hamper sales--which works out well for those who want to buy one.

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

Signed tonight $239/month $0 cap reduction $0 tax, title, fees on a 24 month lease no a 2012 NV new (not demo). 12,000/year, $.15/mile overage.

After last week's loss I had a call into a salesman I bought a car from last year. He called today saying that in their meeting this morning he heard they had to sell another lease, so gave me a call and immediately matched the $239/month (though this on 24 months, not 39--normally that makes it pricier but he said in this case it was cheaper), again no capital reduction and no tax, title fees, nonsense. The only additional fee is the ~$400 disposition at lease end or $300 buyout option. Apparently end of the month is the time to get a good price on these.

Reviewing lease agreement the Gross Capitalized Cost is $33,900. Acq fee, tax, title, registration, doc fee etc. bring it up to $35,171. The capitalized cost reduction was $8,512 (I guess federal credit plus a grand extra from Nissan), with an adjusted capital cost of $26,659. Now, the reason that the lease on a purchase of $26,659 is so darn small is because for some, in my opinion insane, reason Nissan has the residual on this at $21,000. Money factor was .00071 aka 1.7%. If you're clever you may realize my payment is in fact $259, and that's because I had to roll $20/month in to cover a very slight negative equity in trading in my other vehicle.

I'm posting this to inspire people into realizing that these cars can be had at a stunning price right now if you look around carefully enough. I'm paying right on the same amount as a strong deal on a new Sentra, a car worth half the amount.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

so they got you on the trade then. no worries, you still got a great deal but...

one problem i see for you.

the LEAF is a joy to drive, in fact so much that your 12,000 mile per year limit will come back to haunt you

 

[TonyWilliams]

the residual on this at $21,000. Money factor was .00071 aka 1.7%.

I guess Nissan knows they gotta unload these things!!! Wow! I remember Ford doing something like that on their giant SUV and got burned bad when everybody turned them in at the end.

My May 27, 2012 lease has a $17,000-ish residual.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

the residual on this at $21,000. Money factor was .00071 aka 1.7%.

I guess Nissan knows they gotta unload these things!!! Wow! I remember Ford doing something like that on their giant SUV and got burned bad when everybody turned them in at the end.

My May 27, 2012 lease has a $17,000-ish residual.

Tony; was yours 24 months too?

 

[ENIAC]

the residual on this at $21,000. Money factor was .00071 aka 1.7%.

I remember Ford doing something like that on their giant SUV and got burned bad when everybody turned them in at the end.

Sure, but that was tens of thousands of SUVs. We're only talking hundreds of Leafs.

 

[TonyWilliams]

the residual on this at $21,000. Money factor was .00071 aka 1.7%.

I guess Nissan knows they gotta unload these things!!! Wow! I remember Ford doing something like that on their giant SUV and got burned bad when everybody turned them in at the end.

My May 27, 2012 lease has a $17,000-ish residual.

Tony; was yours 24 months too?

Missed that; no, 39 months. I would have done 24 if I knew of this deal.

 

[KayserNissan]

<-- Officially bought my SV today (with a Nissan employee discount) was $0 out of pocket, $189/mo for 24mo/24k. Granted this was like about a net neutral deal and going to be far from the norm for most folks

However I did get a guy in one yesterday.... leased an SV, he put $3000 down and was at $115/mo for a 24mo/24k.

There are some great residuals on 24month leases right now, through the end of today (incentives may change tomorrow, new month) there was $2000 dealer cash, and the $1000 home charging station rebate. Factoring in a nominal discount of $1-2k, I can get folks into 24 month leases right now for ~$250 with little to nothing out of pocket. Granted I need the rebates to stay the same, but meh was good while it lasted, we unloaded 5 Leafs this month.

Gogo Nissan!

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

so they got you on the trade then. no worries, you still got a great deal but...

one problem i see for you.

the LEAF is a joy to drive, in fact so much that your 12,000 mile per year limit will come back to haunt you

They didn't get me on that, though! He quoted me $239 before even knowing I wanted to trade-in. Then with that I told him I had another car. They gave me a fair value on that vehicle for trade-in and I'm pretty sure they aren't making much on that, if anything really. When I dealt with him last year buying a car I really believe I had him and his sales manager right at their limit and they were ready to let me walk and he knows I know my cars and don't give up money easily

The over mileage penalty is honestly so small that I'm ok with it. I leased another vehicle at 18,000 year and the money saved buying that extra miles at the beginning vs just paying a penalty is really quite small at $.15/mile, so I fully intend to drive this thing every bit as much as I want and not worry about money out later, since any mile on this is distance not put on a V6 that, given how I drive it, gets around 21 mpg.

------------

KayserNissan, I haven't tracked Leaf sales as closely as Volt but I know Volt has regularly overproduced and had to cut production hours. I wonder if Nissan is encountering the same; do you have any idea why these are going so cheaply vs even several months ago? This lease price is truly phenomenal. It's possible that my geek side is biasing me to blindness, but as a person who absolutely wasn't considering a Leaf at the previous prices, at the rates they can be had now they are attractive purely from a financial perspective--not even having to appeal to the geek-toy aspect of the whole thing.

 

[DaveEV]

I haven't tracked Leaf sales as closely as Volt but I know Volt has regularly overproduced and had to cut production hours. I wonder if Nissan is encountering the same; do you have any idea why these are going so cheaply vs even several months ago?

