SHOULD I LEASE A VEHICLE?

I get this question all the time from my clients about whether it makes sense to lease a vehicle or buy a used vehicle.  I decided to address this issue this week on CoolCarGuy.com and give the pro’s and con’s to both since there is so much misinformation on the Internet about this topic.  Especially, from the famous “financial guru’s” who for the most part know nothing about the automotive industry other than that they drive a personal vehicle themselves.  However, if you structure a lease wrong it can be a bit like Alice in Wonderland doing business with the Red Queen.

First of all, a lease is nothing more than a way to drive a vehicle for less money by paying for the “depreciation” that the leasing company believes is going to take place on the vehicle.  That’s it.  What does this mean?  It’s pretty simple actually.  When you drive a new or a used vehicle off of the lot, it immediately starts to depreciate.  This is the only industry that I know of where a “third-party” in the way of Kelly Blue Book, NADA or a number of other “experts” determines that your product is going down in value each month, but that can benefit you with a lease since you’re paying for that depreciation.

The computer I’m typing this on is a Toshiba laptop that I bought a few years ago and at the time it was “state of the art”, but today who knows what it’s worth.  It’s depreciated down to next to nothing, it’s like a paper weight on my desk, but I can’t pull up the “book value” of this computer model this month and see what it’s worth.  You can do that with an automobile though and it’s needed for banks to put a value on a vehicle they are going to loan money on.

The real reason why these automotive value based books exist is not so that you as a consumer can know what a car is worth.  You may think that’s the case, but they really exist for the banks and lending institutions.  It’s so that a bank, leasing company or credit union doesn’t get burned loaning money on a vehicle that they haven’t had a professional appraisal done on, like you have to have done when buying a home, a business or other types of real estate.

What does this have to do with leasing?  Everything!  There are a number of components involved to leasing a vehicle:

1. The retail price.
2. The capitalization cost
3. The money factor
4. The residual value.
5. The miles per year.
6. Your credit rating.

All of these factors come into play when leasing a vehicle and you have to watch out because you can get stung on a lease the same as you can on a purchase.

WHAT ABOUT THE MONTHLY PAYMENT?

Miles are what cause a vehicle to depreciate the most, which is why you see so many vehicles advertised on television with a low payment showing the fine print at the bottom of the screen.  If you look closely you will discover that you have to put a huge chunk of change down on the lease they are advertising and then they are basing the payment on as little as 10,000 a year!  12,000 miles a year is usually the standard and some manufacturers and leasing companies even put 15,000 miles as the standard, but many of the ads are showing 10,000 miles a year for that really low monthly payment.  This is because if someone puts on 30,000 miles in three years, the car is worth more than if they put on 45,000 miles in three years.

Used Vehicles Leases:  The benefit of a lease is that you are only paying for the depreciation of the vehicle and not for the full amount of the car or truck you’re driving.  If you lease a low mileage vehicle that already has a great deal of depreciation that has taken place and may still be under warranty, you can really save some money depending on the vehicle and the lease structure.  I expect that at least 30 people will contact me this year about how to do a Used Vehicle Lease, since few people really know how to structure them and most dealerships won’t touch them.  A used vehicle lease can give you equity at the end of the lease term compared to a new vehicle lease and they are simple interest leases that also come with GAP insurance.

Manufacturer Leases:  There are some great manufacturer leases and there are some nightmares!  I recently looked at a lease for a client of a high-line SUV vehicle, which I won’t say what the company is here, but their lease was terrible.  The money factor was high, even though my client thought it was low and the residual was terrible.  I was able to structure a lease through a third-party leasing company for her new vehicle and save my client, get this, $5,750 over the three years she was leasing the vehicle.  That’s $159.72 a month over three years, which many people do not investigate what their total cost of leasing is for a vehicle.  The manufacturer still sold a new vehicle, but we structured it to favor my client, rather than the new car leasing company.  Keep in mind too that many new car leases are actually pushed through third-party banks anyway.

