Lease early-purchase experience anyone ?

^Got it. Sound advice.

aditud said:

OK...
They mailed out another contract. After tens of phone calls I managed to get the guy who drafted it on the phone; he said he mailed it already, but he would scan and email it to me right away.
Funny thing: they fixed the double charge issue but managed to squeeze the equivalent amount of money someplace else. Guess where? Money factor, went up from 0.00034 to 0.00134. Yep, that's right. Increased it almost FOUR times.
Now I'm trying to get ahold of him to tell him the deal's off.
Car buying's always been a stressful experience for me. Because of this kind of stuff.

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They are slippery weasels. Must be part of the criterion for getting the job.

that goes hand in hand with what others have said about down payment reducing the money factor


which is all null and void if you pay it off in 2 months

aditud said:

OK...

They mailed out another contract. After tens of phone calls I managed to get the guy who drafted it on the phone; he said he mailed it already, but he would scan and email it to me right away.

Funny thing: they fixed the double charge issue but managed to squeeze the equivalent amount of money someplace else. Guess where? Money factor, went up from 0.00034 to 0.00134. Yep, that's right. Increased it almost FOUR times.

Now I'm trying to get ahold of him to tell him the deal's off.

Car buying's always been a stressful experience for me. Because of this kind of stuff.

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thats why I dont like leasing, straight sale, thats it.

aditud said:

OK...
They mailed out another contract. After tens of phone calls I managed to get the guy who drafted it on the phone; he said he mailed it already, but he would scan and email it to me right away.
Funny thing: they fixed the double charge issue but managed to squeeze the equivalent amount of money someplace else. Guess where? Money factor, went up from 0.00034 to 0.00134. Yep, that's right. Increased it almost FOUR times.
Now I'm trying to get ahold of him to tell him the deal's off.
Car buying's always been a stressful experience for me. Because of this kind of stuff.

Click to expand...

And they corrected it again...

After I told them the deal was off if they didn't. OK. Argh! Always trying stuff...

Later Edit: The final version he emailed me is legit, with the MF (money factor , that is) they'd promised. So, looks like I'll get the car, after all.

bmwM5power said:

thats why I dont like leasing, straight sale, thats it.

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I hear you, this will be my first lease, ever. But in this case this is a net $2,000 savings for me (and I'm factoring everything in now, including the state sale tax I'll pay on residual and registration fee-again-when I purchase the car at the end of the lease).

If you are buying off the lease right away I think the money factor had very little effect

Miata said:

If you are buying off the lease right away I think the money factor had very little effect

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But it doesn't make any sense to do that with the MF I got: this amounts to a lease charge of $285.25, it's nothing (under $12/mo). Because the acquisition fee of $625 is to be paid on vehicle delivery, upfront.

Yes, you can minimize greatly the impact of the MF if you buy the lease quickly, but that's not worth it when the MF is so low.

Also, does anyone who was involved with the buyback know if the offer has any "mileage adjustment" taken into account, or it is assumed that you are at 0 adjustment (as it appears in those adjustment tables)? Then, once they record your mileage at the buyback appointment they take it from there?

aditud said:

Also, does anyone who was involved with the buyback know if the offer has any "mileage adjustment" taken into account, or it is assumed that you are at 0 adjustment (as it appears in those adjustment tables)? Then, once they record your mileage at the buyback appointment they take it from there?

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This thread is about people purchasing new leftover '15s. Not buybacks. Plenty of buyback threads here. Search is your friend.

740GLE said:

that goes hand in hand with what others have said about down payment reducing the money factor


which is all null and void if you pay it off in 2 months

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In my case the down was high, ($2,510.66), but they told me i was getting an "unheard of" money factor. Which the manger said was 1%. When i went in to get the car and asked about this they said "there's no way the money factor equals 1%" and "i don't know why he would say that". Manager wasn't there.
The down consisted of;
1. taxes on the rebate- $698.41
2. First payment - 323.93
3. Refundable security deposit - 350.00
4. Lease acquisition fee - 625.00
5. Vehicle license fees - 185.00
6.Registration, Transfer and titling fees- 91.00
7. Sales/use tax - 57.28
8. California tire fee - 8.75
After reading about people just putting their first payment with nothing else down it made me wonder. I'm fine with putting more down as long as i don't pay for any of it again when buying out.

aditud said:

Also, does anyone who was involved with the buyback know if the offer has any "mileage adjustment" taken into account, or it is assumed that you are at 0 adjustment (as it appears in those adjustment tables)? Then, once they record your mileage at the buyback appointment they take it from there?

