Lease Calculator 2.0
I know, you are all probably eagerly anticipating December’s lease rates and the best thing I got for you right now is an updated on the Lease Calculator. Well, don’t be too disappointed! The new lease calculator is rather nifty. I added some new fields such as “Sales Tax Paid in Advance”; “Previous Balance” (for those who plan on carrying over some negative equity from their existing vehicles; monthly payment calculations assuming you roll in all fees into the lease; and monthly payment calculations assuming you pay inception fees in advance. Cool huh? I thought so. I based it loosely on my own lease contracts. I still haven’t exactly decyphered their system yet…but it’s only a matter of time.
Lease Rates
Patience…if you haven’t noticed, they usually surface around the 2nd week of each month, while some (Audi) will carry over through a good portion of this month since they just released last week.
Buying
It is a good time to buy since we’re looking at year end right now. 2008 model clearance is on! You waited all year long to buy a car, this is as good a time as any. Lot of “Winter” promotions with low APR going on right now. I said it before and I will say it again, no lease will beat 0% financing. If you are looking to lease a car that offers 0% financing, consider buying it. Specially since a lot of those 0% financing deals are for 60 month terms.
Auto Industry and the Economy
GM builds 4 similar SUVs (Acadia, Enclave, Outlook, Traverse) across 4 different brands…WHY!?!?! Need I say more? If they can’t learn to manage their company, they don’t deserve a bailout. That’s what I mean. I hear a lot of the “if the gov’t isn’t going to bail us out, the economy will end fall into a depression, etc…” That may be true, but that’s a half truth. It sounds more like someone is trying to save their own skin.
Downtime
I will be away on vacation starting Christmas until January 10th. That means I will be MIA for approximately two weeks, most likely with limited internet access. Hopefully you can all survive without me for that time period. 
G-
Thanks for all you do! I used your lease info in my last lease and it really boosted my confidence with the dealer! Got a ‘08 4dr Altima back in April with EVERY option MSRP $33K, 18k miles/year, 36 lease for $375/month + tax!
DP
WoW not bad at all! Congrats dp!!! Good deal since its fully loaded and 18k miles a year to boot! I’m glad you made great use of the site! Kinda happy that people can take good advantage of my research and same money. Congrats again!! Thanks for visiting the site!
Great site. With the historic plummeting of used car values, leasing at this time makes good sense. Even zero % financing won’t help if you want a new car every 3-4 years. My 09 murano at auction is already at the depreciation number and I hve 34.5 months to go on the lease. Feeling happy and smug. The real depreciation was way higher than nissan figured.
Thanks DZ! You have a point regarding depreciation. This is specially the case if you don’t have plans to keep your vehicle in the long term. If you plan on getting a car every 3-4 years, 0% financing won’t really save you that much money in the short run. The only way to really benefit from 0% financing is to keep your car for 6+ years.
Visited a website — vipautony.com seems like pretty competitive operation. Heard anything about them. Are these 3rd party leasing companies a viable alternative to leasing through the manufacturer/dealer? Thanks
i have actually never heard of them, must be a local operation. In any case, 3rd party leasing companies need to use banks regardless. Sometimes, they are good alternatives, sometimes they aren’t. You just need to make sure you check the terms. Is it a closed-end lease? Disposition fees? GAP coverages? etc…those are very important questions to ask regardless of who you lease from.
Ever heard of payless auto leasing? What about swapalease?
Never heard of payless. But I have heard of swapalease. That one is a good way to get off leases. I haven’t heard any horror stories about them, so I guess that’s good news.