When Lexus does its "December to Remember" promo, how much is it going to help on lease pricing on something like the LS460L?

If I waited until next year at model changeover time, would pricing get much better, and if so, by roughly how much? And would those deals appear starting in July or Aug or Sep or when?

Thanks.

 

december to remember starts on thanksgiving i believe. it's hard to say how much better it will get, but lease rate would usually be more favorable. it's another week away, better wait imho

 

Not sure what they are going to offer. One of the salesman I dealt with said unlike other years, they tend to offer 0% interest on left-over 2007 models to employees but he has gotten no news of this type this year. When I purchased my now sold LS430 in August of 2003, LFS offered customers 1.99% financing but that was when the prime interest rate were pretty low.

I went with my Credit Union and got 5.45% (84 months- No I do not plan to let it run the whole term) late October which no one could touch as far as my research showed.

I hope I didn't pull the trigger too soon on a left over 2007 but I am impulsive.

 

You can get super deals now if you do your homework 6000+ off on 2008s

 

prices off car is one thing, but the lease rates that's fixed nationally, and it's lower during the event

 

I haven't leased before, but may with this one (basically because if I get the LS460L it will be for the short term, as I would rather have AWD).

So please excuse my ignorant question:

Are you saying that if I negotiated identical cash purchase prices at 2 different dealers, let's say 73k for instance on an 80k msrp car, and then decided to lease, the dealers would have no flexibility, and would end up offering the exact same lease terms, based on the identical negotiated cash purchase price?

Or are you saying that I can't negotiate a lease price period, that for a given msrp car, I'll get the exact same lease deal from any dealer? That I don't even need to bother negotiating a cash purchase price if I lease, because the lease deal is fixed relative to msrp?

 

ok, let me clarify a bit. the lease rates, meaning the residual and money factor, are decided by lexus / LFS (lexus financial services), and it's national terms. it's not up for any negotiations, and dealerships can't do anything about it

however, the price of the car (the 73k you mentioned for example), called the cap cost, is flexible, obviously, according to your negotiations with the dealership

so let's just make it simple example. assume december to remember starts on 11/22, and your price of the car is 73k regardless of what time you purchase the car (11/21 or 11/22), and the msrp is 80k.

let's say on 11/21, the residual and money factor is set at 50% and 0.00280. but on 11/22, lexus can change the residual to 49% and money factor to say 0.0020. if you do the math, it'd be likely that your payment would be less if you lease the car on 11/22

 

i just did the math

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/cgi-bin/lease.asp

using the above example, 7.75% tax, 3 yr lease
11/21 would get you lease payment of 1328.63
11/22 would get you lease payment of 1253.44

hope this is clear

 

Thank you very much, Rominl!

 

Another question, though....in the example we are using, should I assume basically zero down payment / cap cost reduction? In other words can I negotiate a cash purchase price (telling the dealer I'm not sure yet whether I'll buy or lease) and then after I get the price to where I think I can, tell him I want a lease....would there automatically be zero down payment / cap cost reduction, and just a security deposit and first month's payment due?

Thank you again.

 

correct, i used 0 down. it doesn't make any sense to put in down payment to reduce cap cost imho. and it's always a good idea NOT to tell dealership whether you are going to use cash, finance, or lease. this gives them better ways to trick you. negotiate on the price first, then move on to payment methods.

with zero down, you actually really just pay the first month and license and fees and that's your drive off.

another way (on top of december blah blah blah) to reduce your payment is to use MSD (multiple security deposits). basically you put down up to 9 monthly payments as deposits, and each deposit brings down your money factor by certain value. it usually helps to reduce your payments quite a bit. and you get all your deposit back after the lease.

(i am getting closer and closer to be a finance manager...)

 

Thanks again! BTW are dealers set up to allow automatic billing of lease payments to a credit card? Or would they charge extra for that? Just thinking of getting those airline miles.

 

i asked before and i don't think you can use cc to pay for the car payments. please do let us know if it could be done somehow, i'd love to do that

 

I will ask when I get that far. My guess is that if they can do it, it will cost extra, since Visa/MC/Amex charge merchants substantial fees. If they don't do it for a reasonable cost, or free, I'll see if they can do direct transfers from my bank. At least that would keep me from messing up by forgetting to make a payment, and hurting my credit rating.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that the money factor is affected by your credit score. Approx(not exactly sure) 820 will qualify you for the Best rate
At LFS.

Also, while the dealer cannot lower the national rate, they can INCREASE it.

Example, I just leased a 2008 ls460 and got a.00275 factor. Dealer could have charged .00375 or such. Make sure they show you the factor.(This can be like pulling teeth.)

You can put up to nine MSD(multiple security deposits). This reduces the factor by .00007 each, so total up to .00063 reduction.

Also unlike a down payment, the money is yours if you should wreck the car and the insurance doesn't cover it.

I also selected 30000 miles/yr, 3 year lease. This can also affect the factor.
Higher payments, but lower residual at end of lease, as I will buy the car then.

Discuss all this with their leasing manager. He will have more info than the limited knowledge I have, especially about the MSD.

Alan