Honda

June 2008 Lease Rate for 08 Honda Odyssey

Published by G

Odyssey EX-L
36mo/12k – money factor .00077 – residual 56%
36mo/15k – money factor .00077 – residual 54%

Odyssey Touring
36mo/12k – money factor .00077 – residual 54%
36mo/15k – money factor .00077 – residual 52%

My Take: As I type this, the Odyssey commercial is on TV. How funny. Anyway, the Odyssey is by far the best minivan on the market. That is my personal opinion of course. I think the money factor is excellent right now and the residual, like all Honda’s is very good. Look to net a nice EX-L model for under $400 a month and $1000 or less at signing. If you need a family hauler and don’t want to resort to the Yukon and its “excellent” MPG, the Odyssey is worth your attention.

June 2008 Lease Rate for 08 Honda Accord EX-L

Published by G

2008 Honda Accord Sedan EX-L
36mo/12k – residual 60% – money factor .00200

2008 Honda Accord Coupe EX-L w/Nav
24mo/12k – residual 64% – money factor .00350
36mo/12k – residual 55% – money factor .00250
48mo/12k – residual 46% – money factor .00235

My Take: If had to pick between the TSX and the Accord, I’d go with the TSX. Longer warranty and sportier. In all honesty, the new Accord Sedans are ugly to me. They borrow too much from the BMW 5-series in terms of it’s styling, which is very unoriginal. The lease looks alright for the month. Residual value remains strong and the money factor is a tad lower than their standard rate (as seen on the coupe). If you need a fuel efficient car with room for 5 adults, this is your ride.

June 2008 Lease Rate for 08 Honda Accord Coupe EX-L V6

Published by G

Accord Coupe Ex-L V6 w/ Nav
36mo/12k – money factor .00250 – residual 57%

Accord Coupe Ex-L V6 w/o Nav
 36mo/12k – money factor .00250 – residual 55%

My Take: Unless you love integrated Navigation, I personally don’t think it’s worth leasing a car with one. Not only you pay for the “inflated costs” of having one installed into your car, but you also get nailed by a lower residual, making it that much more expensive. I suspect that part of the reason why a car with Navi has lower residual is because technology depreciates pretty fast. Think about it, your 3-yr old PC probably isn’t holding up too well right now compared to the new ones, right? I always laugh at people when they say that their cars are investments, specially the ones with Navi. LOL!

FREE $50 Gas Voucher with Test Drive this Memorial Weekend

Published by G

I recently received an email from Norm Reeves Honda in Cerritos, CA. If you are in the neighborhood and want to test drive a Honda this weekend, head over to Norm Reeves. They will be giving out $50 gas vouchers for people who test drive their cars. The gas vouchers will be mailed to you (basically want your contact info in exchange for it) afterwards. They will also have some BBQ all weekend long, in case you get hungry during your test drive.

Word of caution: Obviously, this a marketing gimmick to get you on the dealership floor and let their sales guys work you. It is typically a BAD IDEA to go buy or lease a car during “sales events”. My recommendation is to go there to sign up for the voucher, drive their car, maybe grab a hot dog or hamburger and go do something else (Cerritos Mall is on the other side of the freeway, so maybe you can go roam there afterwards). Unless you REALLY are looking for a car and you are getting invoice price, an awesome MF, residual and low fees, DON’T GET YOUR CAR THIS WEEKEND! You’ve been warned.

This offer is valid until May 26th, 2008.

May 2008 Lease Rate for 08 Honda CR-V

Published by G

EX AWD
36mo/12k – residual 63% – money factor .00235
36mo/15k – residual 61% – money factor .00235

EX-L AWD
36mo/12k – residual 62% – money factor .00235
36mo/15k – residual 60% – money factor .00235

*security deposit may be required

My Take: The residual value seems to help offset the high money factor in this case. This is a nice compact SUV that gives pretty decent gas mileage. The rims on the “cheaper” version of this car are very unattractive if you ask me. The EX-L’s rims are FAR better looking, so if you can afford this model, do it. My cousin’s girlfriend recently purchased this vehicle and got a nice sale price of approximately $24500 + tax and licenses. Not bad considering it’s MSRP is in the $29,000s.

May 2008 Lease Rates for Honda Civic

Published by G

Civic Coupe EX
36mo/12k – residual 60% – money factor .00165
36mo/15k – residual 58% – money factor .00165

*security deposit may be required.

