I recently passed a VW dealer that was advertising $29 a month for a new car. I thought man what a deal, whats the catch? Looking it up at home its a lease, 2 grand down, 29 a month plus tax and “fees”, 10,000 a year mileage cap, AND its only for 12 months! A car for an estimated 2800 for a year with a mileage cap, and you have zilch to show for it.
A friend of mine, who reviews cars professionally, thought it was a great deal for a young professional who might only plan on living somewhere for a year, or is leaving the country. I told him that is such a rare, specific target demographic thats pretty much BS. Its STILL not a smart deal.
The dealer is just trying to get you in the door thats all.
Few people can qualify for these loss-leader deals…The word “Fees” can mean almost anything like mandatory way overpriced insurance…If you stray over the 10K mile limit, the penalty is likely to be staggering
Get all the terms and conditions in writing up front. Typically, these loss-leader deals require a big up-front “cap reduction” fee. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Its kind of a catchy marketing deal, but 28 cents a mile and $220 a month is not a loss leader in my book. Its just a standard rate. Its all math though, pay a large amount up from and small monthly or pay small up front and large monthly. Its the same amount of money either way. Or buy the car and trade it in a year for less money and more risk.
watch that terminology !
Our locals got busted for using the term…’‘A’’ month ( as in just ONE…A single month ) vs PER month.
Now all their ads have to say PER month if they mean more than one !
I think renting a new car for only $220 per month is a pretty good deal. The mileage limit might be a problem for some folks, but if they just wanted a new car for commuting over the course of the next year, then give it back w/out the hassles of selling it, this seems like a reasonable way to go. If fact it seems so very reasonable I expect if you said “yes, I want this exact deal”, you wouldn’t be able to get it. They’d make up some excuse. It’s probably just a way to get buyers to the car lot is all.
I thought it was $29 per month. I have only leased one car. 1996 Mazda Miata for $199 per month with 1 penny down. 36 months. It was an offer I could not refuse. I expected one in refrigerator white. It was in Montego blue which was the color shifting paint. It was a wonderful and completely trouble free car. It only had 24,000 miles when I turned it in. I want another one.
We just took the $2000 down payment, plus the $29 per month payment and came up with the total of $2800 for the year for 10K miles, or an average of $220 per month or 28 cents per mile. Actually, there are quite a few cars that will lease for $2-300 per month. Usually for a longer term though and more like 12K or 15K annual mileage.
As always, devil is in the details. What exactly are the fees? License? Tax? So may in fact be closer to $350 or $400 average per month by the time you get done with everything.
Actually a lot of young professionals meet that demographic. A lot of guys in a variety of fields end up being relocated quite a bit and/or working on extended assignment in other countries–and this includes guys in other countries coming to the US for the same. At the company I work for, we currently have at least a dozen that I know of here from overseas and overseas from the US working on 1-2 year assignments.
A friend had a leased Prelude that was way over on allowed mileage. Just before the lease was up, he totaled it into a guard rail (not planned…wife with him…could have been bad but no injuries). A hell of a way to get those penalty miles erased.