Hello all,

I currently own a Sarenghetti Sand 2006 G35 Sedan. I Love the car, but it's closing in on 100k miles and will need maintenance soon for typical wear and tear items (new spark plugs, bad headlight ballast, lower ball joints need replaced, etc...) and I'd really like to get into something new. I got screwed by the original seller of the car back in 2009 when I purchased the vehicle with 49k miles. At the time, car fax showed up clean and upon my own inspection I failed to notice anything indicative of major repairs (I was 19 at the time...fail ) so I didn't take it to a mechanic and have it checked out. Fast forward a year or so and it was in the shop getting a wheel bearing replaced and the technician working on the vehicle told me that it had pretty extensive repairs performed on the back end of the car. Thank God I've never had a problem related to this. What pisses me off is looking at a current carfax the accident shows up now as having happened in January of 2009, while in April of that year when I purchased the vehicle the carfax was clean.

So my resale is ruined lol. I'm looking at leasing a 2015 Q40 which is basically the G37 rebranded under their new naming system.

I've attached the dealer's lease proposal and would appreciate it if some of you financially savvy guys could take a look and make sure I'm getting a good deal...or at the very least not getting screwed a second time. I haggled a few grand off the sticker price of the car and their offer is 4500 trade in value for my 06 sedan, no down payment on the lease, and 2000 dollars cash back.

I know infiniti recently advertised a lease special on their website for 4000 down/279 per month, but this was a model with Nav and moon roof my model would be without. I was thinking about proposing to the salesman that he make the same deal on a car with the nav and I'd do it, and if not pass.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

damn... only $4500 for your car? that's kinda low i think.

what's the residual / money factor

 

I thought so as well. To be honest my car does have a few paint chips/scratches here and there on the exterior from car doors and the like but not body damage, the front left headlight ballast is broken, and needs a rear brake job. The drivers seat has a small tear in the leather next to the controls where the plastic has rubbed through it, and the steering wheel grinds pretty bad when adjusted...but other than that the interior is clean. Car also has new Pirelli tires on it and slotted front rotors. I think the value takes the biggest hit from the car fax report saying the vehicle sustained structural damage back in 2009. I shopped a lease at Acura before the infiniti dealership and they were only offering 4k for my trade because they claimed they would have to auction it rather than sell ro a customer. Maybe it would be worth trying to sell it privately or through carmax? The carfax report says the structural damage should only cause a $790 dollar decrease in price, but I don't know how that figure plays out in the real world.

I'm not sure on the residual/ money factor, I emailed the salesman yesterday to ask. I'll let you know his response.

 

Do not lease its a waste of money.

 

How do you figure?

 

okay.. your residual @ 10k is 55%.
Also. are you sure that 10k miles/yr is enough for you? I would go with 12k (54% residual) or 15k (52% residual) miles..

Also.. did you walk in the place and say I want a deal for $280/month.. because you are getting less of a car (~$2000 MSRP less) than the website, yet you are paying same $$..

I feel like you are at a point where you wanna get rid of your 2006 and get into something because you don't want to deal with issues. Which is understandable, but think about for a second.

$280 doesn't includes taxes.. or it doesn't seem like it.

doing a fast calculation, seems like your depreciation payment is only $213.
meaning to get to $280, your financing will be $67/month. They are going to mark up the the money factor like crazy from looks of things.

What state are you in? make sure you know that they are going to tax you as well.

I think most importantly, you should get the interest rate or the money factor (basically the same thing).. then we can tell you what kind of deal you are getting.

Good luck man.

 

Hey Thanks a lot man, this is why I posted on here. I'm not trying to rush into anything, I made that mistake before with my first car purchase when I was younger so I'm being twice as vigilant this time lol. You're asking a lot of the same questions I've been coming up with and expanding on them with some more good thoughts. I live about an hour from the dealership, I traded cars with my dad (lives close to dealer) so he could take the car in and price out the repairs. I mentioned the lease deal to him so he could feel it out if it seemed like a good offer while he was there and maybe use it as leverage to avoid the 10% fee if I didnt do the maintenance. Next thing I know I get a call with the deal all worked out and they're offering to send the car home with my dad that day and if I go sign the papers this weekend lol. So I'm not exactly sure how the exchange went, but obviously I wasn't going to do that without being there or driving the car.

Where do you get the % figures that you use in your residual value calculations? I'm waiting on the residual value and money factor numbers from the salesman. You may have a point about the mileage, I've averaged roughly 8k/year over the past 6 years and I live only a mile from the hospital in which I work. I am getting to the point of searching for a new job or going back to grad school, so my mileage needs could change depending on how that situation plays out. Sounds like the effect on the monthly payment would be small compared to then .025 cents per mile overage fee. I live in Texas, and from what I've read we are required to pay taxes on the entire capitalized cost of the vehicle I believe? Not entirely sure how that works, insight on that would be appreciated.

