alexl.wilson

i've read over a few pages of threads on the RDX and couldn't find an answer to my lease question. So, I immediately apologize if this is a subject that has been beaten to death on the forum and will absolutely understand to shut up if someone can direct me to another thread. I'll start of with saying that I have a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, and I LOVE the thing and am an active member on that forum, so I understand more than any car brand out there about the percentage of people that bad mouth products compared to the people that have no issues and therefor no need to take to the internet to sound off.

My question is this; my wife is interested in the Acura RDX and when i drove it, I was completely blown away by it as well. She currently has a 2010 Beetle and we're looking at a 2016 AWD RDX Advance in Lexington, Ky. With a trade in value of $6500 for the Beetle, my salesman says it would be $373.05 a month with zero down (besides the trade in). This is my first time leasing, but she is a NICU physician and having a reliable car for our child on the way and her job is 1st priority, so i don't anticipate her ever not leasing from this point on, and anything we need to blow up miles on will be our (mine) second car. What are the negiogating tactics when it comes to a lease? Is that a reasonable price per month? (36m, 12k miles)

I have yet to get into the buy out value or specifics with the dealer (and I'm not even sure how that part works out)

Nothing is in ink yet, i just LOVE car research so now is my time to soak in every bit of knowledge I can before i go into the battle field with the dealer.

I will say that from my jeep experience, and i truly do not hate on jeeps; it is a night and day difference to interact with our local (very trained) acura sales people, compared to our jeep dealership.

Anyways, ANY lease tactics or feedback you can give me would be very appreciated. Thank you!

2012wagon

NICU doc here as well. Very few of us around

Leave the Beetle trade out of it first.

1) What is residual value
2) How long lease
3) How many miles allowed
4) WHat is money factor
5) Negotiate price of car as you would negotiate if you were buying

FIgure all this out FIRST.

On our Lexus and BMW leases, we max out the MSD (security deposit). 9 payments off front, makes the money factor negligible. Also hopefully practice can make the lease tax deductible

ceb

Absolutely correct.

Dealers love leases because they can confuse the customer with numbers that no new leaser understands and therefore they can focus the customer on the monthly payments.

Lease basics are no different from buying.

Negotiate the price of the car. While forums are notoriously bad at giving you accurate prices paid (everybody got a better price than you did) and there are too many regional variables (tax, tags, processing fees etc) that make most numbers meaningless. TrueCar or the like can give you a ballpark figure of what a decent price is.

Residual value is what you can buy the car for at the end of your lease. The difference between your negotiated price and the residual is the amount that you are actually financing.

The money factor is a made up way of saying "interest rate". Take the money factor and multiply it by 2400 to get the interest rate.

Let's get to a practical example. The RDX Advance has an MSRP of $44k. Invoice is about $41k. I have no idea what the residual is, but let's assume 60% to make calculation easy.

So you'll be paying on your negotiated cost - $41000 minus the residual of $26400 (the residual is always a percentage of MSRP) or $14600. To that number is added tax, tags and whatever dealership costs you haven't negotiated away plus the $ value of the money factor.

The last numbers I saw were about .0016 money factor (2400x.0016=3.86% interest rate)
Once you've negotiated your best deal and the tax and title is added, the dealer will calculate the monthly payments. Before tax and tags but with your trade it comes out to about $350 a month.

Take the total of those monthly payments, add any up front payments (like your trade) plus any other costs that might get added (lease return fees etc). That's what the car will cost you over the three year lease. add the residual to that and you know how much the car actually cost you.

Take your 373 payment. Multiply it by 36 to get your payments before tax. That is 13428. add your trade and you're at 19928. If your state taxes only the leased amount, that is 6% of the 13428 or about $800 for a cost of $20728. Add the tags and you're looking at about $21000 or $7000 a year (or about $580 a month) Add the $21000 to the residual ($26400) so the real price you're paying for the car is $47400.

Purchased at MSRP the car would cost $44000 plus tax and tags of about $3000 and you're at $47000. At a 1.99% interest rate for 5 years or about $800 a month (at MSRP). At invoice and using your trade it works out to about$650 a month.

Bottom line - this doesn't sound like a good lease.

CrimsonElan

Rule of thumb is that the overall amortized monthly payment should be as close as possible to 1% of MSRP, or lower than 1% if you are good at negotiate. (this is for 36mo/30k miles lease, add a bit for 36mo/36k miles)

For your example, you put 0 down at time of lease, but you still need pay fees and first payment, so let's say you drive away the vehicle paying $1000 + $6500 for the trade in of bug, and your monthly lease payment is $400 (tax incl), so your total out of pocket money for the lease is
($1000 + $6500 + $400*35) /36 = $597
While 1% of 44k MSRP is $440,

So this is a pretty bad lease deal, it will be fair if you can bring the amortized monthly payment to less than $500.

alexl.wilson

Thank you everyone! Simplifying the concept and getting some shortcuts to run the numbers is so helpful.

I think I mislead when I said $373, as I understand the salesman and the print out attached, that IS with tax included. But running the numbers still, it's not a good deal. We are in no rush and...my wife has no interest in this game of negotiating but I love nothing more than leaving the dealership and being HAPPY with the deal. So I will keep on the surrounding dealerships to see who is willing to play ball. Thank you again! We've drove everything except the Q5 and Lincoln MKC, but the RDX in the blue seems to be an absolute slam dunk.

ceb

What makes the lease a bit iffy is your huge downpayment - it makes your actual costs seem smaller than they actually are.

Taking your trade out of the equation, the monthly costs of $538 plus the taxes of $21 so about $560. That means you would pay $20160 for the lease. Add the residual and you're at $46760. Accordingly, the lease costs you $1710 - $42500 plus tax of $2550 subtracted from the $46750.

That actually isn't bad. Negotiate the price a bit more and you'll get a decent lease

012TL-GLM

Good info here, but I'll throw in my .02. Don't give them any more down than the bare minimum. Probably first payment and fees. Get a check for your trade. Think of it like this, if anything happened to you and your wife that money is gone. The car goes back to Acura. There's no equity in a lease so don't give them anymore than you have to. A higher monthly payment is a better deal for you in case terrible unforeseen things happen. Why give them 6 grand up front when you could save invest or use it for something else

thephantom

How did they get the cap cost reduction number? Trade? Cash? Both?