Form letter (email) for contacting dealer about lease quote

[gmikol]

Hey All--

I've been trying to write up a form letter for contacting dealers to get a quote on a Leaf lease. I really want to make sure all the i's are dotted and t's crossed before going in to the dealer, but I'd like some opinions about what I've written, especially if you all think it's too formal or rigid (I get that way when I'm engaging my analytical brain).

Is there anything I'm missing from this?

Lastly, does it make sense to send these out tonight (Sunday), so that they're in everybody's inboxes on Monday morning, or wait until Wednesday night (Jan. 1) so that they don't get lost/forgotten about over the holiday?

Thanks--

G

Good morning XXXX--

As the internet sales manager for XXX Nissan, I am contacting you to get a lease quotation on a Leaf. My intention is to close the lease deal on this vehicle by Saturday, January 4, 2014. I am also contacting other dealers regarding identically- or similarly-equipped vehicle, and will choose the best overall offer among the responses I receive.

2013 Nissan Leaf SV

Black Interior
Silver, Metallic Slate, Ocean Blue or Cayenne Red Exterior

Must have:
Quick Charge / LED headlights package

Must *not* have:
Premium Package

Preferred Accessories:
Carpeted Cargo / Floor Mats
Splash Guards

Other accessories will be considered on a case-by-case basis as part of the evaluation of the overall offer.

36 month / 12k mi / year lease.
Excellent Credit

There will be no customer cash cap reduction, and no trade-in.
Also, please note, I am a Washington driver, and this vehicle will registered in Washington State, so Oregon licensing fees will not apply.

I would appreciate it if you could fill out the form below (or attach a PDF) that includes the all of the information in the form. I have identified a specific vehicle by VIN and / or stock number, but if this vehicle has already been sold prior to your response, please make sure to include that vehicles VIN / stock #, interior / exterior colors and options.

VIN:
Stock #:
Month / Year of Manufacture:
Color:
Equipment:

MSRP:
Net Cap Cost (after all Mfr. and Dealer rebates and incentives):
Residual:
Money Factor:
Monthly Payment:
Drive-Off Amount (please itemize):

I appreciate your time and attention to this.

Sincerely,

 

[scramboleer]

This is much appreciated. We are looking at a 36 month lease of either a S with the QC package or a 500E.. this letter will be extremely helpful.

 

[gmikol]

No problem, anybody is more than welcome to use it if you find it helpful...but this is going to be my first lease ever, so I was hoping somebody out there could tell me whether I'd missed anything on this.

--G

 

[asimba2]

The letter looks good to me. The only uncertainty I have with the letter is whether or not you prefer not to have the Premium Package but are willing to consider it, or if you flat do not want to pay for that option. You may also wish to include in the letter whether you want a reply by mail or e-mail. I would recommend providing your email address for a quicker response.

Keeping the color options open is a good idea and increases your chances that a model equipped to your specifications is available.

It would be nice to see you post the replies you get to help the rest of us know what kinds of deals are out there.

Good luck.

 

[gmikol]

Sure. I'll post any responses I get. I think it's pretty explicit that I don't want the premium package, but I appreciate the feedback.

I'll probably be sending these out on the 1st.

Thanks--

G

 

[asimba2]

For some reason I thought I read "care not to have Premium Package." Anyways, looks good!

 

[gmikol]

Well...I sent out the letters, but the initial offers I got were next to useless.

3 different dealers went through all sorts of contortions to get my monthly payment to exactly $299 (SV with QC/LED 36 month/12k) as their first offer. One even shaved the NMAC rebate to 7525 to try and make his numbers fit. That one is as slippery as an eel.

2 of the dealers' monthly payments didn't even agree with the MSRP/net cap cost/residual/money factor when I plugged them into a lease calculator. I'm quite frustrated at the moment. I thought that negotiating via the internet was supposed to be easier.

This is turning into a full-time job today...

--G

 

[asimba2]

Car salesman are still car salesman, be it in person or via email. I've had the same frustrations.

The lease calculator has some problems. Even using three full lease print outs, the numbers don't balance with the spreadsheet. For example, look at cells B16 and B17--they reference a value in cell B2, yet B2 is blank. These errors throw the cap cost reduction off, affecting results in most of the other cells.

 

[gmikol]

I don't know what lease calculator spreadsheet you're talking about. I've been using a couple of smartphone apps, that agree with each other, and with some published offers, so I have to assume that they're both correct.

--G

 

[asimba2]

I am referring to the lease calculator posted in the 2013 Nissan Leaf Lease thread here on MNL.

 

[gmikol]

I'm crossposting this from the big leasing thread:

Well...I did it. Got myself a shiny new Metallic Slate SV with QC/LED yesterday.

3 years, 12k miles per year

Dealer: Nissan of Portland (OR) 122nd & Halsey
State : WA
Sales tax % : 0
Leaf Trim, options : SV, QC/LED
VIN: 420xxx
MSRP : 34300
Invoice (if you know): 32386
Edmunds.com TMV: 31608
Negotiated Price : 31200
Taxes, Title, Registration : 230
Any other fees (doc, administrative, marketing etc) : 75
Money Factor : 0.00003
Residual: 41%
Downpayment : 37
Monthly payment : 279.48
Drive-Off: 622 (1st mo., down, lic, doc)
Total lease cost: 10403.80

This is the other offer I got:
State : WA
Sales tax % : 0
Leaf Trim, options : SV, QC/LED, mats, splash guards
VIN: 413xxx
MSRP : 34615
Negotiated Price : 31981
Taxes, Title, Registration : 352.5
Any other fees (doc, administrative, marketing etc) : 75
Money Factor : 0.00003
Residual: 41.5283%
Downpayment : 1337.50 (first month, acquisition fee 595, DMV/doc)
Monthly payment : 275.92
Drive-off: Drive off was the down payment
Total Lease Cost: 10994.70

--G

 

[gmikol]

And now, about the whole experience (warning, this may be a little long and rambling)...