Auction Vehicles:  Each year I have quite a number of clients who contact me about having me find them a vehicle through the Dealer Auction.  Last year, I was able to get a number of great vehicles here in Colorado and around the country from Dealer Only Auctions and ship them in for my clients and save them thousands of dollars.  This can work great for certain vehicles that are selling for too much money in this market.  I recently saved a client thousands of dollars on a 2010 Mercedes-Benz ML350 that was still under the MB warranty with great options and miles.  This is something unique to The Cool Car Guy experience since most Auto Brokers and Car Dealers are not experienced in this type of service.  Auto Buying Agents do not have access to dealer auctions by the way, which is one difference between a Auto Buying Service and a Car Dealership.  They have to get the vehicle from a car dealer rather than going directly to the auctions for additional savings.

Financing, Special Financing And Refinancing:  Last year, I had several people contact me who had credit challenges. One client of mine filed bankruptcy two years ago and couldn’t get financed through VW, Nissan or a number of other dealerships.  I was able to lease him a brand new Toyota through a special program I knew about at a price that fit his budget.  He told me that he used to work in accounting for a dealership that worked with people with bad credit and he saw how bad these people got ripped off with super high interest rate loans.  It’s all about the structure and relationships and knowing how to do what others can’t do.

Another client had found the car of his dreams on Craigslist and he couldn’t get the financing done on his own, while trying to buy it from a private party hundreds of miles away.  He asked me to assist him, so we marked the vehicle up to compensate me for my time and I arranged to have him pick the vehicle up at a dealership on the other side of Colorado, even though it was being sold by a Private Party.

The bottom line is that leases can be a great option for people, if they know what they are doing with the proper structure.  You can get burned with a lease as the experts often tell people, but that’s because people do not understand what they are getting into from the beginning.  If the residual is too high for the marketplace and they go over their miles they can really get burned, even though they have a lower payment during the lease term.  If the charge for miles is too high on the back-end they can get pounded as well, if they turn it back into the manufacturer.  I even know of manufacturer leases that will charge you for excess miles if you buy the vehicle out and most people are not aware of this scheme, so it’s always buyer beware when you purchase or lease a vehicle.  The automobile industry is fluid and what was the situation three years ago, may not be the same today.

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

One of the cool things that I can do as The Cool Car Guy is track down a really cool pre-owned car, truck or SUV and then assist my client in getting the vehicle on a long term or short term lease.  I recently did this for clients of mine who wanted to drive a manual transmission 2012 Mini Cooper Coupe and they were not sure if they wanted it for more than a couple of years.  A used vehicle lease was the perfect option!

I was able to track down a super cool black and red 2012 Mini Cooper Coupe, out of Portland, Oregon with only 3,900 original miles on it through the Dealer Auction.  By getting it through the Dealer Auction I was able to save some money on the price of the vehicle and structure a great lease for them.  The Mini Cooper Coupe they were able to get was similar to the one pictured here, only theirs was black on red with some really sweet red accented mirrors, instead of red and black.

We shipped it to Colorado and then structured a simple interest 24 month lease at 18,000 miles a year and with only $1,000 down, plus the first payment.  They were able to get a killer lease payment on a super cool little turbo-charged car.  At the end of the lease term, they can buy it out at a great price, turn it into a simple interest loan through the leasing company or drop the keys off with me to return it and get something else.  If you own a business, like they do, there can often be tax benefits to leasing over purchasing as well.

That’s The Cool Car Guy difference!  Try doing that at a typical car dealership.  It’s not going to happen.  The salesperson is going to try to sell you “what’s on the lot” or get you to lease a new vehicle for around 10,000 miles a year with a bunch of money down, instead of what you’re probably going to actually drive each year.  The reality is that it’s too much work for most dealers to do what I do for my clients and there isn’t enough money in the transaction to make it worth their time.  Not for me though – I get a kick out of it.  I know how to structure leases, use creative financing and get more money out of a vehicle for my clients than most guys, who try to do what I do.

