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What’s Going On – Late January 2010

Yup folks, I am officially back! As you know, I’ve been away on vacation since the New Year began. The Southern Hemisphere was warm and toasty, which was a welcome break from Wintertime up here in the US. In any case, a lot went on while I was away, so let’s begin with what matters…

Lease Rates

I will be skipping the January lease rates because for the following reasons:

  • We are already in the last couple weeks of the month so it’s somewhat pointless to spend all that time research and posting information you can only use for a week and a half.
  • Since my return, I’ve been pretty swamped with work and the jet-lag hasn’t helped.

However, the last and most important reason for doing this is because…

  • Tarry Shebesta, the boss of ACS and LeaseCompare requested that I stop posting the rates he posts on many online forums.

As some of you know, the bulk of MB, BMW, Audi and Porsche numbers found online comes from him, so I had little choice but to follow through with his request. However, there’s some good news to all of this! After a few emails exchanges, Tarry has agreed to allow me  to redistribute his numbers as long as reference links are in place.  Special Kudos to Tarry and LeaseCompare for making this happen since I think this would be a win-win situation for everyone.

My Vacation

I got back from Uruguay Saturday morning and I have been dealing with work, emails, a mild case of jetlag and a three-day birthday celebration. LOL. So my apologies for not updating the site these past few days. You’d be happy to know that during my vacation, I ate a lot, slept a lot and walked a lot. The auto scene in Uruguay is sharply different than here in the US. Public transportation is the primary form of transportation there, however you still see many cars on the road (primarily Taxis). The majority of those cars there are compact models from Fiat, Renault, Peugeot and Citroën. Of course, you will still find the occasional Hyundais, Fords, GMs, Dodges, as well as some Chinese brands such as Cherry.  Above this post, you will see a 3-door hatchback version of the Audi A3 which I thought it was pretty sharp. I also saw hatchback versions of the BMW 1-series as well. Personally, I would love to see both of those models brought over to the States. Leasing is non-existent in this country because most people get cars the old-fashioned way, they buy them.

hatchback BMW 1-series

hatchback BMW 1-series

Fiat, please do not bring this to the US as a rebadged Dodge or Chrysler

Fiat, please do not bring this to the US as a re-badged Dodge or Chrysler

I may not know what these cars are, but I do know they are small

I may not know what these cars are, but I do know they are small

Looking Ahead

As stated previously, based on what’s been going on recently, I thought it would be more “time efficient” to wait until February to resume posting lease rates instead. I hope this doesn’t disappoint many of you. I did get an email from John Milly regarding a Lexus IS250 for his wife. It looked like a decent offer so I thought I would share some of the details…

2010 LEXUS IS250
– Auto, RWD
– MSRP = $38,600 (includes $4,410 package and $875 delivery)
– Sale Price = $33,947
– Buy Rate = 0.00200
– Residual = 62%
– Customer Cash = $986.23
– TOTAL MONTHLY PAYMENT = $415.02 + Tax

Buy Rate was a bit higher than I personally prefer, but the residual and sale price discount more than made up for it.

I also have a couple rides (a 335i from iwc5002 and a 135 from MWGuy) to post on the Wall, so stay tuned for those!