04.03.08
Posted in General Leasing, Transfer a car lease, Auto lease, Terminate a car lease at 2:38 pm by LeasingRus
What better reason to lease when you discover your the vehicle you bought last year is in the top 10 of vehicles that depreciate the fastest. Like the US housing market, these cars values drop so quickly, you’ll be scrambling to sell it to the next buyer. Then again, the alternative to vehicle financing you could have opt for was to lease, giving you safety of not owning a depreciating vehicle outright, with the added benefit of trading in the vehicle for the next latest model on the market. Alternatively, rather than waiting for the lease contract to expire after 3 to 5 years, you could have sought to terminate a car lease early, through such lease assumption services from AutoLeaseBreakers.com.(Forbes) Some cars just don’t age well. Even a great value buy in the new-car market can bomb in the used-car market with low resale values.
Vehicles like the Kia Sedona minivan and Lincoln Town Car look good, perform well and often are purchased new at bargain prices. But take a closer look at them three years later, and their value has decreased at an accelerated rate. By the time a car owner is ready to unload one of these vehicles, the owner is often surprised to learn that the car has lost more than 50% of its value. Read the rest of this entry »
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12.18.07
Posted in General, Car Leasing, Buying versus Leasing, Financing, Auto lease at 8:29 pm by LeasingRus
Sure, approximately 80 percent of auto consumers either pay cash or finance their purchase with a loan, but you’re considering joining the other one-fifth of intrepid consumers willing to forgo ownership for a new set of wheels and the short-term benefits that leasing provides.
Maybe you’re self-employed and can write off your leasing payment as a business expense. Or maybe you’re trying to get into a luxury model for less upfront cash. Or maybe you demand the latest safety and technology innovations and don’t want to be saddled with a 60-month loan term. Or maybe you just like driving a new car every couple years.
“The question you have to ask yourself is, ‘Is there a special reason I need a new car every few years?’” says Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore. “For most consumers, the answer is no.”
But maybe you’re in the minority. Maybe your answer is yes.
It’s true that leasing has diminished in popularity as automakers have offered low-interest financing and cash-back offers to buyers. Leasing rates dropped from 29.2 percent of retail car sales in January 2001 to 23.2 percent in February 2006. Read the rest of this entry »
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10.31.07
Posted in General, General Leasing, Car Leasing, Buying versus Leasing at 12:29 pm by LeasingRus
The dealership experience can be extremely stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. You could know everything there is to know about the cars you’re considering, but that’s only a fraction of the buying process. If you want that seductive new sedan at a good price, you’re probably going to need to know what to say — and more importantly, what not to say.
Some people loathe the whole car-buying experience simply because they anticipate getting conned. A few hundred dollars isn’t a big deal on the price of a luxury car, but it’s the idea of smart shopping and that sense of getting a good deal that’s especially important. For luxury car buyers — notoriously labeled the shrewd shoppers — a good deal is icing on the cake.
“The educated consumer is the one who will drive away with the best deal and the best experience,” says Rob Gentile, director of car-buying products at Consumer Reports.
To help you take the driver’s seat in the buying experience, first learn to play the game, and you might even end up doing some smooth talking of your own.
Ready, Set, Go!
1. “I’m ready to buy now.”
This is an admission of weakness and an invitation for the dealer to throw out a price that’s slightly below the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) to see if you’ll take the bait. It shows that you’re too eager and willing to consider an offer, and it also gives salespeople the advantage by allowing them to talk you up as opposed to you talking them down. But by adding some very precise parameters, you’ll sound confident and strong from the start. Read the rest of this entry »
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07.03.07
Posted in Articles, Get out of a car lease, Auto lease, Car lease swap at 4:41 pm by LeasingRus
7 ways dealers make you pay extra. Winning strategies for playing the car-buying game to win.
Your goal is to get the best car at the best price. The dealers’ goal should be to help you do this, but too often it’s simply to make as much profit as they can. As a smart shopper, you need to know the common strategies that dealerships use to pad their bottom line–from tricky negotiating tactics to trying to sell you unnecessary extras–and how to avoid playing their game. Consumer Reports’ auto-test staff, which buys more than 50 vehicles a year, has had hundreds of dealership experiences. Following are some of the most common things you could encounter and CR’s advice on how to avoid falling prey to them.
1. Mixing negotiations. Salespeople like to combine the vehicle price, trade-in, and/or financing negotiation, often asking you what you can afford to pay per month. This gives them more latitude to provide a favorable figure in one area while inflating figures in other areas. In the end, this could cost you more overall.
Avoid this trap by negotiating one thing at a time, starting with the price of the car. Approach this as if you were paying cash, with no trade-in. To get the best deal, you should go in with a starting price that’s based not on the vehicle’s sticker price but on how much the dealer paid for it. The dealer invoice price is commonly available on Web sites and in pricing guides, but that isn’t necessarily what the dealer paid. Read the rest of this entry »
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06.30.07
Posted in General, Articles, Auto lease at 3:37 pm by LeasingRus
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That’s all well and good on the playground, but it’s a different story in a car showroom.That’s because auto dealers have their own colorful slang that says something about how the car business operates; some pitfalls to watch out for; and Read the rest of this entry »
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