Need New DD...~15k

[Trogdor]

How can a dealership survive on 4-8 sales per month?

They mostly sell used cars. Like 3/4 of their lot is used cars. That, and they have like 2 sales guys.

[turbotalon1g]

I know the optima is used in comparisons with accords/camry's, etc

[Murlo26]

Well, test drove a few more today.

First stopped at Kia in BP. The forte is too small for sure, the optima is the right size though.

Drove a brand new optima, it was pretty damn awesome actually. Very good handling, smooth ride and a lot of features. And with a 3 year lease at 15k miles/yr I can get payments at 267 or 303 depending on model which is where I wanted payments. Honestly, this made everything a very hard decision now, I think i liked it even more than the suzuki.

Then I stopped at Subaru and test drove a brand new legacy, quite nice! It was a lil rougher around the edges, but still 34mpgs, great AWD and pretty peppy. HOwever, brakes felt a bit sloppy unlike the OPtima/Suzuki. Again leasing this car payments were 300ish for a new one.

Originally I didn't want to lease as I thought I drove too many miles but at 15k miles with dual summer duty with the evo I should be fine by my calculations. The problem was slightly used Subaru's and even Optimas as they are so new both hold value really well so getting a good deal on one is tougher. I could maybe find a good deal but then I have to line up financing and get rid of my honda. But both the places said they'd give me 500 for the honda, I am happy to dump it for that.

So now I think my new final 3 are the Optima, Kizashi and Legacy in that order. I am going to try and go hit up all 3 again for one final test drive Saturday and make a choice. Going to bring my dad I think for a second opinion.

The loaded Optima was awesome too, and at like 27k or whatever it had nav, back up cam, power everything heated/cooled seats (cooled seats are awesome) and was pretty damn cool.

Ps. The impreza on a lease was actually more than a legacy for some reason, so I said screw it.

So not any closer but I have thinking to do on financing/leasing etc.

[Trogdor]

The one thing I could highly advise you look at on a lease is what your loan on the buy out would be. Some companies way over value what their cars will be worth after your lease, making them difficult to buy for the same monthly payments when you're lease is up. With a company like Mitsu the make an effort to use realistic residual values. Assuming I get a decent rate, my buy out will actually drop $48 a month.

But if a company over values their residuals and you end up doing like 35% lease and 65% buy out your buy out loan is either going to require a large sum of money down or a longer loan payment to be at the same price. You don't want to end up leasing for 3 years, then taking out a loan for another 5 just to keep your payments the same.

TBH, I don't know what Kia's leasing programs look like or how their residual values are calculated. But you wanna make sure to ask what percentage of the value of the vehicle the residual is vs. the percentage of the lease. If the gap is larger than 40:60, run.

Also, just an FYI, because Suzuki is offering the 0% for 72/m on new ones, their lease program is almost non-existent. With that offer, you're payments are nearly the same, or better (depending on your credit and down payment) if you take the special financing. I wouldn't recommend leasing a new Suzuki.

[Murlo26]

Both of the cars were around the 12k to 13k range for buyouts after the lease which seems roughly accurate. But I can ask a few more questions when I go back.

Honestly, I think now its to the point where I will just get whatever car I want most. Then figure out how to pay for it :)

Find any AWD kizashis in a different color yet? :)

[Trogdor]

Got plenty of new ones! Still working on a used one.

How long of a lease term was that residual on? If you know the MSRP, and the length of the lease, it's pretty easy to figure out what buy out payments would be. Basically compare that lease payments + the remaining years of loan term that would total 72 months. So like 3 years of lease and a residual of 13k would be like 390 a month for the remaining 3 years.

[Murlo26]

I will talk to you about possibly leasing etc when I stop by Saturday to "level the playing field" with what else I am looking at. Still not set on leasing yet by any means.

The two probably ones are as follows:

Kia optima Ex - 3 year lease - capital cost 22793 (without ttl stuff I think)- residual 13970

Subaru Legacy - 3 year lease - 23192 (price, not msrp) - residual 14815

So I guess I was off what I said before, was remembering the LX optima i think.

There are lots of numbers on these forms so not sure exactly what they all mean really lol.

[Trogdor]

That means the optima is about 40:60, lease:residual. That's reasonable. Anything more than that and I'd recommend running! But again the further away from 50:50 you get the bigger gap you're going to see between 3 years of lease payments and 3 years of loan payments. Plus you have to factor in interest rates. Lease rates are always subsidized by the manufacturer. Say you can get 2.9% for 5 years from a bank on a new car. A lease rate would be more like 1.66% for 3 years on a new lease. But when you go to buy that car out you're now buying a 3 year old car on a loan. Meaning that the rate is no longer subsidized, and its a used car. This is why in most cases we don't recommend putting a huge chunk of money down on a lease to own, because your payments will change when you buy it.

So you said they quoted you around 300/m for 3 years on the EX. That will make your 3 year loan about 400 a month + interest which I didn't calculate becuase I have no idea what interest rates or your credit will be 3 years from now.

As I recall, we roughly calculated out a Kizashi SE with AWD to be about 335/m for 72 months.


Again, I don't recommend leasing a Suzuki, strictly because they're not offering subsidized lease rates due to the 0% financing.

[C3L1CA]

Leasing seems kind of scary to me. You said you could drive the evo in the summer to help keep miles off the daily, but what if the evo is broken and you end up going over the miles you are allowed? Don't they hit you with a pretty hefty penalty?

[Kracka]

If you're going to lease route now check out the deals Chevy is offering on the Volt. I've seen leases for as low as $250/month on that thing. I would definitely rock something like that as a daily due to the huge gas savings. Figure on average the Volt can go about 40 miles on electric, that should take care of most roundtrip commutes which means for regular daily use you'd barely be using any gas, if any.