How to Get the Most Competitive Lease Quotes
Getting the best lease deal is very similar to getting the best car deal. Your main objective is to get dealers to compete and provide you with an apples to apples comparison on the lease rates and terms.
The first step in getting the best lease deal is to negotiate the price of the car first.
In a lease, this is called the Capitalized Cost and it's very important that you negotiate this as aggressively as you would if you were buying the car.
The biggest portion of your lease payment goes toward paying off the depreciation cost, which is the price of the car minus what the car is worth at the end of the lease. The lower you negotiate the price, the lower your depreciation cost.
Dealers will try to tell you that the price of the car doesn't matter - that couldn't be further from the truth.
Use our step-by-step car buying guide which will teach you how to get multiple, competitive bids for the car of your choice.
Once you get the lowest prices from multiple dealers, you need to go back and let them know you'd like to lease the vehicle for 36 months (or whatever your preference) with no-money down at the negotiated price they quoted. You will need to ask for the following rates from each dealer:
- Residual Value
- Money Factor
- Adjusted Capitalized Cost
- Acquisition Fee
- Disposition Fee
- Security Deposit
- Any other Fees
- Final Monthly Lease Payment
When you're done, you should know what your monthly lease payment will be and how much you will have to pay up-front. You can then shop this rate to the other dealers and see if anyone can beat your best deal.
This technique works even when there are special subsidized leases being offered by the manufacturer. In this case, dealers will offer the same lease terms (residual, money factor, etc), however - the negotiated prices will be different which will affect your final lease payment and likely get you an even better deal than the advertised lease deal.
3 Steps Every Car Buyer Needs to Take to Save Maximum Money
The key to getting the best deal is to gather price or lease bids from as many local dealers as possible. Then shop that best price around until no one can beat it. Here are the steps:Step 1 Get Prices From My Trusted Network
Select the vehicle you're interested in to see if there are local dealers in my network who will provide you with their best upfront price. You will get direct access to an internet sales manager who you can further negotiate with online (no need to visit dealership).Step 2 Get Prices From TrueCar / CarsDirect
TrueCar, and CarsDirect are my top 2 online price quote recommendations. These services show you pre-negotiated prices from dealers closest to you - and the deals are usually pretty decent. But remember, you can still negotiate further.Step 3 Complete my Checklist
Follow this up with my checklist to make sure you squeeze out every last bit of savings.- Gregg Fidan
Each week, I'll keep you up-to-date on the latest car deals and news that might affect your purchase. This includes...
- Best Rebates, Incentives, and Lease Deals
- Latest Car Buying Scams and Tricks
- The Best & Worst Time to Buy a Car
- Which Cars You Should Avoid
About The Author
Gregg Fidan is the founder of RealCarTips. After being ripped off on his first car purchase, he devoted several years to figuring out the best ways to avoid scams and negotiate
the best car deals. He has written hundreds of articles on the subject of car buying and taught thousands of car shoppers how to get the best deals.
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