$199/mo for SV, 24mo, 12k miles -- too good to be true?

Just received an email from the local dealer advertising:

2012 SV Leaf - 24mo - 12k per year - $199 per mo plus tax - upfronts at signing - which is first payment, tax, tag doc

2012 SL Leaf - 24mo - 12k per year - $235 per mo plus tax - upfronts at signing - which is first payment, tax, tag doc

I don't know what the 'tag doc' number would actually be, but it doesn't imply anything down... this seems like an exceptionally good deal, and I'm assuming that they must be really aggressively trying to get rid of 2012 inventory before the 2013's show up. For my use cases the 2013 doesn't make all that much difference, so I'm strongly considering jumping on this.

Am I missing anything obvious here? Or is this about as cheap as you could realistically get one of these cars? Anything else I should ask for / about?

If you're in California, a 24mo. lease won't qualify for the rebate. Otherwise sounds good.

P.S. I wish folks would fill out their user profiles. Half of the time, I just skip questions like these where no clue is given about location.

$350~ a month. 0 down. 39 months and 12,000 miles a year (on an island)! This is the best I've seen here. Leased SL Ocean Blue.

ljwobker said:

I don't know what the 'tag doc' number would actually be, but it doesn't imply anything down... this seems like an exceptionally good deal, and I'm assuming that they must be really aggressively trying to get rid of 2012 inventory before the 2013's show up. For my use cases the 2013 doesn't make all that much difference, so I'm strongly considering jumping on this.

Am I missing anything obvious here? Or is this about as cheap as you could realistically get one of these cars? Anything else I should ask for / about?

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Tag (TagS=license plates and sticker), Doc (Documentation fee). These sound like they would be your up-front costs.

And, yes, could we get your location please?

They've raised the residual on the car up to 47% (for 39 months, probably a bit higher at 24 months) and they've dropped the money factor down to .00022, which comes out to 0.53% interest. Yes, it sure seems like they're aggressively trying to move these cars. It seems to hint that the changes in the 2013 will really make the 2012 very difficult to sell.

Those prices are very nearly half what it cost to lease when the car was first released. Go for it!

Wow! That is an incredible price!

They're making it as hard as they can for me to wait for the 2013s aren't they...

Philip

They look similar to the Volt lease prices. Wonder if Nissan is trying something new here while getting rid of inventory to make room for the 2013.

Ian B

So, if they are so aggressive how come I haven't seen any ads for the Leaf at all? Not from the local dealer nor from Nissan.

OttoH said:

So, if they are so aggressive how come I haven't seen any ads for the Leaf at all? Not from the local dealer nor from Nissan.

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Today's San Jose Mercury News has a full page LEAF ad on page 5 of the front section, apparently sponsored by Nissan NA. (It seems to list all dealers in the San Francisco Bay Area.) it is focused more on National Plug In Day than on price, and doesn't quote any lease prices, except to say, "Save up to $5188 on gas over the life of the 39 mo. lease*" (with some nearly illegible fine print explanations). It does say, "VISIT YOUR LOCAL BAY AREA NISSAN DEALER TO SAVE ON LEAF TODAY."

I think I have deciphered the fine print, which is white lettering on a black background:

Miles per dollar claim based on LEAF energy usage of .34 kwh/mi and cost of energy of .12$/kwh. Savings based on 39,000 miles, 22 MPG combined and average gas price of $3.82. Gallon of gas price based on AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. National average for regular unleaded as of 9/4/12. Actual results will vary for many reasons, including driving conditions and vehicle maintenance.

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Ray

ljwobker said:

Just received an email from the local dealer advertising:

2012 SV Leaf - 24mo - 12k per year - $199 per mo plus tax - upfronts at signing - which is first payment, tax, tag doc

2012 SL Leaf - 24mo - 12k per year - $235 per mo plus tax - upfronts at signing - which is first payment, tax, tag doc

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Those are about accurate for folks here in Madison. If they are they advertised rates they might be going off of like a $35.2k SV (which don't really exist) but they are pretty accurate.

Overall I would go for it, make sure you get quoted on a real car though I can almost promise the payment will be higher, but that is again damn close to what I am coming up with here.

A couple days ago I received an email promotion from the Richmond, CA Nissan Dealer with the following lease terms:

2012 LEAF SL
SPECIAL LEASE
12K YEAR LEASE

39 Month Term
$3,500 total drive off

ONLY $199 a month + tax

NMAC rebate, residual 18066.80
on approval of credit through Nissan Motor Accept. Corp.
Stock# 15934 Model 17112 Vin#JN1AZ0CPXCT023830

Only one VIN listed, so there may only be one vehicle offered with these terms.

According to my rough estimates, someone driving a 20-25mpg ICE car 50-70 miles day would spend about the same, if not more money, on gas per month (at SF bay area prices, ~$4.25/gal), compared to the monthly cost of this lease. Even factoring in the cost of electricity for charging the LEAF, they will come out ahead driving electric. This is a great deal for someone with a medium commute in a beater that gets poor mileage and is about to need costly repairs. As long as they have good enough credit and $3500 up front, they could drive a new LEAF for three years with no additional monthly out of pocket costs, if not significant monthly savings.

