Was your Recent Car Leasing Experience a Fairy-tale or a Scary-tale?

[cindala]

Having just gone through this recently, I cannot believe the crazy $ numbers car dealers are offering in North Jersey! What have you encountered where you live and what did you decide to do..... buy, lease or throw in the towel??

 

[tvguy]

Well, not in the market but it is nuts here. I literally just walked in from looking at my neighbors new Ford F150. He gave up on buying one in California, dealers all want $10,000 over sticker. He bought this one from a dealer in Washington State for $10,000 under sticker for his personal use.. Last week, he bought a new Dodge 1500 in Oregon state for $10,000 under sticker for his business. I'd drive 800 miles round trip to save $20,000.

 

[cindala]

I'd drive 800 miles round trip to save $20,000.

Wow! I think I would drive that far too! It didn't occur to me that neighboring states might offer such a considerable difference!

 

[kymom99]

Thankfully we are not in the market for any new vehicles right now.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We just leased a 2023 Santa Fe a couple weeks back for a 3 year lease. For us we chose lease over buy due to pricing and interest rates. Even then it was shopping around to get a good money factor.

The particular dealership we went with price matched and then slightly beat the other dealers in pricing. We gave them what the offers were for the other dealers and asked what they could do for us. Another dealership was also like this.

We had been looking to buy in spring 2021 but gave up due to chip shortages and pricing. This time around a totaled car made the decision for us but luckily pricing and inventory were much better as before there was no wiggle room at all and cars were selling for way over MSRP.

The chip shortage is still impacting things but not nearly as bad as it was before. Father-in-law for instance bought a new truck and due to the chip shortage for that truck was only given one key and the other will be coming in a few months.

 

[cindala]

Thanks for your info! The problem here is that the dealers are adding several thousand dollars onto the MSRP because they have so few cars. We are in a very populated area outside of NYC. I was quoted $500 a month with $5k down for a base model Honda Civic. There were only 2 of this type car or none at other dealers I tried. I’ve been doing this for 20+ years with Honda. Not new to the game. But this is the worst I’ve seen.

 

[cvjw]

Thanks for your info! The problem here is that the dealers are adding several thousand dollars onto the MSRP because they have so few cars. We are in a very populated area outside of NYC. I was quoted $500 a month with $5k down for a base model Honda Civic. There were only 2 of this type car or none at other dealers I tried. I’ve been doing this for 20+ years with Honda. Not new to the game. But this is the worst I’ve seen.

Honda is having problems getting vehicles. Not sure why. I recently took my Honda Pilot back to the dealer for service. When I purchased it a few years ago, the whole parking lot plus off lots were full of Hondas. Last week, there were maybe 20 Hondas there and most were accords.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Thanks for your info! The problem here is that the dealers are adding several thousand dollars onto the MSRP because they have so few cars. We are in a very populated area outside of NYC. I was quoted $500 a month with $5k down for a base model Honda Civic. There were only 2 of this type car or none at other dealers I tried. I’ve been doing this for 20+ years with Honda. Not new to the game. But this is the worst I’ve seen.

Some are still having that issue it just depends on the company and the model. Mazda with their redesign to CX50 and CX90 were having issues keeping certain models in stock at the moment. Back in 2021 the Mazda dealers here when we looked had cars stuck in cargo ships off the coast of CA.

One of the dealers only had 4 Santa Fe and none were AWD as an example for here. But it's nowhere near here at least like it was back in 2021. Back then there were dealers who normally had several hundred cars and only had 10 for example, Subaru dealers here stopped giving out courtesy cars for maintenance because they were using them as test drive vehicles . And the selling over MSRP was what all were doing with little negotiations. One of the Tellurides we had looked at in 2021 they were selling it for $10K over. We looked at a variety of cars and models back then and all were experiencing issues.

It's gotten a lot better here but still issues. The 2023 Santa Fe is I will say being pushed with incentives, this is because the 2024 is a complete redesign of the model (like it's not even the same car) so that helped us out.

I'm sorry it's still super bad for you, it's not pre-pandemic conditions here but it sounds like its better in my middle of the county area than it is for you.

 

[cindala]

And the selling over MSRP was what all were doing with little negotiations.

That's what they are all doing here now. No negotiations either.

sounds like its better in my middle of the county area than it is for you.

Yes, it definitely sounds like we are where you were in 2021. After one of our cars was lost in a flood, I leased an Accord in 2021 because it was cheaper than a Civic. But this is way worse here than in 2021. The dealers hold all the power. We will probably wind up buying out our lease at this point, which is what many are doing here.

 

[cindala]

Last week, there were maybe 20 Hondas there and most were accords.

