Any tips on leasing a car? Can you negotiate? Any advice on good cars or leasing deal

[Shellydm]

Hello,

We are thinking of leasing a new car. Our 2003 car died on me while I was in the middle of a 4 lane road. It was awful.

We currently only have 1 car (the one that is now being fixed). We took it to the dealer and he said since we took such good care of it, after he fixes it, it should last us awhile.

So we thought this could be a good change to possibly keep the old car and maybe lease a new car then we could finally have 2 cars. It will be so nice!

We have been looking all weekend going to different dealers and looking at different cars. We are not picky. We were hoping for a car around 250 a month lease payment for 3 years and hoping for a 0 down deal without taxes and title fees and so on.

The problem is when the salespersons gave us an offer we didn't know what to say or if we should try and negotiate. We just took their quote and said we'd think about it. I wasn't sure if you can negotiate on a lease? And if so, what do we say? What do we negotiate?

We found an ok deal I think with a 2013 Honda Civic with 0 down and no hidden taxes or title fees. Really 0 down and they make the first payment. He called it a sign and drive. It was a lease for 3 years but the payment was for 270. Over what we hoped to pay but wasn't sure if we could negotiate it down or not? If you could negotiate a lease offer and if it was a good deal. It seems like one.

But my husband liked the Elantra we test drove at 2 different dealers. But at these places it was not cut and dry like the Honda place. Each place had a manager to call. And one place the manager had to call his manager . It was weird. So I feel the quote they gave us won't hold once we really go in to lease. They wouldn't write anything down but told us we could. So I don't trust it.

Any advice? Any good deals or cars to look out for that are affordable?

Thanks for reading my long winded post!

Shelly

 

[sonnyjane]

On principle I'm against leasing. I'd rather have something to show for it at the end. I bought a 2013 Civic last month and got a 5 year loan. The payments are $410 a month, which is obviously more than you want to spend but at the end of the tunnel it's mine. You'll easily get a least 10 years out of a Honda. My last one lasted 13 and could have gone longer I just wanted a newer model.

 

[tvguy]

Everything is negotiable.

But to be honest, given record low interest rates, I'd just buy a car, not lease it.

 

[wannagoback]

We've leased two vehicles and I agree that there is room for negotiating. We elected to lease because both vehicles were intended to be short-term as we transitioned into a growing family. My husband likes to have nice, new cars. I don't really think leasing is a good financial move unless you KNOW you would be purchasing a new car in a few years anyway. Sure, at the end of the lease you have nothing to show for it, but I didn't have anything to show after making loan payments for 4 years either! At least with leasing I am not rolling negative equity into a new car.

There are message board all about leasing. People will share the lease offers they are getting on the same car model you are looking at. That can help you figure out whether you're getting a decent offer.

 

[midwestdee]

I also oppose leasing - unless you do it through your business. We buy them and drive them until they fall out from underneath us. We have a 2000 Toyota Sienna (will have 14 yrs. in Aug. & planning on replacing it this summer) and a 2004 Honda CRV. Leasing just gives you nothing at the end and I've heard of people having problems with the mileage being over what the lease calls for, condition of the car, etc.... I'd rather buy a reliable 2 to 4 yr old Honda or Toyota if I needed to keep to a budget.

 

[sonnyjane]

I also oppose leasing - unless you do it through your business. We buy them and drive them until they fall out from underneath us. We have a 2000 Toyota Sienna (will have 14 yrs. in Aug. & planning on replacing it this summer) and a 2004 Honda CRV. Leasing just gives you nothing at the end and I've heard of people having problems with the mileage being over what the lease calls for, condition of the car, etc.... I'd rather buy a reliable 2 to 4 yr old Honda or Toyota if I needed to keep to a budget.

On that note, my first Honda was a certified used, and so I looked at that again last month when shopping, but the truth is the prices were crazy! For example, the difference between a 2011 with 40k miles and a brand new 2013 with no miles was only $1,000! I had to buy new with those types of prices. It's a really good time to buy a new vehicle.

 

[Shellydm]

Thanks everyone! Great advice from all.

We normally would buy and even started out thinking we would buy when my car died. We were going to trade it in and buy a new car.

We have a 2003 Prius and its paid off. So I totally see the perks of buying a car. But it suddenly died on me last week and its our only car. Since its so old I thought our only option was to trade it in and buy a new car.

Then the machanic called us and said he thinks he can fix it for around 1000 dollars. I hated the thought of putting any money in it since its so old. But he said its well worth it because its a good car and he looked at our maintance history and said we kept up with everything and its a great car.

So we thought maybe we could keep it instead of trading it in and put the money (we don't have and didn't expect to pay when the car suddenly died) into our old Prius. The machanic said we couldn't buy a used car anywhere near that price since its a good car and we know its history since we are the original owners and never had any problems until now.