USED VEHICLE LEASE ON A SECOND VEHICLE:  I can’t tell you how many parents contact me about tracking down a $5,000 vehicle for their son or daughter, who is has just started driving.  They often get frustrated when they discover that every other parent in America has the same idea and they have to pay way too much money for the “kid car”.  Is there another option for them?  I decided I would give a hypothetical example of how this can work for someone who needs another set of wheels, but has a limited budget.

Let’s look at a 2012 Nissan Sentra with power windows, locks, a rear spoiler, steel wheels and a 2.0l motor that gets great gas mileage with about 30,000 miles on it.  Like the one on the right as an example.  A brand new 2012 Nissan Sentra had an MSRP of about $19,000, but with 30,000 miles on it, you can pick one up for around $15,000 to $15,500.

I grabbed one online with a photo from the dealer auction for this example to give people and idea of how a used vehicle lease works.  I figured the price would be $15,300 for the Capitalization Cost, plus the lease acquisition fee for a total of $16,095.  This is with nothing down, but the first payment, and you can see the base payment and full payment based on a 7.6% sales tax rate and 12,000 miles a year below based on several monthly term options.

The residual value is what you could buy the vehicle for at the end of the lease, so someone could have a very reasonable payment on a vehicle and buy it out at the end of the lease or even before than less than if they tried to find a similar vehicle in the marketplace.  You can see that someone could lease this vehicle with good credit (Colorado Residents Only) for as low as $198.84 a month plus sales tax.

I need to put in a legal disclaimer here for this lease calculation, even though this is just an example and I’m not selling this particular car.  This information is strictly for “informational and educational purposes only”, don’t call me on this particular vehicle please.  Here’s the disclaimer: All quoted lease payments and down payments are (1) Excluding sales tax, tag, title and registration fees, (2) With approved credit, (3) Subject to price correction, (4) Subject to vehicle availability, and (5) With down payment (cap reduction) and first payment due at lease signing. Offer ends 03-31-2013 and is available to Colorado residents only.

Now let me explain the benefits of this type of a lease.  First of all, there are vehicles that will lease for less than this and we would just have to run specific scenarios on each vehicle to see what makes sense, but a 5 year lease for example at 12,000 miles a year is going to get a kid through High School and College for around $200 a month, plus sales tax.  At the end of the lease, you have your $5,000 to $6,000 vehicle that everyone is looking for and at 12,000 miles a year times five years this vehicle would have 60,000 miles, plus the 30,000 initial miles for a total of around 90,000 miles on the vehicle.  You can sell it and cash out or buy the vehicle at the end of the lease and give it to the next kid in the family and have them drive it until the wheels fall off.  You can also just give it back to the leasing company and be done.  This vehicle lease has GAP insurance built in as well to protect you and the leasing company, if the vehicle were in an accident and totaled out by the insurance company.

The problem with a new vehicle lease compared to this is that the Residual at the end on a new car is often much higher than the marketplace, so you end up trying to buy it out early and you can get creamed, so your only option many times is to give the keys back to the dealer at the end.  I have seen that happen many times, where someone leases a new vehicle with a low payment, they decide to buy it out and they have to pay more than what they are selling for in the marketplace.  Their financial situation may change too in three years and then they can’t get financed, unless they go for a high interest rate.  This lease allows you to convert it to a conventional loan (subject to credit approval) at anytime during the lease with no penalties.  You’re getting to buy a vehicle, if you do select that option, that has much more depreciation that has taken place on the vehicle, so it’s what I like to call an “equity lease”.

I’ve done this for families many times over the years and it’s a cost effective way to solve an additional automobile problem for people without having to put out a great deal of cash upfront or have the expense of financing a newer vehicle over a long term.  Keep in mind that the example above was with just the first payment down, so you can keep the cash you were going to spend on a “beater” in the bank or put a little cash down to lower the payment even more.  I’m a big fan of the Used Vehicle Lease when structured properly with the right vehicle.  I’m shocked that more people don’t do these type of leases and my guess is that they just don’t know about them.  After all, most franchise dealers want to lease new vehicles, instead of pre-owned vehicles to people, so they can sell a low payment instead of looking at the complete package.

