Do’s and Don’ts When it Comes to Auto Leasing

Your lease agreement will specify who must pay for maintenance and repairs during the lease term. Most lease agreements require you to pay for excess wear and tear. This means that when you return the vehicle at lease-end, the dealer could charge you to fix anything deemed excessive by the lease agreement.

A car lease lets you drive a new vehicle without paying a large sum of cash or taking out a loan. To lease a car, you simply make a small down payment — less than the typical 20% of a car’s value you’d pay to buy– followed by monthly payments for the term of the lease. When the term expires, you return the car.

1. DO: Always Negotiate the Purchase Price.
2. DO: Always Read the Fine Print.
3. DO: Lease a Car with High Resale Value.
4. DO: Lease Early in the Model Year.
5. DO: Get GAP Insurance.
6. DON’T: Terminate Your Lease Early.
7. DON’T: Put a Down Payment or Security Deposit.

You may decide to return the leased vehicle early and roll the remaining payments into a new vehicle. This will allow you to forfeit the old lease without financial penalties. However, you’re still responsible for the lease payments on the old vehicle as well as the new one.

For starters, when you return a car at the end of a lease you’ll also have to pay what’s called a disposition fee, which is a flat fee you agreed to pay at the end of the lease when you originally signed your contract. Your lessor may even waive fees for wear and tear if you agree to sign on to a new lease with them.

When you lease a vehicle, the lessor can charge you for “excessive” wear and tear. If the cost to fix it is less than the fee of returning it damaged, then it’s probably a good idea to simply fix it before the lease ends.

Putting money down on a car lease isn’t typically required unless you have bad credit. If you aren’t required to make a down payment on a lease, you generally shouldn’t. This is because all of the interest charges are computed into the lease price up front, so the total cost of a lease is set ahead of time.

There’s no official guideline for what length of car lease is “short” term — some auto industry experts consider any lease 24 months or less short term. Others define it as less than 36 months. Leasing terms at dealerships typically range from 24 to 60 months.

4 tips for negotiating the best price on a car lease

1. Know the terminology.
2. Research prices and deals.
3. Shop multiple dealerships.
4. Be open to other car models to find the best deal.
5. Capitalized cost.
6. Rent charge or money factor.
7. Mileage allowance.

Quickly Figure Out if Your Lease Deal is Good

• Any lease that costs less than $125/month per $10,000 worth of vehicle is considered a good lease deal.
• IF (“Real” Monthly Payment / MSRP ) * 10,000 is less than $125, then it’s a good lease deal.
• The very best lease deals I’ve seen hover around the $100 per $10k mark.

Leases also typically have less money due at signing – like a down payment – than financing a car does. To get the best rate when financing a car, many lenders will want you to come up with 20 percent of the car’s value as a down payment to get the best rate (though no-money-down car loans are available).

What is the average cost of a car lease? The average lease payment for a new vehicle is $467 per month, according to Experian’s Q2 2020 State of the Automotive Finance Market report. That’s just over $100 less than the average monthly auto loan payment for a new car, which was $568.

Your lease contract gives you the option to buy the car at the residual value. If the car is worth more than the residual value, you can sell the car and keep the difference. The lease residual value is the anticipated wholesale value of the car.