donb4325

While this question does not pertain to my A6, I thought I would pose it here anyway. My wife is looking at the Infiniti JX and I am curious if the negotiated purchase price of the vehicle (relevant in either scenario) would tend to be lower if I was buying or leasing, or should this have no effect? Somewhat related, has anyone used truecar.com? They seem to have great negotiated pricing.

snagitseven

It shouldn't make a difference - the negotiated price is the price. Lots of other variables in lease vs. financing but those should come into play once the price of the car has been negotiated and the trade (if any) is factored in. Same if paying cash. If a dealer tries to make it a difference, they are most likely attempting to steer you one way or another into a lease or finance deal. If there's a concern, tell them you are either paying cash or are undecided how you'll pay for it. After negotiating the best possible price, payment method can then be discussed.

nfinity

as snagitseven said, the price is the price. You will usually get a much more affordable monthly payment if you go with the lease simply because you are paying only for the car's value that you drive. So if the residual value is higher that's better for you if you plan on getting a new car on lease after let's say 3 years.

However, for individuals leasing is less recommended (at least IMO) because you are locked in for your lease term and you don't own a car. The advantage to lease is for some (like me) where you can deduct some of the lease as a business expense if you own your business.

To understand how lease is calculated and how your negotiated price can affect your lease numbers look here:

http://www.edmunds.com/car-leasing/c...e-payment.html

But I went on too much in different direction. The point is lease or buy, your negotiated price is the same and is taken as a basis for calculating your purchase or lease terms.

Also, to help you out.. My A6 I just picked up was $57,500 or something like that MSRP.. My negotiated price was $52,900. Then we took that number and calculated the lease (I took 36months / 10k miles as I don't drive as much as other people do). It wouldn't have mattered if I purchased or leased.

wilfred2k5

1. TrueCar is awesome! I couldn't find the car I wanted, but the dealer was willing to match the discount (huge!) on the car I ended up with.
2. Which leads to the fact that you should never even mention that you intend to lease until you've finished negotiating the purchase price. Otherwise, the sales guy will shift to talking about your monthly payment and bump your residual by $10K.

You DO want the option of purchasing the car at a reasonable amount. If you take good care of the car, you may be able to flip it same day. For two of my leases, the car's KBB at lease end was >$10K higher than the residual.

That's not chump change...

nfinity

This is exactly what happened to me too! My 2010 A5 was $31k KBB, but my payoff at the end of the lease was $24,500. I ended up having almost $8k towards the A6 I got as I traded it in at the Audi dealership instead of turning it in.