OK, I will put the spreadsheet online tonight and give a URL here.

Craig

 

OK, here's my spreadsheet:

http://members.cox.net/craig.hunter/s2k-lease.xls

Some notes:

1) I have a sheet with the baseline Honda deal (no taxes) and the deal I got (lower negotiated car price, but adds sales tax on).

2) The way the spreadsheet works -- you can change the numbers at the top to reflect your situation. Adjust the monthly payment until the money factor (below) comes out to 0.000729. This means that everything is in agreement (0.000729 is the MF Honda is using in the special offer) and that monthly payment is correct.

3) there is a slight difference here compared to Honda's terms online. According to their terms, they lump the $596 acquisition fee into the upfront cost. However, the dealer paperwork I got shows this to be lumped into the monthly payment, so I adjusted my spreadsheet to reflect that. Thus, my spreadsheet computes a lower upfront cost by about $596 than what the Honda website suggests. Again, it's consistent with the actual lease paperwork I got.

4) I did not include processing/licensing/title fees in the spreadsheet, but those would go into the upfront cost (increasing it above what the spreadsheet gives).

5) I think this is generally quite accurate. It nailed my monthly payment down to the exact cent when I iterated to get the 0.000729 money factor.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Craig


PS: you can use the total cost at the bottom to compare this lease deal to other purchase/finance deals, all based on total cost.

 

thanx austinpike good references man!!!

 

Thanks for all the opinions everyone! I think I'm going to have to jump on this. Maybe I should wait for the '06 model though since it's so close. I would guess they'll have the lease deal again during the winter months at least.

Couple of other questions for those in the know...

- anyone know what kind of FICO score AHFC typically expects for their lease deals?

- has anyone gotten a lower payment by reducing the yearly mileage from 12k to 10k? I won't be using this as a daily driver so I doubt I'll be going over 10,000 miles per year.

 

This is very handy - THANKS.

 

are you kidding me??? You are telling me you'd pay UPFRONT $3000 now to get a lower monthly payment when the effective interest rate on this lease is like < 2%???

I'd put that $3000 in even a ING savings account and get 3% interest (assuming you have no other debt...if you have high interest debt then makes even less sense to put down more money).....better would be invest in even very low risk stocks, 401k, ira's you name it.

 

in summary, for most (though I guess not all) it makes sense to put as little money down (cap cost reduction) as possible.......unless the lease is truly a bad/weird one. Usually you get good leases on vehicles that are nearing a model refresh

 

Or vehicles that hold their value well so the residual percentage is high

 

Correct, it makes sense to put down as little as you can, but there are things out of your control. Some leases have a minimum cap cost reduction (ie, a certain % of the car value has to be paid via deposit). Most leases charge first month & last month up front. And many states (like mine) hit you with the full sales tax up front. You can also play with the numbers in the spreadsheet to see the overall long term cost of various mixes of upfront/monthly cost.

But yeah, with such a low interest rate, you have to consider what you can earn with your money versus paying off interest in those 36 months....

Craig

 

As far as I know, Honda only ofers lease deals like this at the end of the model year..... The only benefit to waiting for an 06 (they show up in November or so) is that short term depreciation will be less by a model year, or there may be desirable new features on the 06 (haven't heard of any major ones). In the long run, it probably won't matter. Can you get a lot of enjoyment out of an S2K before November? If so, go for an 05.

I heard that your credit score has to be decent. Probably at least 700. If not, you get a higher money factor.

I asked, and the lowest mileage they offer is 12,000 miles. Even if they offered a 10,000 mile lease, it is only going to increase the value of the car by $4-500 at the end of 36 months (ie; look at an equivalent depreciation on an 02 S2K three years later). It would knock a few bucks off your payment, but not a lot.

I will probably not hit the 12K annual mileage limit either, but I will try to come close!! Who knows, once it cools off and the weather is amenable to convertible driving, the S2K may become my daily driver for a few months before winter hits....

Craig