Nissan Lease with questionable additional fees

[PALMER]

The Nissan Carson dealership offered me the national lease deal.
$2000 down at $225 month(including monthly tax).
But they said I would need an additional $1000 down to cover tax, registration, and dmv.

Why would i pay an extra $1000? this additional fee makes no sense. Why are they asking me to pay additional tax on top of the tax that is pushed into the lease price? Registration and DMV should only cost at most $200.

Can someone tell me if they've experienced the same? I am in Torrance, CA (southern Cali LA area).

 

[TomT]

DMV makes sense but tax is rolled in to the monthly lease payment so I small a dealer fish... It should be a lot less than $1,000 for everything...

The Nissan Carson dealership offered me the national lease deal.
$2000 down at $225 month(including monthly tax).
But they said I would need an additional $1000 down to cover tax, registration, and dmv.

 

[mwalsh]

Smells fishy to me too. Taxes are rolled into the lease payment. Registration should be in the $2-300 range. Paperwork charges should be under $100.

 

[pauldesr]

My dealer told me that the $2,000 down I paid for the $200 per month lease included all those charges. This was in May of this year.

 

[RonDawg]

DMV makes sense but tax is rolled in to the monthly lease payment so I small a dealer fish... It should be a lot less than $1,000 for everything...

With CA leases, you pay sales tax twice:

1. on each monthly payment (so your amount can go up and/or down during the lease term, as it has for a few people here)
2. on the Capitalized Cost Reduction, which for NMAC leases includes the $7500 Federal tax credit being passed on to you, plus any additional cash being included by Nissan, your dealer, and/or yourself.

On my lease, the taxes on the second part, plus registration fees, added an additional $1400 or so to the price of my car. Reg fee alone was a bit over $300. With the official Nissan lease deal on a Leaf S with no options whatsoever, using LA County's 9% sales tax (a bit higher in some municipalities like Santa Monica), there is a Capitalized Cost Reduction of $8150, so sales tax on that is $733.50. Add the roughly $300 in DMV fees, and the extra $1000 sounds about right. Sales tax on the $199/month payment should be $217.50, not sure where the extra $8 or so per month accounts for.

Now it is possible to have these charges rolled into the overall price of the lease, but of course that will mean your payment is higher. The official Nissan lease deal does not include any of these government-mandated fees.

 

[RonDawg]

My dealer told me that the $2,000 down I paid for the $200 per month lease included all those charges. This was in May of this year.

You're in Texas though, sales tax on leases may be computed differently in your state.

 

[TomT]

Interesting because there is no such second tax charge on my early 2011 Lease. I just checked the disclosure form and the sales tax area is blank and there is no additional fee rolled in anywhere else... I ran the numbers and it jibes... Maybe they made a mistake but I'm not complaining...

With CA leases, you pay sales tax twice

 

[sonnylax]

I'm not above them making a profit on the lease/sale. But "Document fees" are garbage. Pure profit for the dealership.

 

[KillaWhat]

There are enough dealers out there.
Try another one.

 

[RonDawg]

I just pulled out my lease contract (revision NILT 3001-CA 7/12) and there is an entry for "Tax on Capitalized Cost Reduction" on space 4f. On mine it amounted to $1066.24. Reg fees were another $308.

Under "Sales Tax Paid in Advance" section 4g, the field is filled in as "N/A." Is this the area you are referring to on your contract?

The only thing I can think of is that tax laws in CA changed between the time you leased your car, and the time I leased mine. Otherwise these are mandated fees, even if your dealer didn't fill out the paperwork properly and/or somehow buried them elsewhere in your lease. No different than the "No Sales Tax" sales at OSH; you may not be paying them out of pocket, but Sacramento is most definitely still getting the money.

Interesting because there is no such second tax charge on my early 2011 Lease. I just checked the disclosure form and the sales tax area is blank and there is no additional fee rolled in anywhere else... I ran the numbers and it jibes... Maybe they made a mistake but I'm not complaining...

With CA leases, you pay sales tax twice

 

[mwalsh]

Also pulled a lease quote from before we made the decision to purchase. Has a Cap Reduction tax of $679.21 (local 8.75% tax rate on the $7500 tax credit monies and some odd down payment amount of $262.41) listed separately from the use tax figured into the lease payment ($37.14).

The DMV fees show as $538.75. HOWEVER, of those DMV fees only the Registration fee ($88) and Tire fee ($8.75) show as upfront fees. The Doc fee ($45) and License fee ($397) show as capitalized costs. That's a pretty hefty license fee...the one on my Volt is only $233. Didn't remember it being that much.

So I guess it is feasible than they'd want upwards of $1000 to cover the Cap Reduction tax and upfront DMV costs. I guess we need to see your figures to know for sure. If you haven't had a written quote, ask them for one. We also need to know what costs are included in the $2000 down payment, since you haven't said.

 

[RonDawg]

The DMV fees show as $538.75. HOWEVER, of those DMV fees only the Registration fee ($88) and Tire fee ($8.75) show as upfront fees. The Doc fee ($45) and License fee ($397) show as capitalized costs. That's a pretty hefty license fee...the one on my Volt is only $233. Didn't remember it being that much.

According to the DMV Registration Fee calculator https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCalculatorWeb/newVehicleFees.do" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , a new $35k electric car purchased today and registered in Los Angeles County (but not in one of the cities that has an additional local sales tax) would incur an initial registration fee of $308...exactly what mine was. I'm not sure why yours was so high.

Assuming you paid $40k for your Volt, for Garden Grove, CA your initial reg fee is $341. Of that, $43 is the registration fee, $23 is the CHP fee, and $261 is the Vehicle License Fee (the part that is deductible from your Federal taxes), the remainder being a collection of small fees.