Best vehicle to lease under 300/month

[kihun]

ok so we are looking into a car to lease.. I was thinking about Kia optima for 240 a month with no down.. any other options out there?

[Its_lobelt]

They had great deals on the C250 not too long ago. Somewhere around 250 per month with under 1K down.

[RandomHero]

Originally Posted by ROB_S2K

They had great deals on the C250 not too long ago. Somewhere around 250 per month with under 1K down.

Technicallllllly you’re not wrong, but you better look into that a bit further.

On a 7.5k/year 27 month lease assuming you buy 2013 base model, you’re talking about trying to get more than $3000 off. Not going to happen on a base model, sorry.

Now here is something like what you’re probably talking about. It’s basically false advertising.
http://www.leasetrader.com/lease-spe...pe-17866.xhtml
They advertise:
Monthly Payment: $250/month
Money Down: $999
Lease Term: 27 months
Mileage allotment: 7500/year

That sounds pretty good right? BUT…..in the comments they note that it is a “ONE PAY LEASE.” That means you pay the full amount of the lease up front. They also don’t specify if the car has any options.

When you run the numbers on it…
Base MSRP: $36,255 (base+ $905 destination)
Residual: 71%
Money Factor: 0 (you’re paying up front)
Negotiated price: $34,800

You get the bare minimum mileage, a short lease term, a base model, and you have to pay about $8000 out of pocket up front. If you got into a wreck leaving the dealership you’d be out that full amount.

That's about the worst possible situation to get yourself into.

[Nkc]

Very informative

[kihun]

damn screw that.. what else?

[khaye1]

Scion frs @ $296 with $2k at signing?

[RandomHero]

It would help to know a few things:
-Are you looking for any vehicle or a certain type (Sedan, SUV, Coupe, etc)?
-How many miles do you plan to put on the car a year?
-Does your $250 assume putting nothing down?
-Are you factoring in Virginia taxes into that?

My research shows that Virginia has somewhat of a shitty taxation on leased vehicles. It’s not as bad as Texas (6.25% on the full negotiated price), but your effective tax rate looks to be about 3.4% on a $25k car and about 3.8% on a $35k car.

For instance, in Arlington County
First $3k-tax free
$3k-20k- Taxed at 3.5% (30% subsidized)
Anything more than $20k- 5% (0% subsidized)


Let’s see how far $250/month or $9000/total (assuming a 36 month loan) will really get you:
-If that is including taxes that number just dropped to $200-220/month. That leaves you with around $7200-$8000 for the total cost of a 36 month loan.
-Factor in a 3% apr on the lease (.00125 money factor) and that drops it even further. That’s at least another $50-70 right there. It could be as high as $100/month if the money factor goes past .00167 (4% apr)

So already you’re at $80-$120 in just taxes with fairly low financing and you’re not even looking at cars yet.

That leaves you with $130-170/month or $4600-6200 over the life of the lease.
Essentially, you’re going to have to find a vehicle that only depreciates that much from the negotiated price in a 3 year period. That’s going to be damn hard to find. Not impossible, but very hard.

To get a $35k car, you’d need:
At least a 65% residual and at least $6000 off…not going to happen

To get a $30k car you’d need:
At least a 65% residual and at least $4500 off
To get a $25k car you’d need:
At least a 65% residual and $2550 off.

Of note: 65% residual after 3 years is a pretty damn good. That means it only loses its value about 10.5%/year.

So realistically, you should be looking at cars in the <$25k range. Unless you can get a shit load off, you probably won't be able to find anything in the $25k-30k range.

[kmarei]

Have you thought of swaplease and lease trader?
Where you pick up the remainder of someone else's lease?
You can sometimes find someone who put a 3-5K downpayment, and has a cheap monthly payment that wants out of the contract, which you take over
Just make sure you don't get one where he's used up all the miles
And you're gonna foot the bill for the miles over the limit

[kmarei]

http://www.bmwusa.com/standard/conte...regiontypeid=3

[RandomHero]

Originally Posted by kmarei

http://www.bmwusa.com/standard/conte...regiontypeid=3

Not trying to sound like a jerk, but the deals they offer on their website are for suckers. You can negotiate the price of a lease just like you can when you buy. Those "deals" are rarely any good.

