Called up a dealer for a quote on an s2000 lease 15,000 miles per year for 36 months.

$742 due at lease signing
$420+tax per month

what do you guys think. Is he still high balling me? I think he should be able to go lower than that.

what are most people getting leases at?

 

It puts you half way to the price of buying a new one.

 

Don;t negotiate from a monthly payment. Negotiate from a purchase price. Then you can discuss financing options (of which a lease is one option.)

If you are trading in, negotiate a price on the new car FIRST. Then let them tell you what they will give you for your trade.

On a lease, add the money due a signing, the sum of all your monthly payments, and the residule. Then run some comparable loan rates to determine what the financing cost of the lease is. If it is 8 or 9% then this is a crappy deal, if it's closer to 4% then that is more in line with a good lease.

 

DO NOT NEGOTIATE A LEASE ON PAYMENT!!!!!!!

 

Unless you have a real good business reason for leasing, you may be better off borrowing the money and buying the car outright.

Interest rates are real low now, and if you can use a home equity loan, you many be able to deduct the interest from your taxes.

Negotiate a purchase price, then calculate your options. Don't assume leasing is the only way.

 

I think if they are willing to do $389 a month it's a good deal.

 

honda WAS offering inflated residuals on the '03 s2000. with the HUGE decline in resale values AND the possibility of a new and improved S, it makes sense to consider leasing. just approach it as you would if you were purchasing the car. negotiate the price then WATCH THE BASTARDS LIKE A HAWK when they pull the lease numbers together. make sure they don't slip in any BS maintenance plans or non-finance company fees or inflate the over-allowance mileage rate. you can get screwed on a auto lease and unless you carefully review the numbers, you won't even know that it happened. honda finance has a pretty generous damage waiver on the their lease agreement, so i would try to stay with them.

good luck.

 

Do a search on leasing vs buying on this site as it's been discussed a few times recently. I would do some reading to really understand how leases work before pulling the trigger. Also, understand what all the numbers involved in figuring the lease so you don't get screwed. One example is that there is not stated interest rate on a lease, the equivalent is the money factor and it will not look like an interest rate. The thing I would do to make sure your getting a good deal is looking at the added up payments till the end of the lease, take a look at how that would compare to financing it over 3 years. To do so, take the price of the car minus the estimated trade-in value. If the lease payments are close, it's about even. Keep in mind on the buy, you will have to add interest to be fair. Also, I'm not sure how property tax works in CA but I would look into whether leasing allows you to dodge property tax on the car.