Cool Car Guy Rating: A Used Vehicle Lease Can Totally Rock!

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

Hey Cool Car Fans,

Get On The Stick!

Many of my readers are car enthusiasts and you know that I’ve always been a fan of driving a stick shift vehicle.  The driving experience is so much better than driving an automatic.  Yeah, I know I’ve had the car geeks tell me that an automatic transmission is faster at shifting now than a manual transmission.  Who cares!  It’s not just about speed, it’s about the experience of pushing down on the clutch, putting the vehicle into gear and controlling the transmission as you drive, instead of feeling like you’re in an airplane that is on automatic pilot.

Granted it’s much harder to text and drive, talk on the cell phone and drive or do other distracting things when driving a stick shift, which is why every teenager in America should be forced to drive a stick.  Now, I don’t want to be called a hypocrite since I’m not currently driving a stick shift in my 2010 Mercedes Benz C300 4Matic, but that’s not by choice.  Mercedes-Benz doesn’t offer that vehicle in a stick or I would drive a manual transmission.  What really shocked me was when BMW quit offering a stick for their 3 series and I have had a number of clients ask me to find them older 3 series just so they could drive a stick shift.

ONLY 10% OF SALES

I understand that manufacturers have looked at the fact that only 10% of the population wants to drive a stick shift.  I get it, but that’s still millions of potential drivers and Mini is taking advantage of this, which is strange since they are owned by BMW that is moving away from the stick shift.  That’s when you know that they are really two different car companies, when the left hand is going in one direction and the right is going in another direction.  Again, it’s all about the experience!

Cadillac gets it with their new line of sports vehicles like the ATS that you can get in a stick.  Toyota Scion, Ford, Fiat and Mini all have strong sales of the stick shift, but more companies are doing away with the stick shift as an option in their new vehicles.  Driving schools don’t even offer it as an option anymore, which is crazy to me.  Everyone should learn how to drive a stick shift, it’s simply not American!  I can’t tell you how many people I meet each year who do not know how to drive a stick shift.  They wouldn’t be able to buy that classic VW Beetle and experience the fun of kicking it into gear or rolling down a hill to jump start it.

Instead, many of the people today are looking for an iPod connector instead of under the hood, let alone for a manual transmission and that’s really sad.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been saved from death by driving a manual transmission, which I really miss in my Mercedes-Benz.  How you ask?  Those who have had to downshift to avoid a hazard in the road, a stupid driver or to pound the gas for immediate acceleration to avoid being creamed by a Mac truck, you know what I’m talking about.  I’m sure you’ve had those days as well.   I think teenagers are the best candidates for driving a stick shift and contrary to the opinion of most parents, they are actually much safer than an automatic because they have to learn how to actually control the transmission that drives the vehicle.

I hope that more manufacturers bite the bullet and make an investment in the stick shift and it’s super cool to see that some of them are catering to the niche’ market.  This is a great article with more information on this topic that I recently read at Ad Age magazine.

Cool Car Guy Rating: Long Live The Stick!

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

Hey Cool Car Fans,

2013 Ford Escape Ecoboost®

Earlier today, I delivered a 2013 Ford Escape with AWD to a client with the new 2.0 liter Ecoboost motor.  I wanted to write a quick post about this vehicle because it is a great value for a small SUV and I think it’s going to give the Toyota Rav4 and Honda CRV a serious run for their money.  It has a sleek new design that looks quite a bit like a Honda CRV.

Be aware that this vehicle comes with two different Ecoboost engines, the 2.0l with 237hp and 250lb of torque and the smaller 1.6l with 173hp and 177lb of torque.  The standard engine is a 2.5-liter four-cylinder also mated with a 6-speed automatic. and I wouldn’t recommend looking at that one because you’re going to really notice a difference in performance.  The Ecoboost is definitely the way to go here.

