This past week I drove a 2003.5 G35 sedan automatic. Great car, but I'm really a manual transmission person. I came back on Sat. and drove a 6 speed G35 sedan. Wow! Great car.

I sat down with my sales person to run numbers on a lease. Here's the deal:
- I have a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder SE that we lease through Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. We pay $509 a month for a 3 year/36k mile lease. The lease is due to expire in 3 months.

- I got an offer from Nissan/Infiniti financial to waive the security deposit on my next lease through them and waive up to $500 in wear & tear costs. Not a huge deal, but worth taking.

- I want to lease the G35 and asked them about getting out of my Pathfinder lease early. They rolled in the three remaining payments and added that to the cost of the G35 (total = $1,527)

- The payment they came back with on the G35 6 speed and terms are as follows:
48 month lease
12k miles per year
MSRP on car = $34,035
Sales price of car = $33,035
Final sales price of car (rolling in three remaining payments) = $34,562
Residual = 48%
Money factor (they gave it to me in terms of a percentage rate not the actual money factor) = 3.1%
Money down = $0
Monthly payment = $594.19 (includes 6% monthly sales tax)

Now, using the lease calculator at www.infiniti.com and www.leasecompare.com and rolling in the additional $1,527 I'm coming out with a lower payment. I think this payment is too high. My Pathfinder was nearly $33,000 and they discounted that final sales price and I have only a 3 year lease on that.

Also, the residual seems really low. At this cost I might as well lease a BMW (not that I want to).

Also, since I would be releasing with Nissan/Infiniti I would think they would waive the three remaining payments on my Pathfinder? I don't need the car right now so I can wait 3 months.

Lastly, I didn't try to negotiate with them. I just wanted a starting point. They told me if I'm serious about buying they can work on that lease payment.

Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated. I love the G35 sedan 6 speed and want the best monthly payment possible.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

You have to negotiate if you want a better monthly, plus remember the shorter the lease terms, sometimes the lower the monthly because of the higer residual. Good Luck.

<font color=blue>Merlin</font color=blue>

 

Oh yeah... they're playing games. They high-balled you, so that when you're ready to purchase they can give you the actual payment amount, hoping you'll think you're getting a deal.

Infiniti does not like this and you should indicate such when you get your survey after purchase. There's either a monetary penalty or incentive withheld if the dealer scores low on these surveys.

If you haven't already, go educate yourself some more on car buying. Edmunds.com is a good site, but you can purchase the automoitve magazines' annual car review guides; there's normally car buying tips, hints, tricks, etc. inside.

Good luck.


03 G35
02 Sequoia

 

If your Capitalized Value is $34,562 and your Residual Value is $16,336.80 (48% of MSRP-$34,035), then your monthly lease payment should be $445.35 for 48 months at a money factor of .00129 (equivalent to 3.1%).

2003 G35 Sedan, Brilliant Silver, Graphite Leather, Premium, Sport, Winter, NAV

 

www.carbuyingtips.com is another good source of car buying info, including how leasing works. There's even an Excel worksheet you can download from there to calculate lease payments and such yourself.

2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter

 

Thanks for the help. I thought it was WAY too high. I need to see what else they are trying to jam into the lease payment.

Oh, does anyone have the current residuals on the sedan?

Thanks,
Andrew

 

My residual is 60% of the MSRP on my sedan. That was in December.

2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter

 

Is that residual on 36 months, 39 months or 48 months?

Thanks,
Andrew

 

Doh, sorry.. forgot the important part. [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img] 36 months.

2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter

 

Cool. Thanks for the update on the length of the lease.

Andrew