Actual Cost at Dealer for 2010 vs 2009

How many years is the lease?
Does it include all costs of ownership like insurance, registration tyres, servicing?

How much more would it cost to buy the car over 5 years?
Would you settle for a used Prius on time payment and no residual?
Can you claim a tax write-off on the lease you can't get on a car loan?
Are you buying a Prius to save money on gas? If it's just about the money there are cheaper options if you could get by with a smaller car, like a Yaris.

What I hate about leasing is after the lease expires you have been paying off a car you own none of. Aparently there are advantages for some.

I make my car payments from my wifes pre-tax income which reduces her tax bill while reducing the cost of the car payments to us. This only works for us because my wife works for a hospital which is exempt from fringe benifits tax. If I had the payments coming out of my pre-tax income I would have to repay to my employer the fringe benifits tax which is something like 46 cents in the dollar.

 

I think if you wait until the 2010 hit the lots you will get a much better deal. Also DON'T put any money down on a lease. If you have to put something then just do the first months payment and mv fees. Pricing has just been released on the 2010 prius so use that to your advantage. I guarantee that if you tell the salesman that you may wait for the 2010 package 2 which is about the same price and the 2009 you mentioned, he will knock down the price or do 0 down lease with same payments. Dealers need space on there lots for new model year cars and the extra inventory costs them money everyday. Don't let him tell you that the 2009's are selling fast and you need to act quickly before there gone. I have 6 Toyota dealers within 40 miles radius and they all have dozens of 2009 prius on there lots and a couple even had 2008's. Get some pricing on the 2010 model as well. If it comes out to a $25-$50 a month more in payments, you could get that money right back with fuel savings if you drive a lot, and you will have a much better and more advanced prius.

Good Luck and let us know what happens.

 

without the length of the lease, it would be impossible to determine the value of it.

$2000 down for a one year lease would be unwise. on a 5 year lease, that is a better deal. by the residual info, i m guessing its a 3 year lease.

that would make payments of an additional $55 if accounting for the deposit more or less. if so, definitely a good deal and i can pretty much guarantee you that the 2010's will be nowhere near as attractive

 

do it!! the 2010's will not be as attractive, price-wise. now technology-wise, they will be much more attractive and in demand, making the 2009's in a desperate "do or die" scenario.

i think the deal you are getting is great. i am in the Prius Priority Program and have been investigating financing. all the options require a payment more than double yours

 

Unless the monthly payment can be charged off as a business expense, it seems pointless to place oneself in a position to be given short shrift by the leasing company at the end of the lease. Maybe that can be good if one thinks the actual value of the car at the end will be much less than the lessor thinks. The better the car holds its value, the less attractive an option leasing becomes. Better simply to own the car, and be able to do as one thinks best when the time comes. Why obligate oneself to change out a perfectly good car during a particular arbitrarily chosen year in the future?

There is now a steep excess of supply over demand in the leftover `09 (and here and there `08) G2s. The dealers still keep a straight face, and seem not to realize that they do not have the upper hand, as they did from `04 until the `08 gasoline price collapse. Within the next two or three months, there will be a window of opportunity to by a new `09 at a big discount, with a bigger rebate, etc. I expect to obtain a package 2 for under $18,000! If I can't get a pretty big price break, then I might as well wait until the rollout excitement subsides, and buy a G3--at its very reasonable regular price.(Or buy a used G2 at a price depressed by the `09 closeout sale.)

 

If you go with 2010, you will not get nearly as good as deal with 2009 model. Another way of really getting lower payments would be dropping your annual mileage from 20000 a year to 10, 12, or 15k a year. Then at the end of the lease you just buy the car for the residual price. Put the money saved on payments away and then at lease end, you should have nice little down payment and then finance the rest. If you go this route make sure you you really will buy the car at the lease end or you will pay over mileage fees of probably 15-25 cents per mile. If you try to go with a 10000 mile lease on a 2010 prius you may be right around what you would pay for the 2009 w/ 20000 per year term. Don't let dealers tell you there will not be any leases or finance offers on the 2010 models. A Honda dealer near me said the same thing about the New Insight hybrid. A week after release, Honda has a lease on the Insight for I think $229 or $259 per month w/ 2500 down. Yes, the deals won't be as good as the leftover year but they still have offers on the 2010's

The bottom line is the 2009 Prius is a great car and you won't go wrong getting if it suits your needs. The 2010 Prius is better than the 2009 but if you can save a few thousand on an 2009 then I would do it. It would take you years to break even on fuel costs with a 2010 if you paid a couple thousand more. Time is on your side but keep an eye on the inventory of the 2009's. I would check Toyota's website as well to see if they offer any lease deals on the 2009's the next few weeks. The best deals on lefovers are always right around a new model release.

Good Luck.

 

pricing for 2010 is available on PC homepage, have you looked at it?