There are a number of options you can add to this vehicle, such as the hands free motion-sensor power lift gate, a MyFord Touch System, Curve Control, Torque Vectoring Control system and several other options.  The one that I delivered had Sirius Satellite radio, bluetooth and some other cool benefits that were standard, including it’s new aerodynamic design and Active Grille Shutters to help cut through the wind for better fuel economy.

ECOBOOST® IS SUPER COOL

I really like what Ford has done with this engine.  They describe it on their website as follows…

” EcoBoost^® technology helps produce a cooler, denser fuel injection charge that generates more power per every drop of fuel. Twin independent variable camshaft timing (Ti-VCT) maximizes performance, while two different technologies – turbocharging and direct injection – combine to deliver the performance of a much larger engine with the efficiency of a smaller one.”

The 2.0l is super fast and fun for a small SUV.  My client hopped out of a Jeep Wrangler that he traded for this vehicle and the ride is smooth, it’s fun to drive and super responsive.  It also came with Ford’s “Intelligent 4WD System”, which is designed to monitor traction and cornering conditions every 16 milliseconds and then it will automatically adjust torque distribution where needed. It’s pretty cool technology built into this vehicle.

The Ford Lease: Ford is promoting a pretty aggressive lease on this vehicle with a monthly payment that looks good on their website, but I’m not a huge fan of the Ford lease program.  I lease vehicles to clients all the time and I’ve seen too many people coming out of Ford leases over the years and these leases drive me crazy!  Ford may have great technology in their vehicles, but their leases are “old school”, where they send you back to the original Ford dealer where you leased the vehicle to figure out how to turn your lease back-in at the end of the term.  My advice is skip doing the Ford lease and go for the financing or get a used 2013 Ford Escape with low miles and I can structure a lease for you, so call me for details.

I really like this vehicle for it’s great new technology and as a solid competitor for other small SUV’s in this class.  Definitely put it on your list, if your in the market for this kind of a fuel efficient SUV.

Cool Car Guy Rating: Eco Cool

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy

Hey Cool Car Fans,

2012 RECAP

I hope you had a great 2012 and that you have a blessed and prosperous 2013!  Last year was great and I was able to assist a great number of my clients buy, sell, trade and lease their vehicles.  I had the opportunity to drive some really cool cars last year and do some really cool things with financing and leasing that many people didn’t know that they could do, including refinancing vehicles, financing vehicles, putting together new and used vehicle leases, special financing options and locating some very unique cars and trucks for my clients.  There were some really good incentives on vehicles this past year, including some spectacular lease programs.

In addition, I was able to finish eight Marathons last year, including one in San Francisco and Tucson and the Rim Rock Marathon in Fruita, CO that was a really great run.  I logged almost 3,000 miles in running last year, which is something I’m passionate about and a great way to stay in shape.  As The Cool Car Guy, I have clients from all walks of life in different professions from all over the United States.  One of my clients started RunningGuru.com, which is a cool site to locate running events in Colorado.

My wife and I saw some good movies last year, some really stupid movies as well, which you can read about at Boydflix.com.  I  setup that site years ago where I write movie reviews since my wife and I go to the movies about every week.

I started to launch a website called ShareMerchant.com in 2012 that didn’t have enough time to work on since I was too busy with my business as The Cool Car Guy.  I anticipate getting it going in 2013, so be on the look out for that website as a way to earn some additional income and have someone else make your car payments for you.  It won’t be for everyone, since many of my clients have great financial resources, but I have quite a few clients who are looking for a way to earn more money in 2013.  I’m always looking for ways to save my clients money and earn them more money.  All in all, 2012 was another great year!

WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2013

New Referral Program:  In the past, I’ve sent movie tickets to people for sending me a referral.  The majority of my business is repeat and referral, so I’ve decided to put together something new for 2013.  Each time someone sends me a referral of a person or company who purchases a vehicle from me, they will receive $100 referral fee.

High Mileage Leases:  Many people are driving vehicles much longer or putting many more miles than they used to in the past.  If you’re putting 20,000 miles or more on a vehicle each year, than you may want to consider doing a high mileage lease and you can do this with both new and used vehicles.  It’s all about the proper structure though and I anticipate that I’ll be doing about 30 of these this year.  If you know someone that drives a ton of miles for their business or job, have them contact me.  It can work really good for Real Estate agents or other sales professionals.

Used Vehicles Leases:  The benefit of a lease is that you are only paying for the depreciation of the vehicle and not for the full amount of the car or truck you’re driving.  If you lease a low mileage vehicle that already has a great deal of depreciation that has taken place and may still be under warranty, you can really save some money depending on the vehicle and the lease structure.  I expect that at least 30 people will contact me this year about how to do a Used Vehicle Lease, since few really know how.

Auction Vehicles:  Each year I have quite a number of clients who contact me about having me find them a vehicle through the Dealer Auction.  Last year, I was able to get a number of great vehicles here in Colorado and around the country from Dealer Only Auctions and ship them in for my clients and save them thousands of dollars.  This can work great for certain vehicles that are selling for too much money in this market.  I recently saved a client thousands of dollars on a 2010 Mercedes-Benz ML350 that was still under the MB warranty with great options and miles.  This is something unique to The Cool Car Guy experience because of my relationship with JFR & Associates and since most Brokers and Dealers are not experienced in this type of service.

Financing, Special Financing And Refinancing:  Last year, I had several people contact me who had credit challenges.  One client of mine filed bankruptcy two years ago and couldn’t get financed through VW, Nissan or a number of other dealerships.  I was able to lease him a brand new Toyota through a special program I knew about at a price that fit his budget.  He told me that he used to work in accounting for a dealership that worked with people with bad credit and he saw how bad these people got ripped off with super high interest rate loans.  It’s all about the structure and relationships and knowing how to do what others can’t do.

Another client had found the car of his dreams on Craigslist and he couldn’t get the financing done on his own, while trying to buy it from a private party hundreds of miles away.  He asked me to assist him, so we marked the vehicle up to compensate me for my time and I arranged to have him pick the vehicle up at a dealership on the other side of Colorado, even though it was being sold by a Private Party.  I don’t won’t to go into all the details since the Wizard doesn’t reveal all of his secrets.  The bottom line is that I was able to get him financed on the vehicle and handled it for him, so that he was able to get his dream car without a tremendous amount of brain damage.  When he’s ready to refinance the vehicle at a lower interest rate in six months, I’ll be handling that for him too.  I have access to a great resource of lenders and I’m able to do things that many others can’t do on their own.

Consignments and Trades:  This year I did a large number of consignments for clients and I anticipate that quite a few people will contact me to have me get them more money for their vehicles again by helping them retail them.  However, consignments can be difficult to sell since people typically want more money for their vehicles than they are worth or they have unrealistic expectations.  There are number of dealers and brokers now offering this service for free or for a discount and I’m of the belief that you get what you pay for when it comes to vehicles.  I really prefer to shop my clients trade when possible and get them more money that way, so that they are not waiting for their vehicle to sell.  Last year, I was able to get people hundreds and even thousands of dollars more than they would have gotten on their own, which is another reason why people use my services as The Cool Car Guy.

Weekly Cool Car Guy Updates:  By popular demand I’m going to be updating CoolCarGuy.com on a weekly basis with stories and information about the automotive industry and what’s happening with The Cool Car Guy and my business this year.  I also hope to have some stories about some of my clients and their vehicles, businesses, etc.

Have a great and prosperous 2013 – drop me an email or come pay me a visit, if you’re around my office this year.

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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy

John is an auto consultant with his license at a car dealership in Denver, Colorado. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy