This week's Deal Reviews involve two very different scenarios. One, the reader contacted 15 dealerships to get the best lease payment, the other simply used a leasing app. The point of these deal reviews is to give you a glimpse of real negotiations, see what works and doesn't, and see real offers, contracts, and situations so you can avoid common pitfalls.

If you would like to submit your deals for review, email me at dealreviews@realcartips.com

2023 Hyundai Santa Fe SEL Lease

Location:	New York
MSRP:	$36,394
Lease Terms:	36 month, $0 Down, 12K miles/year
Payment:	$388 per month
Rating:	Great Deal

* Deal does not include taxes and registration fees

How They Got the Deal

Reader was frustrated with dealers, had a hard time getting bids via phone, so they used the RODO app, which is pretty popular in the New York area for lease deals. Having kept a close eye on 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe deals (the 2024 model will be an all-new design, so the 2023 should have good deals), he noticed the lease prices on RODO fluctuated from day to day, so when he finally saw a deal that was under $400/month OTD (Out the door, all taxes and fees included) - he pounced on it.

Here is how RODO calculated the deal:

Gregg's Notes

I always like to figure out the "Bang for Buck (B4B)", which gives me a quick idea how good a lease deal is. Since the RODO numbers include taxes and fees, I had to remove "the DMV and dealer fees" and "Taxes" from the monthly payment in order to get the true B4B. That dropped it from $390 to $319 per month.

Now to get the "Bang for Buck", we simply divide the MSRP by monthly payment, which comes out to 114 - a really excellent lease deal. To put things in perspective, the average B4B of all advertised lease deals is below 80.

Since this reader hadn't gotten any bids directly from dealers, I wanted to make sure this deal was legit, so I called a Hyundai dealer in their region. I wanted to find out what the $2,500 manufacturer incentive was because I couldn't find that information on the Hyundai site. Turns out, it's a Loyalty Bonus, but not an ordinary one. It's only available to current Hyundai leasees with leases coming to an end soon (basically a lease pull-ahead program).

Even though the reader currently leases a Hyundai, he was not actually eligible for this incentive. Sounds like RODO was not aware of that either, they went back and forth with the dealership, but were not able to apply that incentive. Without that incentive, the monthly payment shoots up to $388 per month, with the B4B falling to 93.8 - which is still considered a great lease deal.

Reader ended up not taking the deal since he didn't qualify for the $2,500 incentive. If you have a Hyundai lease coming to an end soon, you should definitely consider a Santa Fe lease, but first make sure you qualify for that loyalty incentive.

2023 Volkswagen ID.4 Pro Lease

Location:	Southern California
MSRP:	$46,173
Lease Terms:	39 month, $0 Down Payment, 7.5K miles per year
Payment:	$314 per month
Rating:	Excellent Deal

* Deal does not include taxes and registration fees

How They Got the Deal

Reader contacted 15 dealers in Southern California, ranging from Santa Barbara, Escondido, Long Beach, and Moreno Valley. Told them he had a budget of $320/month plus $1,500 upfront including tax and everything. He received counter offers ranging from $399 to $475 per month, with due at signing ranging from $1500 to $2800.

Volkswagen McKenna Cerritos was the only one that was close, with an initial offer of $399/month with $1500 Due at signing. They went back and forth from there, negotiating down to $330/month with $1,500 Due at signing including all taxes and fees.

Gregg's Notes

The effective payment on this ID.4 comes out to $314/month with $0 down and $0 due at signing (I removed all taxes and fees - that's the proper way to compare bang for buck across all lease deals). Based on an MSRP of $46,173, the "Bang for Buck" of this lease deal is 147! That's a huge score, anything over 100 is excellent and this blows it out of the water.

The money factor is pretty high, over 6% interest, but the high residual value coupled with tax and hidden rebates is what enables this lease deal to be so good. The lease agreement is also clean, no unnessary add-ons or hidden fees - which is what I like to see.

Volkswagen officially advertises lease deals for this vehicle at $489 per month with zero down, considerably more than what the reader negotiated. The "Bang for Buck" of the advertised lease deals are 96, so the reader is getting 50% more bang for buck on his monthly payment.

It's worth noting, however, the reason the bang for buck is so high is due to the $7,500 tax rebate that gets passed into the lease. Some would argue that's not a fair way to compare with non-EV lease deals. Calculated without the tax credit, the B4B is 91, which is still considered good.