Howdy

So folks are aware, there is no point in doing a 36 or 39 month lease on a LEAF any more. The reason you normally consider one is because the payments are generally much better because the residual is much better, which isn't the case with the LEAF.

I ran the figures on a lease for someone this morning, might as well repost them since folks are getting email blasts.

On an SL with an MSRP of $38,370 and $3500 TOTAL out of pocket their payments were $164/mo for a 24mo/24k mile lease, plus tax (so their payments were $176 including tax, title, tags, fees, ect...). Those lease numbers have about $1200 in profit, so still room to play if they want to beat me/Kayser up.

To figure it out backwards, Richmond, CA's email blast deal still has ~$1500-2000 markup in it if you want to negotiate it a bit more Actually maybe more/less since I am not sure what real numbers look like on a 39 month LEAF lease, I haven't been enough of a jerk to show someone anything but a 24mo in the past 4-5 weeks haha, but if it was a 24mo then that guesstimate would be accurate.

KayserNissan said:

So folks are aware, there is no point in doing a 36 or 39 month lease on a LEAF any more.

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California has $2500 rebate that requires 36 months or more to qualify

Sorry about the profile (F-ing newbies, right?) ... I'm in Raleigh, NC. This was positioned as part of their "Vehicle Purchase Program" ... when I asked for a specific quote on a "zero-down" / "nothing out of pocket" lease for 24mo, the reply came back at 282/month...

I have to assume this is for an SL model, so our starting point is $235... and unless I'm losing my math skills... this means that they somehow figured out a way to wrap:

282 - 235 = 47 * 24 --> $1128 of upfront costs into the lease - this seems way too high, am I missing something here?

I'm only paying tax on the depreciation, right? At 3% in NC that's 6-7 bucks a month... tags and title are what on top of that, a couple hundred dollars? Does that leave something like an $850 destination or documentation fee or whatever? I assume that part is (highly) negotiable and that's where I should concentrate?

As a car salesman why don't you recommend the 39 month lease...0 down...0 drive off. Sign and drive deals? There needs to be more marketing and cars on the road.

Mauileaf said:

As a car salesman why don't you recommend the 39 month lease...0 down...0 drive off. Sign and drive deals? There needs to be more marketing and cars on the road.

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The warranty is only good for 36 months so it would be risky during the last 3 months.

LEAFfan said:

Mauileaf said:

As a car salesman why don't you recommend the 39 month lease...0 down...0 drive off. Sign and drive deals? There needs to be more marketing and cars on the road.

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The warranty is only good for 36 months so it would be risky during the last 3 months.

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Risky? It'd be a prorated warranty as I understand it. How expensive could a 3 month warranty really cost?

ljwobker said:

Just received an email from the local dealer advertising:

2012 SV Leaf - 24mo - 12k per year - $199 per mo plus tax - upfronts at signing - which is first payment, tax, tag doc

2012 SL Leaf - 24mo - 12k per year - $235 per mo plus tax - upfronts at signing - which is first payment, tax, tag doc

I don't know what the 'tag doc' number would actually be, but it doesn't imply anything down... this seems like an exceptionally good deal, and I'm assuming that they must be really aggressively trying to get rid of 2012 inventory before the 2013's show up. For my use cases the 2013 doesn't make all that much difference, so I'm strongly considering jumping on this.

Am I missing anything obvious here? Or is this about as cheap as you could realistically get one of these cars? Anything else I should ask for / about?

Click to expand...

This is not too good to be true.

You're right, it seems like a scam or a bait and switch. I can't say for sure it's not, but I can tell you that two weeks ago I picked up my 2012 Leaf on a 24 month lease at $239/month with $0 down. It was in fact probably just a hair better than the deal you're stating because that $239 included all tax, fees, etc. Normally for me those are $1500 or so, so divided by 24 months is $60 + your 199 = $260.

If you are at all interested in a Leaf do this deal now and don't think on if too long, seriously.

I've tried to tell people about some of the current lease deals on Leafs, but some people are philosophically opposed to leasing and others are just simply too bad, frankly, at math to understand how to make a decision. For this money you have a brand new car, well optioned out, that is absolutely the cheapest car on the road to drive (the iMiev is marginally, only slightly better but a much worse car overall). What do you pay for gas now, $4? If you're at $.11 kWh for your electricity, which is the national average, you'll go about 100 miles on that money, and that does included the charging losses.

As a second car, at these prices, the Leaf is a no-brainer. I mean it.

If I could get this deal in Las Vegas, I would order tomorrow.

If anyone could post the numbers (Final Negotiated Price/Payment Before Tax/Money Factor/Residual/Due at signing) I would greatly appreciate it so i could take it to my local dealers and try to replicate

Thank you!
--Daniel