It was not in our budget at all to have a second car since we now have no car payment. But we have 1 car and its so hard to get around. We do it, but it would be nice to have 2.

So we thought we could lease an inexpensive car maybe around 2-250 a month for 3 years. Then perhaps buy the car.

I have no clue what to do. We are just brainstorming, trying to see if we can even afford a second car. We may just make due with our car after its fixed and stick with one car?

I appreciate all the help.

Shelly

 

[jm0925]

I leased a 2012 Honda Civic last year. My 2000 Civic was constantly needing repairs. It was at that age when things were just old and needed replacing. Financially, I just couldn't deal with the costs and the stress of worrying when the next problem was going to arise. The last straw was when I was out of town like 2 hours away from my mechanic when it acted up again. Finally I said enough was enough.

I decided to lease because I couldn't afford to finance. If you can't do it, you can't do it. I was deciding between an Elantra and a Civic. Hyundai wanted me to give them $1,000 money down on a lease because I had no history of car payments. I said No. They tried lowering it to $500 and upselling me to a Sonata. I was tempted but again I said No.

I went to Honda (where my dad bought my 2000 Civic) and they wanted money down also initially but they ended up agreeing to the no money down because it was right before closing time that day and they wanted the sale. They approved me for a 269 payment and that was rolling the taxes, fees, and other costs into the monthly payments. This way I didn't have to pay that stuff out of pocket. I just didn't have the money.

A big plus with Honda is on a lease they give you a $1,500 allowance when you return the car at lease end towards whatever they consider excessive wear and tear on the vehicle. Normally, you only get $500 from most dealers. So for me I thought that was a nice plus. Lets face it, cars take a beating and stuff happens.

So my best advice, and I wrote this to another poster on the board, go to the dealership on a weekday night in the evening close to closing time. When they are real slow and really want the sale on their books, they will negotiate with you. If you go on the weekend when they are busy, most likely they won't try so hard to get your business.

Good Luck!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Yes, you can negotiate a lease, in fact, you should.

Think carefully about leasing. It usually makes a lot more financial sense to buy. Do some research before you go ahead with this.

 

[pintamino]

I leased a 2012 Honda Civic last year. My 2000 Civic was constantly needing repairs. It was at that age when things were just old and needed replacing. Financially, I just couldn't deal with the costs and the stress of worrying when the next problem was going to arise. The last straw was when I was out of town like 2 hours away from my mechanic when it acted up again. Finally I said enough was enough.

I decided to lease because I couldn't afford to finance. If you can't do it, you can't do it. I was deciding between an Elantra and a Civic. Hyundai wanted me to give them $1,000 money down on a lease because I had no history of car payments. I said No. They tried lowering it to $500 and upselling me to a Sonata. I was tempted but again I said No.

I went to Honda (where my dad bought my 2000 Civic) and they wanted money down also initially but they ended up agreeing to the no money down because it was right before closing time that day and they wanted the sale. They approved me for a 269 payment and that was rolling the taxes, fees, and other costs into the monthly payments. This way I didn't have to pay that stuff out of pocket. I just didn't have the money.

A big plus with Honda is on a lease they give you a $1,500 allowance when you return the car at lease end towards whatever they consider excessive wear and tear on the vehicle. Normally, you only get $500 from most dealers. So for me I thought that was a nice plus. Lets face it, cars take a beating and stuff happens.

So my best advice, and I wrote this to another poster on the board, go to the dealership on a weekday night in the evening close to closing time. When they are real slow and really want the sale on their books, they will negotiate with you. If you go on the weekend when they are busy, most likely they won't try so hard to get your business.

Good Luck!

Agreed - my Volvo kicked it much much earlier than expected and a lease was the only way I could afford a vehicle, and I need one - a reliable one. Pricing between a certified used Honda and a new one was essentially the same. I am hoping to save up some and put a chunk towards the residual at the end but we will see where I am then in my career and life. I am a young professional at a nonprofit now so no matter how tight I am with my budget I could not afford to straight-out finance. I have a 2012 Civic and I love it and have no regrets thusfar. With leasing vs buying you have to make choices that work for you - whether it's because the budget is tight or because you like to drive a new car every few years, it's a valid option. Sometimes I get irritated with renting too instead of owning a home - because I'm not building equity. But I'm not homeless so I'm deriving some value out of the arrangement.

You can and should negotiate a lease. I think they wanted me at like $250 a month and I got it down to $201 with my old essentially defunct Volvo as down payment - initially they were giving me $500 as the value but I told them I didn't care as long as they made the end number work. This is my first car note, and I do not have a co-signer.