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The sticky at the top here called buyback milage adjustment for march has tables for all the months from march till fall or winter if you scroll down thru the posts.

They also told me that they don't know why the $ factor is not anywhere on the Lease Agreement.

Yawiney said:

In my case the down was high, ($2,510.66), but they told me i was getting an "unheard of" money factor. Which the manger said was 1%. When i went in to get the car and asked about this they said "there's no way the money factor equals 1%" and "i don't know why he would say that". Manager wasn't there.
The down consisted of;
1. taxes on the rebate- $698.41
2. First payment - 323.93
3. Refundable security deposit - 350.00
4. Lease acquisition fee - 625.00
5. Vehicle license fees - 185.00
6.Registration, Transfer and titling fees- 91.00
7. Sales/use tax - 57.28
8. California tire fee - 8.75
After reading about people just putting their first payment with nothing else down it made me wonder. I'm fine with putting more down as long as i don't pay for any of it again when buying out.

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1. I live in PA, so no tax on rebate (I googled it and saw that, because in the beginning I thought the finance guy made another mistake by applying rebate before tax);
2. No security deposit (there'd be only a $350 disposition fee if I don't keep the car at the end of the lease);
3. Lease acquisition fee $625;
4. License, registration, title $236;
5. Sales/use tax $66.71;
6. Doc fee $75 (very low, compared with many places where it could be close to $500).

With an MSRP of $29,355, they added the use tax of $66.71 and used the sum of 29,421.71 as the gross capitalized cost. The residual is 48% of MSRP. These are the numbers to which they applied the 0.00034 money factor and got the rent charge of $285.25. The only place I took a "hit" (rather small though) was the PA Allegheny Cty tax, which for leasing is 10% instead of 7% (PA has a 3% use tax for leasing). So, the monthly payment came to $324.25/mo.

That's what I'll be paying when I show to pick the car up, plus items 3, 4 and 6 above. After that, just 23 monthly payments.


It's very different how things are done by different dealers, in different states. I almost bought one w/ DSG a few weeks ago from Tennessee. They only asked for the 1st payment upfront, but they added all the fees I itemized above to the gross capitalized cost (their doc fee was $499, and I think the MF was 0.0012; the residual was smaller though, they used 45%). So I would have ended up paying PA tax on all those fees.

Later edit: and the guy from Tennessee was also taxing the rebate (even told me so explicitly). I didn't know better at the time, so I didn't counter him. Anyway, I got cold feet and walked away on that deal.

Yawiney said:

They also told me that they don't know why the $ factor is not anywhere on the Lease Agreement.

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It's not on any of the three versions of the contract I got. Looks like it's common practice.

However, it's easy to figure it out yourself. Take the rent charge and divide it by the sum of the adjusted capitalized cost and the residual. Then divide the result again by 24 (# of months in the lease). That's your MF.

aditud said:

It's not on any of the three versions of the contract I got. Looks like it's common practice.

However, it's easy to figure it out yourself. Take the rent charge and divide it by the sum of the adjusted capitalized cost and the residual. Then divide the result again by 24 (# of months in the lease). That's your MF.

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Thanks! That comes out to .0010501. So I guess he was talking about the MF being 1? I guess i did get a "unheard of" or at least good MF then?
Still don't get how the MF translates to percent interest...

Yawiney said:

Thanks! That comes out to .0010501. So I guess he was talking about the MF being 1? I guess i did get a "unheard of" or at least good MF then?
Still don't get how the MF translates to percent interest...

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Multiply MF by 2,400. It's 2.52% in your case. I don't know who gets the money, the bank or the dealership but my understanding (according to what I read in various places) is that the 0.00034 MF (0.816%) was more customary for higher trims (SE and SEL), while what you got was for S.

So, mines not as special as they led me to believe. They also told me i had to pay all the interest whether i buy out early or not. Still glad i got the car. When my BB$ comes in and i go to buy out the lease i'll find out for sure if i saved anything by doing the lease.

Yawiney said:

They also told me i had to pay all the interest whether i buy out early or not.

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That's not true, either. Create an account on VW Credit and when your car is in their system (may take a couple weeks) you can look at the payoff amount along with the saved "rent" (interest) with an early payoff. You may not get it all back, but you do get some.

Lease in this particular case is unique in terms of what it affords you.

You have secured the car of your dreams for 2 years, at very modest premium ($600 or so). You DONT have to buy out the lease now, you can wait the entire 2Y, for $30 extra a month.

Unlike those that are holding for fix, in your case there's no risk. A nasty failure could nick the fixers for serious $$$$. You dont have that problem, everything is covered.

