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

[firefly_ris]

Just got a Ford Maverick hybrid last month that we had ordered when order banks opened last September. Did the base model, 23k. When they do make appearances on lots here and there, they ask way over MSRP for them. They do disappear from the lot so someone must be paying it. Happy with it so far, good, simple, getting 44mpg right now. I work from home so I'm the primary driver of our F-150 and husband commutes with the Mav. Looking at prices on larger vehicles it is becoming absolutely insane. Someone down the road from me got an 80k Wagoneer. We live in Buffalo -- in 10 years it'll be a worthless rust bucket. It seems insane to me to drop that kind of money (plus interest) on an everyday driver vehicle.

Leasing I've never done and don't have any plans to so have no clue what that is like now.

 

[Mysterian]

Mine was a fairy-tale, because they were forced to upgrade me at no charge. So I ended up with a Dodge Caravan, which is like a pumpkin carriage. It was black, and the day I got it, I drove around blasting goth club music, like a true family van gangsta.

 

[mjkacmom]

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.

Last summer our odyssey died 2 days before our week at the beach. My sister had researched Kia’s for herself and her son forever (we are also a Honda family, right now have 5. Even though she lives in Illinois, she said the best Kia lot with the most cars is Nutley Kia. We bought a very low mileage 2022 in a couple of hours. We just bought a 2014 accord I saw on a local Facebook page, it was a good deal and right now I’m not waiting until it’s absolutely necessary to buy (we always buy used, cash). My daughter took it to college and now we are having issues with a 2007 civic and can’t get it in until the 6th.

 

[DisneyHardin]

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).

I *think* what they were doing was they were putting up the ones that were presales on their website to make it seem like they had inventory. We ended up doing a presale from one that they had on their manifest to get in. Our salesman told us that most all their new inventory is already sold before it ever even hits their lot. If that's what they are doing - it worked. I went there because it looked like they had inventory, but did end up doing a presale on one they were expecting to get in a few weeks later.

 

[tvguy]

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.

Our current cars replaced an SUV we had 20 years, and an SUV we had 31 years. The sweetest time of having a car are the years you have no payment. So never ending payments with leasing a car just aren't my cut of tea.
After I sold our Suburban....the SUV we bought new and kept 31 years....I went through all the repair receipts. Just a hair over $10,000, about $325 a YEAR, far less than the monthly lease of loan payments if I had gone that route.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I *think* what they were doing was they were putting up the ones that were presales on their website to make it seem like they had inventory. We ended up doing a presale from one that they had on their manifest to get in. Our salesman told us that most all their new inventory is already sold before it ever even hits their lot. If that's what they are doing - it worked. I went there because it looked like they had inventory, but did end up doing a presale on one they were expecting to get in a few weeks later.

That whole "sold before it arrived" thing was exactly what we experienced in 2021. We could see inside a Telluride but never test drive it as it was always sold before making it to our metro. Took us a month to test drive a Palisade and even then it had a waiting line (physically I mean at the dealership) to test drive it. Repeat with other models.

That's pretty sucky though to do it like that online. My husband, who did the primary searching for our car a month ago, did not report that being the thing and when we went to test drive we def. saw cars actually for sale.

So interesting..we're in the middle of the country but it seems like others are experiencing things we did but much later.

 

[tvguy]

That whole "sold before it arrived" thing was exactly what we experienced in 2021. We could see inside a Telluride but never test drive it as it was always sold before making it to our metro. Took us a month to test drive a Palisade and even then it had a waiting line (physically I mean at the dealership) to test drive it. Repeat with other models.

That's pretty sucky though to do it like that online. My husband, who did the primary searching for our car a month ago, did not report that being the thing and when we went to test drive we def. saw cars actually for sale.

So interesting..we're in the middle of the country but it seems like others are experiencing things we did but much later.

That was the case here too. But Kia sales have really taken a hit here because of the theft issue and some insurance companies refusing to cover them. Also unique to our city, a very bad local dealer. Kia finally revoked their franchise. My son had an all electric Kona he leased from that dealer and had an issue with the battery that was part of a recall. Dealer just sat on the car for over a month, didn't repair it. Kia provided a rental car but my son finally called Kia directly who IMMEDIATELY offered to buy it back because under California lemon law any issue that takes more than 30 days to fix is an automatic buy back. Took another month to complete that because the local dealer would not let the Kia factory rep on their lot to complete the buy back!

 

[cindala]

If it's like the Honda dealerships around here, what's on their website isn't what they really have.

Yes, same here. It's like what you see is in transit from somewhere else and is very misleading.

I know some people are opposed to leasing but works out great for me.

We bought our first Honda in 1996, but after 16 years it was time to part and we started leasing. It works for us because I need a dependable car that I know will start every time I go to drive. Having a 3 year lease means you shouldn't have any big problems (they are covered by a warranty) and there won't be any wear and tear issues yet. Up until our last lease, I either never put any money down, or no more than $500 and my payments were $250 per month or less. Now it's a different game out there.

The sweetest time of having a car are the years you have no payment. So never ending payments with leasing a car just aren't my cut of tea.
After I sold our Suburban....the SUV we bought new and kept 31 years....I went through all the repair receipts. Just a hair over $10,000, about $325 a YEAR, far less than the monthly lease of loan payments if I had gone that route.

Looks like we will buyout our lease. My DH's car is 3 years old, and has 13,700 miles on it. He picks up the grandkids from school and is retired, so it's not our main car. I have already looked into an extended warranty to put on this car at a very reasonable price to cover any big expenses. Hopefully the car will last to the sweet spot after we pay it off where there won't be any payments for a few years. Next year my Accord lease is up and hopefully the inventory situation will have improved.