4 Ways to Save Money When Negotiating a Car Lease
With a car lease, you are paying to use a vehicle for a set amount of time, usually around two to three years. It is essential to understand that a car lease is a loan and a legal agreement that will be reported to the credit unions. Therefore, when negotiating a car lease, you need to pay attention to the details.
1. Focus on the Vehicle's Price
When you know you want to lease a car, you need to start out the negotiating process by focusing on the price of the car, just like if you were buying the car. You don't want to just accept the value the dealership assigns to the vehicle. Instead, you are going to want to negotiate the purchase price of the car.
Even though you are not purchasing the car, the car's purchase price is going to impact your lease, so you need to bring the purchase price of the car down and then bring up leasing the vehicle, with that being the purchase price. A lower purchase price will lower what you pay to lease for the car and will make it easier for you to purchase the car at the end of your lease if you want to.
2. Get the Miles You Need
The mileage limit for the lease is another element that you can negotiate. Look at the vehicles that you have owned in the past and pay attention to how many miles you have driven in each of those vehicles. Save yourself money by getting the miles you need each year included in the lease, or bring down the extra cost per mile that you will be charged for going over the standard allotment.
3. Use the Down Payment to Lower Your Regular Payments
When you lease a vehicle, you are often paying a set amount to lease the vehicle for a set number of years. For simplicity's sake, say you are paying $12,000 to lease the vehicle for three years. By putting down a larger down payment, you can essentially lower the monthly payments that you will need to make. For example, if the dealership wants you to pay $4,000 per year to lease the car for three years, that would leave you with a monthly payment of $333. If, however, you were to place a down payment of $6,000, you would only have to pay $2,000 per year, leaving you with a monthly payment of $167 per month.
Use a large down payment to reduce your monthly payments for the vehicle.
4. Ask for Fair End-of-Lease Policies
When you turn in the vehicle, you will often need to follow certain rules. When you are setting up the lease, you will want to review the end-of-lease procedures and fees to ensure that they are clear and feel fair to you. If you don't agree with any of the end-of-lease procedures, the time to challenge them and change them is when you are setting up your lease.
If you want to lease a vehicle, you need to start with negotiating the price of the vehicle, as that will impact what you pay for the lease. Then, as you set up the lease agreement, use a large down payment to secure smaller monthly payments. Ask for fair end-of-lease policies when establishing your lease.
If you need help negotiating a car lease, contact a business like The Car Buying Concierge.