$300/month with $2750 down is an effective payment of about $375/month. Add in Virginia state tax to that and his payment will be over $400/month.

EDIT- NEVER put money down on a lease unless you have zero financial sense. If you wreck the car, you'll never see that money again.

[jophish17]

Electric cars

[DougLikesBMW]

Easily a Jetta.

Hands down the best car for $20-22k and the <$300 lease price range.

Pros:
- Looks great for what it is.
- German safety & engineering.
- Great interior.
- Reliable.

Cons:
- Meh driving experience (at least that's how I felt driving my mom's 2013 automatic one. My 2009 manual one was much better)

[kihun]

wow thanks for great information guys! I really appreciate it.
I'm pretty new to leasing a vehicle and I didn't think about tax..
VA is such a pain in the ass for paying annual tax for car.. it's almost 6% in where I live.
Don't you guys think Optima looks pretty nice?

[b0bab0i]

Honda Fit EV lease

$259 a month
Zero down
Unlimited miles
Free charger

Only downside is that the range is 82 miles.

[RandomHero]

Originally Posted by kihun

wow thanks for great information guys! I really appreciate it.
I'm pretty new to leasing a vehicle and I didn't think about tax..
VA is such a pain in the ass for paying annual tax for car.. it's almost 6% in where I live.
Don't you guys think Optima looks pretty nice?

Which county do you live in? When I was doing some research for you yesterday, I found it to be much more reasonable than Texas (which isn’t saying much).
To reiterate:
Leased personal vehicles are eligible for the “Car Tax Relief. Your county will pay for a fair amount of the taxes on a leased vehicle.

It looks to vary by county, but from my research:
Arlington County has a tax rate of 5%
-You pay no tax on first $3000
-You pay 70% of tax on from $3001-$20,000
-You pay 100% of the tax from $20,001-up
Effectively on a $20k+ vehicle, they will pay for $405 of your taxes.
http://www.arlingtonva.us/Department...ReliefAct.aspx

Also, this site is pretty good for getting lease rates on vehicles:
http://www.ridewithg.com/

Also, if you want to pm me your email, I'd be happy to send you a Lease Payment Calculator Excel Spreadsheet I made. All you have to do is plug the number in and it will tell you your monthly payment. It's also broken down by Depreciation, Taxes, and Finance Costs.

EDIT- Again, Virginia still sucks, but look on the bright side,
In Texas you have to pay
$655 more on a $20k vehicle
$780 more on a $30k vehicle
$905 more on a $40k vehicle
$1030 more on a $50k vehicle

That's an extra $18-28 more a month we have to pay in just taxes on a car that we'll only have for 3 years. It makes 24/27 month leases a joke here in Texas.

[mccannable]

Smart car 99/m 999 down. All the gayness you could dream of.

[kits135i]

Originally Posted by kihun

wow thanks for great information guys! I really appreciate it.
I'm pretty new to leasing a vehicle and I didn't think about tax..
VA is such a pain in the ass for paying annual tax for car.. it's almost 6% in where I live.
Don't you guys think Optima looks pretty nice?

My wife bought a Optima. Its pretty damn nice for the money. Unless you get the turbo the drive is kind of boring, but over all its a wonderful car!

[Inspired]

Thanks randomhero. Pretty good explanation.

[kihun]

randomhero you are a random hero for a reason! thanks man.. my girl lives in fairfax county and i live in city of falls church .. i think city of falls church goes into arlington county. optima will be under fairfax county..

[kihun]

So guys, we picked up the car today..

KIA optima EX with all options except for navigation.. I actually love the white and black top look and I think it was a good deal.. no down, 330 / month.. but we did pay a tag and tax at the dealership.. 48 months. not bad right?

[NemesisX]

Originally Posted by kits135i

My wife bought a Optima. Its pretty damn nice for the money. Unless you get the turbo the drive is kind of boring, but over all its a wonderful car!

Yeah I'm pretty impressed with the Optima. It seems to provide great value for the money. That's definitely a car that'll be on my radar in the future.