My Take: Here are three decent leases for the month for those who are budget conscious. The Forrester is looking pretty good with a starting lease of $301 and up (at invoice). One drawback is that Subaru has a VERY healthy options list which means it will quickly add up. Just make sure you get what you need and don’t get carried away. The dealer could contribute $700 towards your lease (since they are doing it as part of a special lease program). The Corolla is dirty cheap in my opinion since it’s really a “budget” car. Much cheaper to lease than a Mazda3 I think, but much less exciting to drive too. The Altima is the beefier of the group so it has a steeper price tag. Even so, there’s $750 in rebates available which should drive down the costs a bit. Again, all these estimates are based on stock models, so the more options you add, the pricier it gets. The residual and money factors look pretty good for 36-month leases so they are worth a look before the end of the month.

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• Inception fees (1st month payment, DMV, doc fee, bank fee, tire tax and possible security deposit) will be paid at signing.
• Local Taxes not included.
• 24-month/15k and 36-month/15k terms.
• All cars are stock, without any options.
• Yellow boxes denotes “lowest” lease payments for each car.

2009 Subaru Forester 2.5X Premium
36 Month – Residual 57% of MSRP – .00175 Base Rate

2009 Corolla
36 Month – Residual 59% of MSRP – .00163 Base Rate

2009 Nissan Altima 3.5 SL Sedan
36 Month – Residual 60% of MSRP – .00174 Base Rate

QUICK LINKS:
LEASE CALCULATOR (requires MS Excel)
THE LIST, monthly list of car rankings on monthly payments