Many states, unfortunately not CA, give you a credit for sales tax on the amount your trade in is worth towards another car. A few Lexus dealers I spoke with said that most people lease a Lexus and that way you avoid shelling out the full sales tax on the car. Actually, a few BMW and Infiniti dealers told me the same thing. Since I usually get bored with a vehicle after about 2 years, I'm actually thinking about leasing a car for the first time since 1996. The thing I don't like about leasing is the dealers are sneaky with the way they hide the actual cost of the vehicle in the lease terms.

Any advice to watch for and does Lexus currently have any good lease deals on a new GS or IS? Thanks

 

what sneaky ways are you talking about on dealerships hiding cost? we have leased 3 lexus so far, everything has been very straight forward, we didn't get charged anything extra at all. and yes, dealerships are right that by leasing cars, you only pay tax on the period you have the car

good lease deals are over now. look for summer event and december to remember, i think they have better deals at those times

 

Im not sure what you mean when they hide costs. My uncle just recently bought a car and I was with him. They didn't hide anything at all.

But I'd have to agree with rominl, good deals are all gone now. Unless your really good at bargaining maybe...

 

Of course the dealer is going to try to push you to lease! Do you know what your interest rate is on your lease? It gets confusing to the consumer because they use "money factors" instead of interest rates on leases. Dealers can mark these up and make some profit. Many leasees will find out they are paying a much higher interest rate on their lease than if they had a regular retail installment loan (purchase).

No doubt, a lease is more profitable to the dealer than a purchase. Unless it is a subvented lease through the manufacturer, I would opt to purchase.

(I work for an auto finance company)

 

^ Depends, find out what the Money Factor is and multiply by 24 to get the equivalent APR. For D2R, I got a MF of .00113 which is equivalent to an APR of 2.71%, the best my CU could do was 5.35% - no way you can beat that financing rate on a straight purchase. . .

 

yup, excellent point. straight out saying lease is worse than finance, that could be pretty off