LEAF sales have been pretty slow - average about 500/mo in 2012.

Compare that to the Volt which has been selling on average about 1500/mo in 2012.

Yet, if you look at gm-volt.com, you'll see that very similar 24-month lease deals have been available for the Volt as what you got for your LEAF for the past month or so - especially the last couple weeks. I think that Nissan saw that and worked to get it's lease rates down to a similar level since the Volt s the LEAFs primary competition at this point despite it being a plug-in-hybrid.

Rumor is that GM moved over 2500 Volts in August - it's best month ever. Frankly, I'd be surprised if significantly more than 500 LEAFs sold this month. We should know soon.

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

I haven't tracked Leaf sales as closely as Volt but I know Volt has regularly overproduced and had to cut production hours. I wonder if Nissan is encountering the same; do you have any idea why these are going so cheaply vs even several months ago?

LEAF sales have been pretty slow - average about 500/mo in 2012.

Compare that to the Volt which has been selling on average about 1500/mo in 2012.

Yet, if you look at gm-volt.com, you'll see that very similar 24-month lease deals have been available for the Volt as what you got for your LEAF for the past month or so - especially the last couple weeks. I think that Nissan saw that and worked to get it's lease rates down to a similar level since the Volt s the LEAFs primary competition at this point despite it being a plug-in-hybrid.

Rumor is that GM moved over 2500 Volts in August - it's best month ever. Frankly, I'd be surprised if significantly more than 500 LEAFs sold this month. We should know soon.

Thanks for the post. I did actually check the Volt forum last night and yeah some great prices there. The Volt is a pretty compelling vehicle at those prices, though unfortunately an absolute impossibility for me, unless I strap one of the kids to the roof. I plan on the Leaf continuing as a primarily-commute vehicle but I'm sure from time to time the entire family will have to fit into it.

Still, something weird has to be happening to see such huge price drops on these, either the companies are losing a lot of money or they've vastly improved efficiency of their manufacturing process...

 

[bradbissell]

I have a feeling they have too many MY12 leafs on the lots right now and the MY13 is comig out soon. So they need to get the 12's off the lot before they have to discount them even more to sell them when the 13's are out. They lose less by discounting now compared to later.

 

[P71VIC]

I'm looking out for a deal on a 15,000 mile lease or purchase. 12,000 mile wont cut it for me.

I'm spending $150/m on a used car payment, and $250/m gas. This mean that if I can get in a leaf for a 350/m payment (with 50/m in electricity) I should break even.

I'll be looking at MY '12 deals after the MY '13s are fulling announced. Also, if buying at the end of the calendar year, this means that the tax credits are refunded to you in a matter of 60 - 90 days which is attractive rather than waiting a full year for the refund if buying in January or February.

 

[EatsShootsandLeafs]

I'm looking out for a deal on a 15,000 mile lease or purchase. 12,000 mile wont cut it for me.

I'm spending $150/m on a used car payment, and $250/m gas. This mean that if I can get in a leaf for a 350/m payment (with 50/m in electricity) I should break even.

I'll be looking at MY '12 deals after the MY '13s are fulling announced. Also, if buying at the end of the calendar year, this means that the tax credits are refunded to you in a matter of 60 - 90 days which is attractive rather than waiting a full year for the refund if buying in January or February.

OK, for what it's worth if you lease this the tax credit is moot; I didn't even see it. It was rolled up in the overall cost of everything and Nissan handles all that. I have nothing to do as far as the tax credit is concerned, nothing to file, nothing at all.

12,000 lease for you will work fine! Remember, the overage on this is only $.15/mile. So take your 12k/year lease and you're looking at only $37.50/month more to make it a 15,000 mile lease.

I agree with your logic that once MY13 hits the lots the MY12 will be even cheaper. On the other hand, by the time the My13 hits they make have a lack of MY12s available. I looked at the Altimas this year and that was not the case--by the time MY13 hit the lots the 12s were still there in droves, a glut on the market and crazy prices on those, too. I have no idea if that will be the case for the Leaf or not. I suspect there will be a strong supply of these for months, though, because I understand the production is quite high relative to sales, and it's bad PR to tell the public your sales are poor, so Nissan may eat some losses for a while to ensure more cars get sold.

 

[planet4ever]

I'm looking out for a deal on a 15,000 mile lease or purchase. 12,000 mile wont cut it for me.

If you are driving that many miles per year you shouldn't count on the battery being able to do it for very many years. Go for the lease, and plan on replacing the car at the end of the lease period. As EatsShootsandLeafs says, if you lease you get the $7500 as part of the initial deal, no questions asked. If you buy you might get it in 90 days, but a bunch of owners this year are still waiting for the IRS to get its act together up to six months or longer after they filed their tax report. Apparently the size of the credit triggers a review, and they seem not to be well enough staffed to handle all the reviews.

This is the first year the IRS has handled any significant number of EV credits, and the story could be very different next year, but a bird in the hand ...

Ray

 

[Train]

Still, something weird has to be happening to see such huge price drops on these, either the companies are losing a lot of money or they've vastly improved efficiency of their manufacturing process...

It's not uncommon that many cars at this time of year are discounted heavily that aren't selling well. If dealers have high numbers of certain models, they will discount to clear inventory as well. Nissan sold less than 400 Leafs in July in the U.S. The demand is simply not there.