[RobC]

First I apologize if this has been covered before, but I'm starting the process of getting this car. Right now I'm leaning towards the lease.

I assume Lexus is still offering the $399/month 39 month lease for the IS300? With ~$2400 down? I think I'm going to go with that deal.

I want a Blue one the LSD, Moonroof, and polished wheels. Will that affect the monthly payment at all?

Is there anyway to get the down payment lower without having to up the monthly payment?

What advice can you guys offer for someone who is entering a lease, any tips or pit falls I should be aware of? Thanks in advance, I appreciate it.

 

[webguyIS]

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/leasing/articles/43093/article.html

Read that.

1) if you're planning to buy the car afterwards, you don't want them to raise the residual value in the beginning, because your balloon cost at the end will be much higher than the car is worth (even though your lease payments are lower than normal)

2) leasing is all about shopping around; things you want to lower are money factor (multiply by 24 to get your interest rate) and a suitable residual value.

3) NEGOTIATE! You should never walk in and say "I'm gonna lease". First thing you need to do it negotiate a final price for the vehicle with your options. That's when you say "ok, I like this price, let's explore leasing."

 

[Herzog]

Buying a car, new or used will bring you equity in the long run.The bank see's this as a good thing when going for other loans, mortgages.etc..Leasing a car in my opinion is like throwing money out the window.Because once you pay the taxes & all the bull that comes with the car, & then when the lease is over, what do you have???? 0 !

 

[webguyIS]

Leasing is not about investing. Cars are not good investments to begin with! You wouldn't put $40k into a stock that's gonna drop 15% in a week would you? And then just keep depreciating? I mean sure, if you're gonna keep the car in mint condition over 6-7 years, it will probably sell better than the average car in that configuration, but it's a poor way to leverage your money IMO.

Leasing is for folks like me, who want a lower monthly payment than financing, don't want to have to deal with selling the car later on, do want to be able to get into a new car every few years (or sooner), and who don't really care that they have a revolving car payment. Personally I work for my car, and that's about it. If there was one thing I would never give up it'd be my car, but then again I'm a crazy fool so it doesn't really matter.

 

[RightIS]

www.carsdirect.com

guaranteed lowest price.......and a hell of a lot easier

 

[vvtipwr]

I generally do not like leasing, but when I got my BMW 330I, the leasing deal they gave me was $475/month, 1500 down (36 months) as opposed to financing which would have held me back $750/month.

that's almost $300 difference a month, and that's quite a bit of money.

At this point in my life (I'm only 22), I do not mind shelling out money to "rent" a car, and once my fiance finishes her degree and money would be a little better, than I would probably take the financing route for sure.

 

[chinky_is300]

Just wanted to give you some info on my situation-maybe it'll help you out...I wanted that $399/month deal too...but, if you want that then you have to down about 10% due at leasing...that's because they add a whole buncha stuff like tax, title, license...you just have to read the fine print...so, finally I walked out at $30,000.80 (included with everything)--2001 Yellow IS300...with 20K miles/year for 36 months and downed nothing...I'm paying about $650/month...and first month + security deposit ($500) was due at leasing...oh, and remember, the $399 deal includes only the basic lease package of 12K miles/year. If you have any other questions, you can e-mail me @ [email protected] this helps!! CIAO!

 

[RobC]

Hrmmm... I'd only like to be spending ~$450 a month on the lease, is that going to be feasible with the car I want? And I'll need more then 12k a year, probably 15.

 

[Bimmer10]

Well, I just picked mine up last Friday night. This is my first of many leases to come, it gets rid of the hassle of trying to sell the car when you want something new. Here is my deal $1800 total down, $420 total a month. I think I got a good deal, at least it works with my budget.

 

[RobC]

Bimmer10, Can you give some more details of your lease agreement and the car you got? Options? How long is the lease? How many miles are you allowed? Thanks.

 

[adonis7]

Originally posted by RobC:
Hrmmm... I'd only like to be spending ~$450 a month on the lease, is that going to be feasible with the car I want? And I'll need more then 12k a year, probably 15.

