jjbodean

figured it on 36 months and 12k/yr for you - $1343 per month

Threxx

Just so you guys have a basis for comparison (and sanity, IMO)... the 85 thousand dollar rocket ship lux dream car Mercedes AMG E63 w/ 507hp V8 often times goes on a lease special for only $999/month over a nice short 21 month lease.

Granted it's nowhere near as nice or reliable as the LS460 - but I dunno, if it's a lease, do you really care how nice it stays after you turn the keys in (assuming you don't intend to buy it at the end)? I'd just care how much fun you could have in it, and I think I could have a whole lot more fun in the 85k dollar E63 @ 999/month for 21 months than I could in an 85k dollar LS460L @ $1500/month or whatever for 36 months.

exBMWowner

The lease numbers on an LS460 are way out of line due to Lexus having very low residuals. It does not speak highly of their confidence in the resale value of their product. I suppose there is no need for them to do better right now since the cars are selling quickly, but it does not create any incentive to try and lease one of these.

lexuslover

that must be with some $$$ down though right? oftentimes those MB and BMW leases require thousands of cap cost reduction, which makes no sense to me. if i'm going to lease, i don't want to pay anything outside of first payment + TTL.

i must say though that in my research for my latest car, the german residuals are soooo much better than lexus'. but that could possibly be b/c lexus dealer markup over invoice is VERY high compared to the much smaller markup by germans. also the fact that lexus gives holdbacks. so what i'm saying is that in time the LS (just like every other model) will be going for invoice or less, thus why the residual is so damn low to start off with.

my cousin's family just picked up an 06 LS430 last month and it was like 2000 under invoice or something insane like that. so if you think about that, the residual has to be low b/c lexus knows that the cars will not be able to command MSRP for 36 months and the price will inevitably go around/near invoice --> right there gives you 12%+ on the markup. so the real "depreciation" comes after that 12%...

sorry for the rambling, just thought i'd give my 2c as a lease-addict

jjbodean

i was recently told (dont know how much truth to it or not) that bmw dealers are being required to buy a certain percentage of lease returns to their dealership from bmw financial services, thereby eliminating a certain amount of loss that the leasing company would have if they had sent the vehicle to the auction. does anyone with a close bmw dealer relationship know if this is the case or not?

lexuslover

i don't think it has much to do with resale confidence once you take out the dealer markup effect. and this is all part of lexus' corporate strategy - to maximize their dealer profits so they can provide the outstanding service to customers and have these ginormous dealerships with leather/marble/waterfalls/etc. it's been a winning combo for them, so i don't see it going away anytime soon. the best way to lease with lexus is to wait for prices to fall so your gap between price paid and residual narrows.

my quick and dirty math tells me that there is at least a 7% residual differnce between german and lexus that accounts for the low residual. so if you take 59% + 7% that is 66%. that's probably more on par, maybe even better, than the german counterparts.

and don't feel bad, when we got the SC and the GS, the residuals were 56% for 36 month 15k per year. in my many years of leasing, i have found that LFS is pretty spot on with residuals, meaning i am indifferent at lease-end to buy vs. return. the market value at the time of my lease-end is very very close to residual.

Threxx

Yeah there's a HUGE difference between Lexus sticker and invoice. If I could get an LS460 for invoice those residuals would quickly become more reasonable.

What I really prefer to see in a lease is reasonable money factors, though - that way I'm paying very little to 'borrow' the car and in the end the buyout tends to be more reasonable of an option - doesn't mean I'll take it, but I'd at least prefer for the option to be reasonable.

Anyhow...
Whatcha think of the A4 so far? Mine's fun to beat on and I got 'in' on it back when they were doing $349/month for 24 months with zero down incl maintenance.

Mine was $389/month out the door for 15k miles including a few small options and taxes.

VelvetBlue

I don't think you can really compare the E63 and the LS460. Most people in the market for the LS460 would not cross shop the E-class. However, I had an E55 last year and it was a very fun car and much more performance oriented than the LS.

DKNY

this is the quote I got through my source
73k LS460(tax not included) 60 month lease with 15k miles per year
10k down plus tax
$867.36 per month 0.00252 $23826.00 0.18 $10877.36

I dont plan to keep it for 60 months, after 3-4 years I'll put it on swapalease.com and I'm sure for that monthly price someone should ****** it up.

dimapb

Here is the quote I got from my source....
MSRP: 81,077
36 months lease
1st paymnt + some other bank fees $2,307.00
monthly pmt 1,449.46

Dmitry

exBMWowner

This sounds comparable to the other quotes, but still higher than it should be. Did they give you a residual, mileage limit, and cost/mile for going over?

dimapb

This is the lowest I have been able to find. I think they are actually discounting the car by a $1000 or more to get this deal.
It's a 12000 miles/year lease, 57% residual.
I didn't ask about the cost per mile going over the limit because I wouldn't drive more than that anyway.

exBMWowner

If the monthly amount includes sales tax, it sounds like an OK deal. If it does not, it sounds high.

There will definitely be better lease deals out there once the inventory loosens up. The residual sounds higher than I've seen. If you have no interest in buying the car at the end of the lease, then it doesn't really matter. However, if you want to buy the car, the total amount of the purchase plus the lease payments make the total money expended over three years right around $100K. Again, if this is inclusive of taxes, that's not too bad. If taxes are extra, it looks high to me.

EKM

I don't know where a 60% residual on a 3 year lease is considered low, it is about the highest in town...

Anyone looking for the calculator, it is easy:


Example 3 year 12k lease sold at MSRP:

MSRP: $71,000
Residual: $42,600 (current 60% residual)
Depreciation: $28,400 (MSRP- residual)
Monthly Depreciation cost:
$28,400/36 (months of term) = $788.88
Finance cost:
($71,000 + $28,400)x .00265 (current money factor tier 1)= $263.41

Total: $788.88+$263.41=
$1052.29 plus all fees/taxes


As a comparo I checked with a buddy at MB, he quoted me $1400 a month 0 down on an S550 stickered at roughly $98-99K (+ fees and taxes).

Ed

dimapb

Taxes are included in the monthly payment. Like I said in my previous post, this is ithe lowest I have been able to find. I would be surpirsed if anyone finds a much better deal on the lease now.