And yes, I agree about the 2k less than the MSRP quoted online. I plan to be very adamant that I want a car with nav if I'm going to take that deal. Also, The deal online has a 4k down payment, but the deal the salesman worked up has no down payment and 2k cash back. If I were to accept Im assuming it would be better to not take the cash back and put the 2k towards lowering the capitalized cost? (Have plenty of cash on hand so I'm not in need of the money)

Also, does 4.5k sound really low for my 06 considering its in average condition 95k miles and structural damage on the carfax?

Thanks again for the help

 

hey. to get the residual value.. goto the infiniti website divide lease end purchase price by MSRP..
that 55%.

Yikes you are in Texas.. like you said, they tax you on the car's price, meaning that you'll probably end up paying twice as much tax compared to someone who lease in a "normal" state. Most people just buy the car in Texas for this very reason.

Right now, I would make sure that you are getting a good price for the car (i have no idea what a Q40 goes for these days)

Money factor is key here. Also, since $ is not a problem for you, I would actually put in multiple security deposit (MSD) to drop the money factor a bit (could save you $15-$30/month, but you need to put up ~$3500 of SECURITY DEPOSIT upfront which you'll get back 100% at the end of the deposit).

Good luck man.. is the G37 a car you really want? you could probably do a new BMW 328i sedan for less than $30 or so more a month, maybe the same price if you get one with low options... also, BMW has this financing/leasing called "Owner's Choice" I have no idea how that works, but I heard it's designed for people like in Texas that has to pay taxes on the whole car amount.

Good luck..

 

Well, the car is too new to show up on KBB, but it does show up on Truevalue as having a "good" purchase price of 35381 when optioned out with the same features and same 36495 MSRP price as the car I'm looking at. I'm not sure what the general consensus is on TrueValue but it seems like their prices line up fairly well with KBB on other cars I've browsed. The price in my offer has been reduced to 32595 which to my (albeit fairly untrained) eye seems to be a fairly good sales price.

As far as whether the car is what I really want or not, I'm not completely sold yet. I haven't driven it yet haha...I did drive a G37 a year or two back when browsing and obviously I plan to drive it before I make my decision. So far I've driven the Acura TLX and it was too "cushy" feeling compared to my G and the 6 cylinder lagged when accelerating hard from a stop. I also drove a 2014 CPO loaner mercedes C250. Nice car but the back seat was kind of small and I was concerned about the long term reliability of the turbo 4 (would have been purchasing this not leasing). I drove a Hyundai genesis, but couldn't get past how cheap the interior looked considering the price and the God awful smell of whatever plastic they use

I also plan to drive a Mazda 3 and the new 2015 Mustang which I browsed today. Have to say I'm very impressed with the direction they've taken the new mustang- More upscale interior and a sleek new body design that reminds me of an Aston Martin. I've never driven a BMW before, but I know the 3 series is held in high regard as an industry standard for the class and looks sleek. I just assumed they were out of my price range so I didn't waste my time. Have you seen lease offers on the 328 like what you mentioned?

 

well.. you should go drive a 328i. if done right, you should be able to get it around $300-$320 (w/ trade-in) but BEFORE taxes.

now you'll probably end up pay $30 more per month than the Q40.. but i figure you have a "newer" car, where as the Q40 is ~7 years old (07-08.. still 2nd gen)
BMW's have a ridiculous high residual values.. hence even the Q40 might MSRP for $4000 less than the BMW, they'll have similar lease rate.

Right now they are running the 39 month lease on 2015's.. or try to get a killer deal on a leftover 2014 on the lot, those have high residuals also, including some holiday cash on them.

the BMW includes all the maintenance for 3 years except tires and gas...

Q40 will have real leather seats where BMW.. you'll probably have to go with fake leather. The BMW will get MUCH better gas mileage.

And I am not sure if you've driven the new 2.0L turbo engines from BMW, but they are pretty good..

 

As you said your retail is ruined, I'd run this car into the ground first

 

I've never driven any BMW, ever, lol but yeah from what I read online the 328i is only only slightly slower than the Q40 and the residuals are good. The new proposal the salesman worked up is for a vehicle with navigation. Sticker price is 39,395 negotiated to a sales price of 35530. Residual value is 21,273 with a money factor of .00015, 12k miles a year, and 1000 cash back instead of 2000, and no down payment. Obviously I would have him put the 1k back into the deal or use it as part of the security deposit like you talked about. The figure he quoted seems like it has one too many zeroes in it as when I multiply it by 2400 it comes out to 0.36% when I feel like it's more than likely 3.6% as .36 sounds ridiculously low. Payments would be 300/month before tax. I'll attach the new lease proposal when I get home from work.

Plan stop by the BMW dealer tomorrow and check out what they have to offer before I head to infiniti. Based on what their sticker prices are online a 328i would be around the same MSRP as the Q40.

You have a good point too...maybe I should just keep driving my car. Problem is I live alone so if anything happens I will have no trasnportation. What does a rear brake job cost these days? (rotors and pads) Are the front and rear rotors the same on the sedan? I have my old front rotors that I took off and replaced with slotted/cross drilled rotors. That's really the only issue requiring immediate attention as they said the ball joints were wearing and would need replacing soon, but didn't make it sound urgent.