 

[msmama]

I don't understand. If you can swing a $250 a month payment for 3 years to LEASE a car, why can't you swing it to BUY a car? (I admit, I don't get leasing at all, it just doesn't make sense to me so forgive me for not answering your actual question, but this is what I would do...)

There seems to be plenty of ads for 0 down deals. If you don't like the interest rate a dealer offers, maybe check with your bank or a credit union.

Make sure you get a loan with no penalties for early pay off. That way if you do sell your car in a few years (you will get more selling than for trade in generally) you can still put the money towards the "new" car.

Granted, it's been several years since I've had a car payment but I've never had one over $250/month. Even if I get a longer term I pay it off early. Good luck!

 

[SarahKate]

Leasing can be a decent thing but only if you know you don't want to keep it past a few years. If you think you might really like it and want to keep it, buy it instead. If you decide to keep it after the lease you will end up paying on it forever because your lease payments were basically just depreciation.

 

[sweetdana]

Thanks everyone! Great advice from all.

We normally would buy and even started out thinking we would buy when my car died. We were going to trade it in and buy a new car.

We have a 2003 Prius and its paid off. So I totally see the perks of buying a car. But it suddenly died on me last week and its our only car. Since its so old I thought our only option was to trade it in and buy a new car.

Then the machanic called us and said he thinks he can fix it for around 1000 dollars. I hated the thought of putting any money in it since its so old. But he said its well worth it because its a good car and he looked at our maintance history and said we kept up with everything and its a great car.

So we thought maybe we could keep it instead of trading it in and put the money (we don't have and didn't expect to pay when the car suddenly died) into our old Prius. The machanic said we couldn't buy a used car anywhere near that price since its a good car and we know its history since we are the original owners and never had any problems until now.

It was not in our budget at all to have a second car since we now have no car payment. But we have 1 car and its so hard to get around. We do it, but it would be nice to have 2.

So we thought we could lease an inexpensive car maybe around 2-250 a month for 3 years. Then perhaps buy the car.

I have no clue what to do. We are just brainstorming, trying to see if we can even afford a second car. We may just make due with our car after its fixed and stick with one car?

I appreciate all the help.

Shelly

Leasing only works, if it is your 1 splurge, and will only drive new cars. IMO I would 100%. Buy a used car 3-5 yrs old with less than 60k miles on it. this would get you the 250 a month you want and own it when your done. 0 due, and worth something. Not turn it in or have 6 more yrs of payments at 400$ a month when lease is up. If you cannot afford to buy new, but used. Do not rent the 1 st 3 yrs of a new car.


If u lease, yes 100% negotiable.

 

[DisneyOrBustColorado]

We leased our first new car in 1999 & you could really get some totally screamin' deals back then on leases. Our lease payment was MUCH less than a purchase payment. We could not decide what kind of car that we wanted so we leased until we could decide exactly what we wanted to buy. when we began leasing we could raise the residual or buy out value at the end of the lease in order to get a cheaper lease payment. We didn't really care what the buy out value was because we never intended to buy the cars or we would have just bought them to begin with.

We have leased:
- Pontiac Grand AM
- 2 Chevy Trail Blazers
- 2 Dodge Ram Trucks

Our Pontiac was a great car but a car just didn't suit our country lifestyle. Chevy had the WORST customer service we have ever had & both of our Trail Blazers had a TON of issues. We were so glad that we were not stuck with them in the end. Our Dodge vehicles held out so well that we finally broke down & bought a large Dodge truck & a Dodge Durango. We were even able to sell one of the Dodge trucks at the end of the lease for more than the buy out price & make money. I can not say enough good things about Dodge accommodating us. They have been wonderful. Our Durango has 130k miles on it & it still running perfectly & still sounds tight & new on the inside. We really put our vehicles to the test on extremely rough dirt roads & the Dodge's have been built to last.

Moving on...
I also highly recommend getting reviews on the bank that you are going to lease through. We leased through GMAC (Even our Dodge vehicles) & we loved them. They were awesome when it came time to drop our vehicles off & they didn't try to charge us for every little scratch & ding on the vehicles. They said that they expected normal wear & tear & the fact that the bed of the truck was all scratched was "normal". We also leased using Wells Fargo bank & did not have as good of luck with them. They tried to charge us for every ding. It's a good thing that we took Detailed pictures of everything on the vehicles before we turned them in. We put a ruler next to every little scratch proving how big it actually was. Then we had to fight with Wells Fargo about everything that they tried to charge us for. We had a hard time turning in our vehicle & we had to take it directly to an auction site. So when they tried to charge us for 'damages' the vehicle wasn't even around anymore for proof. It had already been sold. So thank goodness for the pictures that we had for proof. After sending them the pictures they dropped the extra charges.

