Author: G

Honda Nationwide Lease Deals. Expires 4/30/08

Published by G

I make it a morning ritual to visit all the car websites I have bookmarked to see what’s going on in the out automotive world. In this case, Autonation is reminding us about the Honda Spring Sales Event, you know, those commercials with the guy that pulls up his truck at a wedding, or while two people are camping, etc…So I quickly browse through the list of “incentives” for the whole entire Honda line up. Some look promising, others not so much. I’ll briefly mention the ones I think are worth “looking” into. Keep a couple of things in mind though, read the fine print. You CAN get better rates, so you CAN get a better deal than advertised. I don’t have the “connections” with Honda dealers, so I won’t be able to provide you with MFs. However, the residuals are fairly easy to figure out when you read the fine print.

2008 Accord Sedan LX Featured Special Lease
$219.00 per month for 36 months. $2,599.00 total due at signing.

2008 Accord Sedan EX Featured Special Lease
$239.00 per month for 36 months. $2,899.00 total due at signing.

2008 Civic Coupe LX Featured Special Lease
$199.00 per month for 36 months. $1,999.00 total due at signing.

2008 Civic Sedan LX Featured Special Lease
$199.00 per month for 36 months. $1,999.00 total due at signing.

2008 Element 2WD LX Featured Special Lease
$189.00 per month for 48 months. $2,399.00 total due at signing.

2008 Odyssey LX Featured Special Lease
$259.00 per month for 36 months. $2,499.00 total due at signing.

2008 Pilot 4WD VP Featured Standard Lease
$279.00 per month for 36 months. $2,999.00 total due at signing.

2008 Ridgeline RT Featured Special Lease
$269.00 per month for 36 months. $1,999.00 total due at signing.

2008 Ridgeline RTX Featured Special Lease
$279.00 per month for 36 months. $1,999.00 total due at signing.

Based on these “general” incentives, I would say that if you can keep the monthly payment the same and keep the drive-off at or below $999, you got yourself a fairly decent deal. Go below that then maybe you should be writing my blog. Haahaa.

The Lease Down Payment Dilemma

Published by G

4/24/2008

So I received an email from a reader explaining the whole down payment dilemma in a very detailed and extremely convincing manner. It has, changed my view of down payments. I’m not saying I’d put down a large down payment, but if you got it, why not, specially if the interest is high on the vehicle you plan on leasing. Also, I do recommend everyone to call their insurance agents and find out how their policies treat leases.

So here are excerpts of the email sent by Damien from D.C.

“So I called my insurance company, Geico, and asked them about it. They report that their payout for a claim doesn’t rely on how the car was financed. That is, if they determine it is a $27k payout and residual value is $20k and you owe nothing, then you would get your $7k in cold hard cash.

I think what you are giving up is the GAP protection. In our example, you lost $3k. That would be the maximum you could lose, because there are no remaining lease payments and therefore there is no gap to protect.

Look at the other direction, where you pay $1000 to drive off the lot. In this case, your remaining lease payments are around $11k. The residual + the remaining lease payments is $29k, and the insurance company pays off $27k. This leaves a $2k gap, which the lease (if it includes GAP protection) would cover. In this case you only lost $1k, not $3k.

So it is a gamble, but not for the down payment amount. The gamble is for the gap, or depreciation. The depreciation is the highest when you drive off the lot, and should be $0 after your last lease payment.”

There you have it folks, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Props to Damien for this insightful email.
Now I gotta call my insurance agent tomorrow 😛

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Lately, I have been putting a lot of thought into the down payment. Generally, I don’t advise people to put down a lot for their initial drive off costs since in the event the car is stolen/totalled, you will lose all that is put towards the car. That typically happens because GAP coverage from either your insurance or the leasing bank only covers your remaining payments. However, I have been analyzing the financial effect of paying a down payment and it makes a lot of sense (assuming you never get your car stolen or totalled). Take this for instance, lets say I want to lease a vehicle that at a cap cost of $30,000. The residual value is $18,000 (60%) after 36 months This would mean your depreciation fee you are paying is 12,000, which you will finance at a rate of say .00101 or 2.42%, then of course, you pay your sales tax every month. Now lets say you put down 10,000 dollars, lowering your cap cost to $20,000, which makes your effective depreciation fee $2,000. This pretty means that you are being charged interest and sales tax on $2,000 versus $12,000, saving you a bunch over time.