I got negotiated my lease on the last day in March. I got a black exterior with black interior so everything but the LSD. I got mine for $2500 down (that's including everything... tax, license, acquisition... no security) and $451 a month for 36 months with 15k miles a year. But my monthly ended up being $474 cause I added another $700 for an extra paint and leather protection through the dealership. If there are any spills in the car on the leather they'll get the stains out or even replace it. Don't know if I got suckered but I'll find out when something happens.
I can go into more detail on how I negotiated the deal... in fact if you do a search you can probably find my old posting.

As for tips you should negotiate price first and get that as low as possible. Also ask to see all the numbers like the residual value and the money factor as well as all the fees such as acquisition. You'll need them to do your your own calculations. If you are not familiar with calculating a lease get familiar now... I spent 6 months waiting to get my car and during that time I studied as much as I could about leases and before then I knew nothing. I memorized all the formula's so that I could take the numbers and double check their results to make sure they were not cheating me. Another thing I would recommend is not to lease the car over 36 months. By getting the 39 month lease you end up paying registration for the car for the 4th year and you'll just have it for 3 months. Also having the car any term longer than 36 months could bring the mileage over the 50K mark which would mark the end of your warranty.

 

[RobC]

adonis7,

Thanks for the info. I was reading all the advice on Edmunds.com about leasing... seems complicated, but I think I can handle it once I've read up enough on it.

 

[mjoo600]

You might want to read my post in this thread:

Topic: Just got a quote from Lexus Dealer: Feedback pls.

[ May 18, 2001: Message edited by: GSXR600 ]

 

[YELLLEX]

My deal was this. I walked in with NO trade. That way they had nothing to "roll over" as they put it. I got a SOLAR YELLOW with 15mi/year and ZERO down. Not a dime. The car pays $501/month for 48 months. Works for me. Just my .02

 

[Kozmo]

I'm looking at the $399 a month lease deal too.
$399/month plus tax for 39 months with $2800 upfront.
Ususally about $800 of the up front is the standard tax title license and 1st payment.
You can put as much or less as you want down on a lease, you payment will change accordingly. uaually about $30/month less for every $1,000 additional down.
Make sure to figure out the equivelent lease % rate - this $399 deal is like 5% which is real good. I didn't know about that and got a new 2000 MR2 SPyder when they first came out for under MSRP, but got screwed on the EQ percentage rate (10.2%)
There is a formula to do it, I can't remember, but maybe someone else know? the dealerfinance or a loan company should be able to help you figure it out.
-Koz
www.spyderchat.com

 

[Bimmer10]

Originally posted by RobC:
Bimmer10, Can you give some more details of your lease agreement and the car you got? Options? How long is the lease? How many miles are you allowed? Thanks.

12k miles a year, Silver w/ Blk leather, sunroof, no LSD, no heated seats (Im in Miami) 48 months

 

[LexusSalesman]

Lexus has a lease right now with $1075.00 plus inception fees (Usually the total is about $2700.00 with tax), for $399.00 per month plus tax for 39 months. This is for a vehicle that has the Leather package (Leather seats, 8 way power driver and passanger seat, homelink device, air filtration system), power sunroof and heated seats. The MSRP is $34,600. Feel free to send me any questions, I work as a salesman at a Lexus dealer.

 

[mjoo600]

The standard lease program when I was looking this month (negotiated and put down deposit on May 9, signed and picked up on this past weekend) was $399 for 39 months, with $2,374 due at signing.

Down Payment............$1,075
First Month's pay.........$399
Acquisition Fee...........$450
Security Deposit..........$450
TOTAL due at signing....$2,374

I believe this deal still valid until next month (?), but you can definitely take advantage of the program's special interest rate, 0.00228 (or 5.47%), and negotiate a significantly better capitalized cost of the car (the deal is based on a cap. cost of $31,866, with leather, heated seats, sunroof, trunk mat, and wheel lock, versus a invoice of $29,691 + $545 Destination Charge + $385 'Advertising Fee' = $30,621. I'm not exactly sure if the 'Ad Fee' is valid, it very well could be, but you might want to consider it negotiable.