Leaf Price / Discount discussion thread

[LeftieBiker]

Money Factor is one of those things that sometimes gets too much attention. Back when I leased my first Leaf, the MF was TINY (.0003, IIRC), but people were still treating small differences as really significant. All that really matters for leasing is the Total Cost of Lease. If you are leasing with an eye toward buying, then the TCL plus the residual and buyout costs are all that matter.

[DaveinOlyWA]

Money Factor is one of those things that sometimes gets too much attention. Back when I leased my first Leaf, the MF was TINY (.0003, IIRC), but people were still treating small differences as really significant. All that really matters for leasing is the Total Cost of Lease. If you are leasing with an eye toward buying, then the TCL plus the residual and buyout costs are all that matter.

When evaluating lease terms, its important to get as complete a picture as possible. At the risk of sounding like I am not recommending leasing, the MF for me took a huge jump but only because the jump was starting near zero. I also had the .0003 MF that resulted in a rent charge of $45 for a 3 year lease. My 2018 was significantly higher with a $500 rent charge but still works out to 1.8% interest which is still a pretty good deal especially now that car loan rates have spiraled up quite a bit.

I was doing the TCO thing (a constant thing for me it seems) and a good deal on a car loan is not as easy as it was 2-3 years ago. Looks like we are headed for a bit of a... well fender bender (crash seems a bit extreme) on the market here.

[Flyct]

.0003 MF is only 0.75% interest rate. 2400 x MF = Interest rate

I haven’t negotiated a lease in years. I usually either pay cash of if there is an incentive to finance take that and then pay off the loan. When I bought my a2015 Leaf NMAC was offering $6,000 cash to finance with them so I took the cash toward down payment and paid loan off the following week. Also negotiated $5,000 off MSRP and $7,500 tax credit.

The only lease I ever had was for a new Acura RL. At the end of the lease the true value of the car was $4,000 less than the residual so I let it go back to Acura.

Like I said earlier I first negotiate cap cost, then Money Factor, then residual based on loan term.

I negotiated a Lexus Lease for my daughter. They initially gave her required out of pocket and monthly payment. When I got involved the money out of pocket was the same but money payment was a little less. I focused on negotiating a lower cap cost. The dealer bumped up the MF a bit but it was still reasonable. Then 20 months into the 42 month lease she got divorced and needed to get out of the lease. She was able to walk away from the lease with only an $80 payment due to the fact that the reduced cap cost made the payoff low enough that it was only $80 more than AVC. Lexus took it back and out it on the lot as a CPO vehicle.

[LeftieBiker]

.0003 MF is only 0.75% interest rate. 2400 x MF = Interest rate

Indeed. Nissan was really aggressively trying to lease Leafs in 2013. I got my 2013 SV with Premium for $2k down (plus state sales tax) and $149 a month. No typo. When I extended the lease (three times!) I had to start paying state tax on the payment so it went to $159 a month. The residual was something like $21k, but in February of 2017 the incentives were so huge I could have bought the car for $5k. Also not a typo. I didn't find out until March of 2017, when I could have gotten it for $6k. I ultimately turned the car back in (despite liking her a lot) because of somewhat inadequate range at 87% SOH.

[DaveinOlyWA]

.0003 MF is only 0.75% interest rate. 2400 x MF = Interest rate

I haven’t negotiated a lease in years. I usually either pay cash of if there is an incentive to finance take that and then pay off the loan. When I bought my a2015 Leaf NMAC was offering $6,000 cash to finance with them so I took the cash toward down payment and paid loan off the following week. Also negotiated $5,000 off MSRP and $7,500 tax credit.

The only lease I ever had was for a new Acura RL. At the end of the lease the true value of the car was $4,000 less than the residual so I let it go back to Acura.

Like I said earlier I first negotiate cap cost, then Money Factor, then residual based on loan term.

I negotiated a Lexus Lease for my daughter. They initially gave her required out of pocket and monthly payment. When I got involved the money out of pocket was the same but money payment was a little less. I focused on negotiating a lower cap cost. The dealer bumped up the MF a bit but it was still reasonable. Then 20 months into the 42 month lease she got divorced and needed to get out of the lease. She was able to walk away from the lease with only an $80 payment due to the fact that the reduced cap cost made the payoff low enough that it was only $80 more than AVC. Lexus took it back and out it on the lot as a CPO vehicle.

typo. Missing a zero. interest rate on my 2016 was under .07%

Residual is set formula so not negotiable.

[Rodriguez]

I was looking at this car: https://www.hgreg.com/used-car/nissan-l ... sale-40667
OTD price for export is 10.095 because an 899 dealer fee and some other registration filling fee. How much wiggle room do you think there is?

[LeftieBiker]

That's a fairly good price for a 12 bar 2015 S. You can try to get it as close to the advertised price as you can, though, as the dealer fees are too high. You don't have to worry if it really has 11 bars and was reset, right?

[Rodriguez]

No not at all. The 2015 battery seems to be holding up quite well. I'm going to counter offer with half fees.

[LeftieBiker]

That sounds reasonable.

[Rodriguez]

Counter offered them 9180. Especially the registration fee is bs, since that is probably outsourced to a CRM company that does it for $40 or something.

Let's see how they respond.