My Take: The Civic is a solid performer in terms of fuel economy and performance. It’s styling may not be for everyone, but it’s a Honda, so you know they are good cars and fairly reliable. I personally like them, but I would opt for the Si since I like my cars a bit peppier.

And then there were three (maybe four)

Published by G

I’ve been putting a lot of thought into the final 5 cars on my list and decided to scratch out the Acura TL. The car is a fairly common ride in SoCal. I like them like prime rib, medium-RARE, the TL is more like medium-well around these parts. Another reason is the rate hike, making the lease less attractive than it was back in March. So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen Good Night!

Here are the remaining candidates in order of preference:

Infiniti G37 base – I’m working on perhaps getting this at $200 under invoice price…still waiting on some quotes. I’m shooting for around $1350 drive-off (1st payment, tags, bank fee, doc fee, etc…) and $414 a month. This car is stock though, so i don’t get all the fancy technology stuff the Journey offers. Its not to say that this comes poorly equipped, the standard list of features isn’t too bad actually. My main reason for lusting after this ride? the styling and the 330hp V-6 engine, which by the way, gets slightly better MPG than the Mazda CX7’s 4cyl Turbo.

Infiniti G35 Journey – Same as the G37 in terms of pricing. Working on $200 under invoice for ideal price. It should be around the same drive-off, but about $2 less per month (wooo-freaking-hoo), $412.

Mazda CX-7 GT – I like this car so far because its got potential to become a better deal. I know I can probably work it some more and get it under $400 a month with no more than $1000 drive-off. Plus this puppy is fully loaded, with the exception of RES (rear entertainment system), which is fine since I don’t have kids…yet. But everything else is there, including the poor gas mileage.

Afterthoughts

I’m keeping the Accord V6 coupe in the back burner right now…the money factor kills me, but I think if they are willing to sell for invoice it would really help offset the bad rate. This is more like the worst, worst, worst case scenario. It’s a long shot, but it’s still a shot since I really like the overall aspects of this car.

How do they drive you ask? No freaking clue, I haven’t even taken the time to go test drive them, but I am planning to go this coming weekend. It would be a good opportunity to get a feel for what I can get for my trade-in as well. I could probably wait another month to see if the rates improve too, but I’m getting rather antsy…which is not a good thing.

New Quotes Are In. The List Narrows.

Published by G

First things first. I got quotes for the Mazda CX-7 GT and the Honda Accord V6 Coupe. Here is the quick breakdown:

CX-7 GT FWD

Term- 36mo/12k miles/yr
MSRP – $31,740
Cap Cost- $29,064 ($30 bucks over invoice, nice)
Residual- 54%
MF- 0.00094
Other- $750 rebate (altho I’m now told is $700, fiiiisshhhy)

Honda Accord V6 Coupe

Term- 36mo/12k miles/yr
MSRP- $28,945
Cap Cost- $26970 ($700 over invoice, I think they could do better, this ain’t no BMW after all)
Residual- 58%
MF- 0.00245 (5.88%, oh that hurts so bad)

You can see the drive-off and the monthly numbers on the “Recent Quotes” panel on the right hand side of this page.

My thoughts…I would have pulled off the deal for the Accord Coupe TODAY if the MF was lower (around 2-2.5%) and if they would get a bit closer to invoice (maybe no more than $200 over). But alas, you can’t have it all and I have no intention to negotiate at the moment. The thing is, even if I pushed for invoice on the Accord, I’d still be paying $399 after taxes. The Acura TL is still looking mighty fine right about now.

As far as narrowing the list, I’ve canned the Lexus IS250 because all local Lexus dealer sites don’t show inventory online, so I can’t get a “realistic” quote for a specific car they have on their lot. Plus, its sorta underpowered in my opinion.

My goal is to get the best ride for $400 a month after tax. Right now, pretty much all quotes I’ve gotten, except for the TL, are WAY over. I got some wiggle room though, I don’t need a 12k mile lease, I can do 10k since I live pretty close to work (12 mile round trip), I am willing to pay all fees upfront (1st month, tags, doc, bank fee, tires, etc…) as long as it doesn’t exceed $1200. So with a little help from the Money Factor and Residual faeries, I think I can pull this off.

Who’s In:
G37
G35
TL
Accord Cpe (still in, for now, I really dig the looks)
CX-7 GT (I might opt for the Touring or Sport to cut costs if necessary)
Who’s Out:
G8
IS250
Altima Cpe
Camry SE

The Infiniti EX35 looks sort of lease worth right now, so I might inquire about it.
Stay tuned!