First off, despite the proliferation of internet sales departments out there, which, in principle, should simplify the buying process, there are some dealerships out there who still play lots of games. I contacted one Portland metro area dealer (which I'll call "TWN") with that form letter, and got a quote back, but the numbers didn't add up. Back and forth a couple of times, trying to get a complete quote, and the numbers kept shifting (and never really adding up). So I had enough with him, broke off communications, and emailed the GM of the dealership to let him know why his dealership lost a sale that day.

The other dealerships I was working with seemed like they got it: quotes were complete, and the numbers added up (for the most part)...I had some early issues with dealer GSN that I thought we had gotten straightened out. That should have been a warning to me, and they came back to bite me later. I got a good feel for where all the dealers were, and then I made the same highly aggressive proposal to all the dealers I was in contact with.

Leaf SV with QC/LED, cargo/floor mats, splash guards -- $275/mo., 0 down, 1st month + DMV + doc at drive off

Nissan of Portland (the dealer I ended up buying from) came right out and said that he couldn't do it at that price, especially because the mats and guards were add-ons to his car. The cars at the other dealers were equipped that way, stock. Dealer KNC, which was an out-of-market dealer about 100 miles from me, eventually came back and said that he couldn't do it, either. Dealer GSN said that she would "do anything to earn my business", and then got back to me about 2 hours later via phone and told me that the deal was done, and that she would send me the details as soon as their email server came back up after a crash. It took about 3 hours, but the offer she sent me was the "other offer" above. The funny part is that she didn't get why I was upset about being told the deal was done (which I assumed meant the deal I had sent her), and then getting the deal as she presented it to me. Even had the stones to email me and say "I don't understand, this is the deal you asked for". The overall sales manager at GSN even called me to try and salvage a deal. I acknowledged that I might have some responsibility for the communications breakdown, but that I felt my proposal was pretty un-ambiguous, and having a deal be verbally represented to me as one thing, and having it turn out to be something else left a pretty sour taste in my mouth, and I wasn't interested in dealing with them any more.

So I went back to Nissan of Portland, hat in hand, to get back the last (very good) offer I got from them. I want to publicly acknowledge Chris Harshman at Nissan of Portland. He was always totally up-front, his numbers always added up, and he delivered the deal he said he would deliver, even knowing that he was the fallback after my first deal blew up. With that being said, it's still a pretty aggressive deal (almost $1200 below invoice, and no VPP) so I'm not sure others will have the same luck. They also only have a few SV's on their lot (but lots of S models), so you might have better luck if they're trying to move out all their S models.

(BTW--If anyone is going to Nissan of Portland and wants to get me a referral bonus, PM me and I'll give you my real name).

Oh, and the finance guy at Nissan of Portland didn't do anything to push any extended warranty, service contract, chrome-plated muffer bearings, etc. Nothing. Just all business when in came to signing all the paperwork. This makes me happy.

This was the first time I had ever negotiated a lease (every other car that I've had has just been a purchase that was financed). Even though I thought I had read and knew everything there was to know, I still see where I could have done things better. Having a good lease calculator (I found a couple of apps that were pretty good) is essential. If you can't calculate the same monthly payment that the dealer presented to you to within pennies, then you haven't been given all the numbers. Plain and simple. Also, specify *everything*. Don't leave the dealer any room to play with the numbers. With the help of a lease calculator, you can even figure out what the agreed-upon sales price should be in order to get the payments you want. Make sure you understand what fees are being rolled into the cap cost, and what you're paying at drive-off. Don't let them try and shave the NMAC rebate (which was 7675 for my car), which TWN tried on me. If you want a really good deal, negotiating among a number of different dealers will take a good chunk of your time. I bought when I did so that I could do all this while I'm still on holiday shutdown. Back to work tomorrow

Oh, and check the VIN's (and the manufacture date on the black label at the bottom of the drivers-side b-pillar. There are some dealers out there (at least in Portland) with some pretty old leafs. I saw some 404, 405 and 408xxx VINs (last 6 digits) on the lots. (That's approximately March/April/May 2013 manufacture, but check the label to be sure). Now, our summers up here in Portland aren't severe, but I know that at least one of those low VINs that I saw was a dealer trade from who-knows-where. You just can't know how the batteries were stored.

OK...I realize that's a lot of words...I hope somebody out there finds it useful.

--G

 

[leafmealone]

Those considering new leases might want to try "The Auto Lease Calculator"

I plugged in the numbers while I was on the phone with the dealer's fleet/internet guy and the numbers added up to the penny. It took the BS game out of the deal. (after all they call them dealers for a reason)

Click on the link below then scroll down the page and launch by clicking "So try it out! It's FREE!"

http://www.theautoleasecalculator.com/

 

[gmikol]

I took a look at that calculator...it certainly worked well as a calculator, but the webpage did not render well on mobile devices for me. I had a couple of smartphone apps that I thought were really good, though.

iLeaseMyCar Pro (for Apple): $1.99, but worth it, IMO. Has a great reverse lease calculator (for getting residual or money factor from published offers).

Car Lease Calculator (for Android) (this one is from "ByOne Coder"). Not as nice as the apple one, IMO, but pretty useful, and free.

--G