Of course all of this comes at a risk. Get the car stolen or totalled in an accident, you lose the $10,000 in a flash. So, are you the gambling type?

2009 Infiniti FX Arrives June 2008

Published by G

Thanks to the folks at Dieselstation.com for the information and awesome high-res pics. Apparently, shipments of the redesigned 2009 FX will be arriving to showrooms this summer. This only means one thing when it comes to auto leasing, FIRE SALE BABY!!! Well, maybe not to that extreme, but I expect some incentives to roll our way between the next few months and the end of the year for all remaining 2008 models. This seems like standard practice anyway; Look at Acura and what they are doing with their 08 TL and TSX!

A quick inventory lookup on Autonation for my local area pulls up 54 FX35s and 2 FX45s. I’m guessing the FX45s don’t sell very well due to our gas prices being $4 + per gallon. Plus how many really NEED AWD in Southern California. Really.

April 2008 Lease Rate for 08 Pontiac G8 GT

Published by G

Based on the numbers quoted, I was able to do some reverse math and find out the money factor GM charges.

39mo/12k miles/yr – residual 53% – money factor .00276

This is by no means exact. Also this is taking in consideration a $500 rebate GM offers to non-GM owners. There is an extra $500 you can get if you are a current GM customer. Making it a grand total of $1000.

The dealer didn’t provide me with any discounts off MSRP (on top of the rebate). Of course, I never asked. I simply figured that they wouldn’t since the car was just released and its in limited quantities. I also didn’t feel like haggling since I had no intention of making an immediate purchase.

The lesson here is this, you can get WAY better lease deals from imports. If you have to have American, GM in particular, buy it, don’t lease it.

Eye-Balling the 08 Pontiac G8

Published by G

In my quest to find my next lease, I had initially narrowed it down to the following cars:

  1. Infiniti G37
  2. Infiniti G35
  3. Honda Accord V6 Coupe
  4. Mazda CX-7 GT
  5. Toyota Camry V6 SE
  6. Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe
  7. Lexus IS250*

Then, I thought to my self, the Lexus IS250 is kinda nice, although sort of underpowered compared to the other cars I have on my list. Since I figured that the refinement of the IS would make up for the lack of power, I added it into “The List”. Now, I’m thinking of adding another car, the Pontiac G8 GT.

Last Thursday, after I got off work, I noticed a pitch black sedan roaring down the street. As it passes me, I thought to myself…is that the Pontiac G8?? After a double-take, I realized it was. Not just any G8, it was the GT with its 6.0 liter V8 packing a whopping 361 ponies under its dual-vented hood. That is one sexy/muscular car I thought…I could see myself in it.

So today, I shoot over an email to my nearest GM dealer to see what kind of deal they got. Well, they only got two. A Panther Black GT and a nasty Orange. The price quoted was $1000 under MSRP, and that is IF you are a current GM customer so you can get the rebate. I don’t know about you, but last time I checked, not that many people where GM customers. I haven’t been one since 1992. Then again, I wasn’t really the customer, it was my sister’s car.

So whats my take on the G8? Its a nice car obviously. I wouldn’t mind getting my greedy hands on it. The raw power itself makes it very enticing. The G8 is based on Australia’s Holden Commodore, so its not exactly BRAND NEW, so hopefully, we won’t need to be GM’s guinea pigs. For 31-32k this car is a deal, even if you pay sticker for it, but I wanna save money and paying MSRP for a car is never “saving” money. My recommendation is to wait it out, the car might not sell very well for all we know. I just hope, for their sake, they are willing to go closer to invoice and introduce more attractive lease rates by July. Otherwise, no American car for me.