My Take: Bummer! the C-Class money factors went up this month for almost every car except the C350. This means that if you missed out on the C350 the past couple of months, you get another month to renegotiate a better deal. (Last month’s lease rates) Like last month, assuming you are trying to keep your lease payments below $500 a month, the sweet spot on the C350 would be the 48-month lease. Lets have a quick little recap here…
C350 – Black – Premium 2 Package – Panorama Sunroof – AMG 18″ 5-Twin-Spoke Wheels – 6-Disc In-Dash CD Changer – iPod Integration Kit – 48 months/12k miles.
MSRP $44,120
Invoice $41,093
Sale Price $39,120
Residual 47%
Money Factor .00084
Tax Rate 9.25% So Cal Tax (went up 1% for us, lame!)
Monthly $433 (base payment) + $40 (tax) = $473 per month (with inception fees due at signing)
Now, lets say you can’t get the dealer to drop it down to $2k under invoice and only manage about $1k instead (keep in mind that all markets are different). No biggie, your monthly payments would be $454+tax. In my case, it would be around $497, which puts me just shy of $500. Still a solid deal if you ask me. If you choose not to roll in your inception fees, expect to pay around $2000 to cover all the bank/dealer/gov’t/dmv fees + 1st month payment.
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2009 Mercedes C-Class
2009 Mercedes C300 Luxury
24-month | 15k miles | residual 60% | .00200 base money factor
36-month | 15k miles | residual 53% | .00165 base money factor
48-month | 15k miles | residual 45% | .00165 base money factor
2009 Mercedes C300 Luxury 4matic
24-month | 15k miles | residual 60% | .00215 base money factor
36-month | 15k miles | residual 53% | .00125 base money factor
48-month | 15k miles | residual 45% | .00125 base money factor
2009 Mercedes C300 Sport
24-month | 15k miles | residual 60% | .00200 base money factor
36-month | 15k miles | residual 53% | .00165 base money factor
48-month | 15k miles | residual 45% | .00165 base money factor
2009 Mercedes C300 Sport 4matic
24-month | 15k miles | residual 60% | .00215 base money factor
36-month | 15k miles | residual 53% | .00125 base money factor
48-month | 15k miles | residual 45% | .00125 base money factor
2009 Mercedes C350 Sport
24-month | 15k miles | residual 55% | .00089 base money factor
36-month | 15k miles | residual 50% | .00084 base money factor
48-month | 15k miles | residual 45% | .00084 base money factor
2009 Mercedes C63 AMG
24-month | 15k miles | residual 55% | .00430 base money factor
36-month | 15k miles | residual 48% | .00395 base money factor
48-month | 15k miles | residual 44% | .00395 base money factor
My Take: I got a few questions last month regarding the M5 and I wanted to give you guys the news. The money factor stayed the same and the residual value dropped 1% on the 24-month term and stayed the same on the 36-month term. There isn’t any customer cash available this month, but BMWFS is offering 0.9% APR for up to 60 months for those who qualify. If you have considered lease-to-own, you might want to consider buy it. I know it’s going to cost a lot more per month, but you do get to keep the car, which isn’t a bad thing since it IS the M5. As for the rest of the 5-series line up, the residual values have dropped about 2%, with the money factors carrying over from March. That means, higher monthly payments. Oddly enough, April isn’t looking like a good month for the 3-series or the 5-series.
My Take: Much like the MINIs, the Subary Forester has a very low base price, but when you start adding the options, the price starts to skyrocket. What’s great about most Subarus is that the residual values are pretty high, which makes them solid leases. This months rates, which should carry over into the 1st week of April has a sweet spot of 36-months. If you are careful with the options you want, you can have yourself a nice Subaru Forester in the $300s per month range with just inception fees upfront.
My Take: The long-awaited Hyundai Genesis Coupe is here and doesn’t seem to disappoint. The sweet-spot on this lease is the 36-month term. The car has been getting fairly good reviews and dealers seem to be able to sell them, even in this economy. Now, those of you who read about my post on the “LA Auto Show” know I’m not thrilled about the fact that Hyundai pretty much got the Genesis styling by cloning the G37. However, I can’t deny the that the car looks promising performance-wise and it also goes easy on the pocketbook. Not a bad time to jump into the coupe if that’s what you are looking for. The question is, can you get over the “Hyundai” logo on your steering wheel? I think a few laps around the block during your test drive should answer that question.
My Take: Mike, this one is for you…Since we’ve been discussing alternatives to the 3-series, 5-series, C-Class and E-Class, I proposed a couple of choices such as the Acura TL, Audi A6 and Infiniti G37 sedans. However, if those are not to your liking, here are some rates for the M35 I came across, which seems to be getting some decent discounts. It might be worth looking into since Infiniti is offering $2000 loyalty cash on both the 08 and 09 models, plus another $1500 on the 08 model. It’s about the same size as a E-Class and the crash test results came out to be “good” on the government’s