lease question!
 

want to lease a 04!
how do i make my monthly payment as low as possible? i do not care if the end value for buy out is high, because I will not buy it at the end of lease! thx

first of all, do not put any significant amount of money at signing, if you crash the car, you can say goodbye to this, you will get nothing in the settlement.

You must settle on an amount up front, I always choose $500.00. Then you must negotiate with them on the cost based upon the length in months of the lease and the mileage. If you go for 36 months with 12k it is usually the best deal, because in this case Honda offers a warranty for 36 months, hence you would never pay for a repair out of warranty on a car you don't own. I was able to get mine for $420 per month for 36 months with 12k miles per year. I assume now you can do better due to the economy, probably in the 375 range. They actually told me $525 per month to start and I got to 420, so play it good, you know "walk out" and you'll get a good deal. I would not go over 400 per month on 36 months with 500 out of pocket or if you go 48 months, nothing over 360. You will def get a good deal if you stick to this.

GOOD LUCK!!!

thx man! but wow..how did u lower that 100? thats 3600 bucks for 3 yrs!! did they simply add that 3600 into end value?

anyone else?
bump!!

The residual is pretty much the same no matter what, I just haggled with them and played one dealer against another to get the best deal, I went back and forth three times and finally got the deal I wanted.

Try www.leasecompare.com for actual numbers. Leases are fairly easy to disect once you know how to do it. You should do what is called a "fees only" inception, which means no capital reduction(downpayment). Maybe $800-$1200 out of pocket to take the car home which covers first payment, inception fee, if any, and taxes if applicable, and licensing fees. I figured $450(w/o taxes) per month with a rate of 7%(.00275 money factor) purchase price of $30,995 and 60% residual for 36 months.

And by the way, residuals do vary from lenders, traditionally the highest residuals come from the manufacturers, but that is not always the case.

You can definitely do way better than 450 per month plus taxes with only 800 out of pocket, the calculators are kinda junky, I wouldn't settle over 400 including taxes on 36 months with 12k miles a year with 800 down

When I tried to lease mine, they wanted $530 a month for 48 months 12k per year 0 down. I just haggled and haggled with them and threatened to go to another dealer. After few hours of talking, I didn't want the car anymore (they wanted $430). They then called the main manager and he gave it to me for $373 a month plus + hardtop and front lip. I tried to get the side strakes and rear spoiler but they wouldn't budge no more. So, basically the strategy is talking them down to the price you wanted. If you don't like the deal just go to the next dealer.

How about buying out of a lease? Any pointers? Sounds like I got shafted listening to you guys. I've got a 48 month lease, and put a lot down, to get payments around $360. Wish I'd known about this site first. (sigh) I do care about the end cost (it's high too) because I plan to keep this car (I think). I think I've been took. Can I get out of this without feeling any more stupid?

Buying out a lease is not always a good option, in recent times letter have been sent out lowering the buyout due to overwhelming amounts of used cars on the lots now, not sure if Honda has begun this process, but I know in the case of some others they have. My mother has a Mercedes and right now if she bought it out at the end of the lease, she would be paying about 5-7000 too much so unless she gets this letter, lowering it to a fair market value, then she will simply get rid of it.

My buyout on my S is $22k, which is probably going to be abotu 2k too high come the end, I plan on either haggling this down if possible or just getting a newer model.

Grannyrod, your deal isn't that bad at all, 360 isn't a terrible deal depending on just how much you put down...