We don't lease now. We bought our truck new & bought a Durango used. our Durango had 21k miles on it when we bought it, was only 1 year old & we paid $23k for it. It was worth 41k brand new. So we paid almost half for a one year old vehicle that had a manufacturer warranty on it & then we got them to throw in the extended warranty. We did use the warranty one time & Dodge said that they would work with us if we didn't use it to get a partial refund. Whenever I call them I feel that they are truly advocating for the customer so I will always drive a Dodge.

My future plan is to own & drive my vehicles until the repair bills outweigh the value of the car. Then I will call the salvage yard & move on to the next vehicle. In the long run, I believe that purchasing saves money with the current low interest rates, unless you can get a real steal on a lease. leasing does have it's place & time in life, but take care not to fall into any of the traps that can be there. Always read the fine print & keep good records of EVERYTHING.

 

[tvguy]

My future plan is to own & drive my vehicles until the repair bills outweigh the value of the car. Then I will call the salvage yard & move on to the next vehicle. .

Like I have posted elsewhere, the last 2 sets of tires I have purchased for my 1987 cost more than the vehicle was worth. I don't think that is a good measure of when to make a repair or not. I don't drive much, and tires last me about 8 years until they rot out, so it was worth it for the miles it allowed me to drive.
One thing that does amuse me, 3 of the 5 cars I have traded in over the years was at least 15 years old, with well over 100,000 miles on it, and they all would be considered worn out by most folks here, ended up being bought off the dealership lot by an employee.

 

[DawnM]

Can't you BUY a lower end Civic for payments of $270/month? With 0% financing or very low financing it would seem you could keep the payments fairly low.

You might also look at a Toyota Corolla. I think they are slightly less than the Civic.

We haven't had a car payment for a long time. Your car is NOT old! Our newest car is a 2004 and we feel we have just broken it in. Our youngest is 9 and I hope to get him through age 18 before needing another car.

We are most likely getting rid of our 1996 Saturn before inspections are due in Aug. We have been told it won't pass and even with DH doing most of the work, we are looking at well over $1,000 to repair it. It needs some engine work, some transmission work, new tires, and a few other minor things done (but the minor things require taking major things out to get to them and it is a huge job.)

Dawn

 

[sonnyjane]

Can't you BUY a lower end Civic for payments of $270/month? With 0% financing or very low financing it would seem you could keep the payments fairly low.
.

Dawn

Not a new one. That's what I just got last month, a basic 2013 model, no frills or add-ons and a 5-year loan with 1.9% is $414. I think I saw a commercial recently about 0.9% as a promo but at the time, 1.9% was the best they had. We both have credit in the 800's so qualified for that, and got $1000 off for my old trade-in. If OP can put more down, payments can be lower but sounds like they are looking for 0 down opportunities.

 

[epsmith921]

Check out Volkswagen for good lease deals. The other best tip is to go on the last day of the calendar month when they may need to move some cars to make their quota. They will do just about anything to do that. Also remember that leasing laws vary from state to state. I was paying $100 more a month than I should have been because of leasing in Illinois. True, leasing is not always the best financial decision, but I've also had it happen that the buyout on my car was less than wholesale so I technically could have bought that car and flipped it at the end of the lease. You can have a lease help you get through until you can either buy it at the end or just turn it in. Also be sure to factor in that most companies have a lease turn in fee of around $500 that they'll waive of course if you lease again from them or buy the car. Also check the mileage on it. You can get a lower rate if you will drive fewer miles. If you need more (standard is 10k/year now) then it's cheaper to "buy" them up front. Also watch out for dealers rolling in maintenance contract into the price.

I come from a family that has had many leases, has purchased used, bought at the end of the lease, had employee price leases, corporate leases, and dealt with multiple manufacturers and finance companies.

I personally like leasing but I drive through not very nice areas to get to work every day and simply can't have issues with my car. Read the contract though and consider visiting multiple dealers if you can even for the same brand.

 

[Shellydm]

Thank you so much everyone for the great advice and for sharing your stories for both buying and leasing!!! I really appreciate it!

Shelly

 

[brettb]

Not a new one. That's what I just got last month, a basic 2013 model, no frills or add-ons and a 5-year loan with 1.9% is $414. I think I saw a commercial recently about 0.9% as a promo but at the time, 1.9% was the best they had. We both have credit in the 800's so qualified for that, and got $1000 off for my old trade-in. If OP can put more down, payments can be lower but sounds like they are looking for 0 down opportunities.

What was the trim level of your Civic? My math based on AAA pricing and 1.9% for *5* years doesn't quite jibe. Could it have been a 4-year loan? (Also, when I bought my Honda a looong time ago, they stepped the financing rates: 0.9 for 3 years, 1.9 for 4 years, and 2.9 for 5 years.)