My Take: Low money factor alert! SLK300 MF is so cheap, they are practically giving it away. Seriously! You can do a 10k mile lease and boost your residual for 36 month to about 49%, and you are basically paying a few bucks every month on interest charges. This is also a pretty good Lease-to-Buy car too. Just go for the 10k lease over 48 months and pay off the car at lease end. Oh did I mention the $5,000 lease cash? Ahh yes! This beats out the Z4 AND the TT easily. So Cal residents can contact Aaron, all other can use Yahoo Autos to get quotes from your local dealers.
Check out the new LIST for the recommended leases of the month.
2009 Mercedes SLK
2009 Mercedes SLK300
24-month | 15k miles | residual 49% | .00023 base money factor
36-month | 15k miles | residual 46% | .00006 base money factor
48-month | 15k miles | residual 37% | .00006 base money factor
60-month | 15k miles | residual 31% | .00395 base money factor
2009 Mercedes SLK350
24-month | 15k miles | residual 51% | .00092 base money factor
36-month | 15k miles | residual 48% | .00054 base money factor
48-month | 15k miles | residual 39% | .00054 base money factor
60-month | 15k miles | residual 32% | .00395 base money factor
2009 Mercedes SLK55 AMG
24-month | 15k miles | residual 47% | .00430 base money factor
36-month | 15k miles | residual 45% | .00395 base money factor
48-month | 15k miles | residual 35% | .00395 base money factor
60-month | 15k miles | residual 32% | .00395 base money factor
My Take: Good news, the money factor on the G37 Journey coupe is actually LOWER than I originally thought! .00176! The residual is what I originally reported on my Saturday post, 58% at 36mo/15k miles per year. Cool huh? That means the payments are even less than anticipated. Look for the coupe and the sedan on THE LIST this month. Folks in Nevada and Arizona may want to consider coming out to So Cal for your cars. From what I understand, the dealer doc fee in those states are not regulated, which means dealers can charge you whatever they want. I’ve seen doc fees as high as $600 in those states! In CA, it’s capped at $45 for leases, $55 for purchases. If you decide to make this a weekend trip, I can suggest a few places to visit while you are here. Anyway, if you are within reasonable distance, hit up 
My Take: Skip the X3, skip the X5 3.0 , X5 diesel and X6 3.5. Stick with the X5 4.8 and the X6 5.0 because that’s the better value. Sure, its more expensive, but residuals are high and the money factors are reasonable. Don’t forget the MSDs! I’m am really surprised that most people still opt to put money down instead of opting for “multiple security deposit” when it comes to expensive cars. You really should consider that instead of putting money towards cap reduction because it will save you money in the long run. With security deposits, you will save in finance charges AND you get your money back at lease end. That is not the case when you put money down. Sure, your payments will be significantly lower, but that $3500 is pretty much gone for good. I know using $3500* towards security deposits seems stupid since you lock that in for about 36 months, but lowering your interest rate from 3.9% down to 2.9% on a 20,000+ loan will give you a better return than putting that $3500* in a 1.5% interest baring account. I’m a bit pressed for time so I can’t break it down for you financially, so just take my word for it.
My Take: There is some improvement on the TT lease rates, but nothing that can beat the Z4 at this point. The residual is lower than the Z4 and the money factor is higher. Considering they priced around the same ballpark, you will more than likely pay more on the TT than on the Z4. Move on…