If in the meantime, say spring '19, VW or other company brings an uber-super-duper diesel to US shores, and your car is worth much more than the purchase price, you'd buy it and use it as trade-in etc. If the value instead, has plummeted, you walk away from the lease w nothing to loose.

There ARE some truly dedicated folx here that wont sleep well till they have the title

r11 said:

Lease in this particular case is unique in terms of what it affords you.

You have secured the car of your dreams for 2 years, at very modest premium ($600 or so). You DONT have to buy out the lease now, you can wait the entire 2Y, for $30 extra a month.

Unlike those that are holding for fix, in your case there's no risk. A nasty failure could nick the fixers for serious $$$$. You dont have that problem, everything is covered.

If in the meantime, say spring '19, VW or other company brings an uber-super-duper diesel to US shores, and your car is worth much more than the purchase price, you'd buy it and use it as trade-in etc. If the value instead, has plummeted, you walk away from the lease w nothing to loose.

There ARE some truly dedicated folx here that wont sleep well till they have the title

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Yes, you are correct, in principle. However, I opted for the 10k/year allowance. And I know I'll drive at least 15k. So, I'll have to buy the car at the end of the lease.

I purchased a 2015 SEL Premium and my MF was 1, or .0010501. So it is not true that it is a higher MF for the higher trims.

Mark_J said:

I purchased a 2015 SEL Premium and my MF was 1, or .0010501. So it is not true that it is a higher MF for the higher trims.

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Apparently not. Looks like dealers can do whatever they want on the lease deal.

Mark_J said:

I purchased a 2015 SEL Premium and my MF was 1, or .0010501. So it is not true that it is a higher MF for the higher trims.

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I've read the reverse: higher trims get a lower money factor from many dealers.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

I've read the reverse: higher trims get a lower money factor from many dealers.

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Me too, I read the opposite was true. But I did see it happen in my case when they went from 0.00034 to 0.00134 (4 times increase) from one version of the contract to the other. They'll try anything to squeeze some extra money; it's not enough that they sell 2yo cars at MSRP price (because the rebates are from VW, not from the dealers).

Mark_J said:

I purchased a 2015 SEL Premium and my MF was 1, or .0010501. So it is not true that it is a higher MF for the higher trims.

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Did you pay higher than normal down? I did for my S and thought i was getting a better MF because of it.(It's appropriate that the initials are MF). http://forums.tdiclub.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

r11 said:

Lease in this particular case is unique in terms of what it affords you.

You have secured the car of your dreams for 2 years, at very modest premium ($600 or so). You DONT have to buy out the lease now, you can wait the entire 2Y, for $30 extra a month.

Unlike those that are holding for fix, in your case there's no risk. A nasty failure could nick the fixers for serious $$$$. You dont have that problem, everything is covered.

If in the meantime, say spring '19, VW or other company brings an uber-super-duper diesel to US shores, and your car is worth much more than the purchase price, you'd buy it and use it as trade-in etc. If the value instead, has plummeted, you walk away from the lease w nothing to loose.

There ARE some truly dedicated folx here that wont sleep well till they have the title

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Wish it was easier for me to take advantage of this^. My problem is the extra $ for full coverage(all my life iv'e only carried liability) would be about 130$ plus the 32$ or so more on the payments. An extra $163 or so per month. Still seems worth it to have the option and have most of my buyback $ in the bank. I just dunno if i can afford it.

My wife qualified for a MF of .00023. Dealer promised a straight deal at MSRP and no hidden fees. Told them what money factor we were expecting before she flew in on Wed. Their story changed and told us flat out 'We marked up the MF to the ABSOLUTE MAX VW finance will allow: .00172"

y2kbird said:

My wife qualified for a MF of .00023. Dealer promised a straight deal at MSRP and no hidden fees. Told them what money factor we were expecting before she flew in on Wed. Their story changed and told us flat out 'We marked up the MF to the ABSOLUTE MAX VW finance will allow: .00172"

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That probably means they get some of the interest money themselves. Since VW finances the deal you'd expect they get all the interest, so there'd be no incentive for the dealer to jack up the MF. But they probably do get some of it (or some incentive from VW to sell the lease expensively).

dealer makes every penny that they mark up the money factor or interest rate. A friend in the car business would never even consider the "buy rate" the customer qualifies for. They get to tweak the rate to use the loan or lease as another profit center. The MF I listed above meant 'rent' was shown on the VW contract as ~$1300 over 24 months. They played dumb on the phone saying their program doesn't even show the word money factor or rent. True, their monthly payment tool didn't (it showed an APR), but every VW credit lease contract in the US has a field for rent.