One Honda dealer I went to had no cars on their lot.

 

[georgina]

DH's car died in June so we leased a Hyundai Ioniq 5 for 3 years. Dealer had 30 cars of that model with various trim levels on the lot, managed to get them down from the initial price by playing 2 dealers off each other. Still not cheap, but included 2 years free charging and 3 years routine maintenance.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

DH's car died in June so we leased a Hyundai Ioniq 5 for 3 years. Dealer had 30 cars of that model with various trim levels on the lot, managed to get them down from the initial price by playing 2 dealers off each other. Still not cheap, but included 2 years free charging and 3 years routine maintenance.

I saw several of the Ioniq 5 and 6 at the dealer where we actually got our Santa Fe. I think they were doing some negotiations too but the charging is very interesting.

The 3 year routine maintenance is just something Hyundai is doing anyhow for leased vehicles. We have that for ours as well plus Bluelink included for the 3 years.

I actually got pretty interested in the Ioniq 6 for myself which with the federal incentives put it pretty close to what the Santa Fe was for us. We did the SEL Premium model for the Santa Fe.

 

[tvguy]

One Honda dealer I went to had no cars on their lot.

I just check one Honda dealer close to my house. They have just 12 new Hondas on the lot. The other Honda dealer nearby has 13. Never figured out how Honda allowed there dealers to be so close together, they are 6 miles apart.
When we bought our Camry in July 2020, we looked at that first dealer at Accords. They had 70 Accords hybrids on the lot then. Just hybrids. I don't recall how many non-hybrid Accords they had in addition.

 

[cindala]

Still not cheap, but included 2 years free charging and 3 years routine maintenance.

Wow, that's great they offered you some incentives! Our area they want you to donate blood and give up your right arm just to get a car!

 

[DisneyHardin]

I just check one Honda dealer close to my house. They have just 12 new Hondas on the lot. The other Honda dealer nearby has 13. Never figured out how Honda allowed there dealers to be so close together, they are 6 miles apart.
When we bought our Camry in July 2020, we looked at that first dealer at Accords. They had 70 Accords hybrids on the lot then. Just hybrids. I don't recall how many non-hybrid Accords they had in addition.

If it's like the Honda dealerships around here, what's on their website isn't what they really have. When we started looking to buy a Pilot in March, one dealership showed that they had like 7 in stock - when I got there, they didn't have any other than the demo. Another dealership showed they had 4 or 5 in stock, but again, only had the demo.

 

[dvcgirl67]

DH's car died in June so we leased a Hyundai Ioniq 5 for 3 years. Dealer had 30 cars of that model with various trim levels on the lot, managed to get them down from the initial price by playing 2 dealers off each other. Still not cheap, but included 2 years free charging and 3 years routine maintenance.

How do you like the Ioniq? We have a Tesla Y and may try another EV for our next car when the lease is up in 2024.

 

[BrianL]

Well, not in the market but it is nuts here. I literally just walked in from looking at my neighbors new Ford F150. He gave up on buying one in California, dealers all want $10,000 over sticker. He bought this one from a dealer in Washington State for $10,000 under sticker for his personal use.. Last week, he bought a new Dodge 1500 in Oregon state for $10,000 under sticker for his business. I'd drive 800 miles round trip to save $20,000.

I just bought a new car. I have been after a Toyota, but they wanted clsoe to $10K over MSRP. I bought a Subaru instead for sticker price - no haggling. It wasn't the deal of the century, but it was fair and I was happy with it.

 

[_19disnA]

Leased a new car last year and had no issues. I like the idea of knowing when you sign the paperwork what the end value will be. I know some people are opposed to leasing but works out great for me. At the end of the lease just hand the keys back to the dealer and am done with it. I also don't need to try to sell the car to some stranger which can be a real pain.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If it's like the Honda dealerships around here, what's on their website isn't what they really have. When we started looking to buy a Pilot in March, one dealership showed that they had like 7 in stock - when I got there, they didn't have any other than the demo. Another dealership showed they had 4 or 5 in stock, but again, only had the demo.

We only found that to be the case when it was that one dealer had this but not the dealer we went to and inventory online was reflecting all in a certain radius. Like the dealer we went to didn't have any black Santa Fe but another dealer did but that other dealer didn't have any AWD versions.

In your case it can also be that the car was sold before it was able to be updated online (and they were lax in getting it updated).

 

[EACarlson]

Wow! I think I would drive that far too! It didn't occur to me that neighboring states might offer such a considerable difference!

When your base is California it's almost a guarantee. President of the American Trucking Association earlier this month had a quote I really like. "California, the breeding ground of all bad policy."