Be prepared, there will be any number of assorted fees involved with an automobile lease costs.
A security deposit equal to one month’s payment which is refundable will probably be required.
Also, there will often times be an acquisition fee involved, which is a sort of administration and processing fee.
Also, a disposition fee may be charged, which is a fee for reconditioning the vehicle at the end of the lease to get it ready for resale. Most all fees included in car leasing can be negotiated. Stay firm and and you can save yourself yourself additional money on your car lease costs.
More often than not the primary reason people look at car leasing is they are monthly payment driven. If this indeed the primary factor you may be considering a lease, it is a must that you research various car’s residual values.
Remember the higher the residual value of a car the lower the monthly payments will be.
A very important note and factoid to keep in mind here as you look at your various car buying options; whether you lease, take out a loan, or pay cash, let’s not forget the dealer’s primary objective here is to sell you a car.
So, if you lease, the dealer is selling the car to a finance company. If you pay cash for your car, the dealer sells the car to you. If you finance the car (take out a loan), the dealer sells the car to you with the financing institution holding the lien and the title.
Regardless of which option you choose, the dealer is still selling the car. O.K…… I didn’t see the light bulb go off yet… I’ll give it another go….
- The dealer is selling the car, therefore the car has a selling price.
- The selling price affects your monthly payments and the overall cost of ownership.
- Car selling prices can and should be negotiated upon.
Make absolutely certain you know exactly what the selling price of the car is when considering leasing the car.
Do not accept the terms of the lease based solely on monthly payments. The dealer may be including items in the selling price of the car that you don’t have to pay for, or worse yet may never receive!
Check for add-on’s such as fabric guard, paint sealant, pin striping, rust proofing, etc.
If you lease just because you got real happy about those monthly payment figures that were presented to you, you may have just leased (paid for) much more than you should have. And to top it off, these dealer ad-on’s do nothing to increase the car’s future value.
Remember just about any of the pieces of leasing an automobile are negotiable. If it’s a number….. it’s probably negotiable.
But you gotta stay firm and don’t take no it isn’t for an answer. If the dealer wants to sell you that car, and you hold tough…. you’ll see.
Scrutinize and negotiate every number in the costs associated with the lease.
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