I’ve been putting a lot of thought into the final 5 cars on my list and decided to scratch out the Acura TL. The car is a fairly common ride in SoCal. I like them like prime rib, medium-RARE, the TL is more like medium-well around these parts. Another reason is the rate hike, making the lease less attractive than it was back in March. So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen Good Night!

Here are the remaining candidates in order of preference:

Infiniti G37 base – I’m working on perhaps getting this at $200 under invoice price…still waiting on some quotes. I’m shooting for around $1350 drive-off (1st payment, tags, bank fee, doc fee, etc…) and $414 a month. This car is stock though, so i don’t get all the fancy technology stuff the Journey offers. Its not to say that this comes poorly equipped, the standard list of features isn’t too bad actually. My main reason for lusting after this ride? the styling and the 330hp V-6 engine, which by the way, gets slightly better MPG than the Mazda CX7’s 4cyl Turbo.

Infiniti G35 Journey – Same as the G37 in terms of pricing. Working on $200 under invoice for ideal price. It should be around the same drive-off, but about $2 less per month (wooo-freaking-hoo), $412.

Mazda CX-7 GT – I like this car so far because its got potential to become a better deal. I know I can probably work it some more and get it under $400 a month with no more than $1000 drive-off. Plus this puppy is fully loaded, with the exception of RES (rear entertainment system), which is fine since I don’t have kids…yet. But everything else is there, including the poor gas mileage.

Afterthoughts

I’m keeping the Accord V6 coupe in the back burner right now…the money factor kills me, but I think if they are willing to sell for invoice it would really help offset the bad rate. This is more like the worst, worst, worst case scenario. It’s a long shot, but it’s still a shot since I really like the overall aspects of this car.

How do they drive you ask? No freaking clue, I haven’t even taken the time to go test drive them, but I am planning to go this coming weekend. It would be a good opportunity to get a feel for what I can get for my trade-in as well. I could probably wait another month to see if the rates improve too, but I’m getting rather antsy…which is not a good thing.