 

As Dave said...'Just Do It'. You actually have a very very good deal because most leases are based on 12K or 15K miles. You have actually rolled in the 'over-miles' up to 20K annually so that makes the payment very good. Your money upfront covering the state taxes and DMV fees along with the first month payment is not outrageous.

As opposed to many others, I am 100% in favor of leasing, I've had 5 leased vehicles. In fact until you pay off a loan on a purchased vehicle you own 'nothing'. If one can get an attractive lease rate IMO it's always better financially to rent the depreciating asset rather than to buy something that will eventually be worthless. consider if you buy a vehicle for cash....the instant you drive it off the lot it becomes USED and thus the value drops by at least $1000-$3000. That's an expensive trip over the curb, like setting money on fire.

That being said if you really like the vehicle that you rent you can buy it at any time up until the end of the lease. My wife and I have purchased two of our leases after testing them out for a year or two.

 

I went in last night to put deposit on 2010 package #3. My friend came with me wanting to trade her 08 camry in for 2009 prius package #2. When they came back with #s, they wanted $23,400 for the 09 package #2.
I was SHOCKED!! They just quoted me MSRP price off their 2010 list and they weren't going any less on the 09s yet??
I know they have some time. But aren't dealers limited to supply...like wouldn't they get MORE 2010s in to sell if they could sell more 09s to make room? Wouldn't they want to do this?? And they were really playing up the "well, if you want a specific color or package you should act now cause we won't have many left. We've already sold 8 in 2 weeks (which they had)" but let's not pretend there aren't thousands still coming into the dealers.

They really didn't seem to eager to budge (could be good poker skills on their part) but I said to my friend (in front of salesperson), "Just put a deposit down on the 2010. You'll have to wait 6 weeks but you're in no hurry and you'll get a better car for the same price."

She would lose the touch screen and back-up camera that she likes but she'd also get rid of the troublesome bladder, get seat height adjustment her husband whined about, and get improvements everywhere else FOR SAME PRICE.

I'm not sure about leasing. I am also sure they will lease the 2010s eventually but are you willing to wait 9 months to a year??? But keep in mind the 09 WILL depreciate faster, esp. when consumers have so many other hybrid options now so they are being pickier.

GOOD LUCK!!

 

well another thing you need to look at is

1) leasing is not a priority for a car company, so we are looking at intro's from mid may to late June. you being east coast, i am guessing you in the latter. sorry but Geography rules here probably. so we are looking at minimum 2 months to wait maybe longer.

2) as with any new product intro, they will not be budging on the price as far as dealer incentives until they are sure the product is not moving. i am sure i would bet against the 2010 not being popular at least for the first few months.

3) now one thing we need to keep in mind is that no matter how much better the 2010 is, that does not make the 2009 any worse.

i know its a tough decision and i liken it to getting a new cellphone or TV. now matter what you get today, tomorrow there WILL BE something better. but how long are you willing to wait to get exactly what you want?

 

Let me shed some light on some of the points made here so far. My background: In Auto sales for 16 years. Spent 12 of them in the business (finance) office. I was also the lease manager for a Cadillac store that consisted of 70% leasing. Also, and I want to make this perfectly clear, I have no vested interest in this deal. I do not know the OP, the dealer, or the pricing in her area.

Ok, now that the little asterisk is covered , the deal your are getting on the 09 is good. The 2010 will not be nearly as attractive. I venture to say that it will be around $100 more per month. Maybe more. Your residual might be a little higher, but your money factor will go up to almost 7% after conversion, .00285 before. Coupled with the fact that there will be very little discounting on the 2010, that is how I arrive at my numbers. If the deal is comfortable for your budget, go ahead and do it. Only one caveat though. Do you pay taxes on the residual amount when you buy the car at the end of the lease (in Illinois you do). Since I am not familiar with your taxes in Vermont, I can't help in that area.

I'll try to dispel some myths that I read in this thread about leasing (and I freely volunteer that leasing is not for everyone in every case. Many factors determine whether leasing is good for you or not).

1) Money down is fine. It directly lowers your payment just like when you put money down on a purchase. I'll use an extreme example to justify my thought process. Based on your numbers Skdoula, if you put $9,314 ($22,448 - $13,134) down on the lease (plus taxes and fees), you would have no payments for 3 years. So money down directly affects the difference between your selling price and the residual, not just the selling price like most people assume.

2) "I'll never lease because you don't own the car after 3 years. I paid all this money and have nothing to show for it." Correct. What you have paid for is 3 years worth of driving. If you financed the vehicle for 60 months, at the end of three years, you don't own the vehicle either. The bank does. The only thing you own is 2 more years worth of payments. Most people here have traded in a vehicle after 3 years on a 5 year purchase. How much equity did you really have? Maybe $1,000-$2,000 after the vehicle payoff? But, you have to factor in that you paid more money over the last 3 years. Again, using Skdoula's numbers. At $22,448 plus taxes (I'll assume $24,500 after taxes and fees), and using $2,000 down, your 60 month payment would be around $450. That is a $200 per month difference. Over the course of 36 months, that is over $7,000 less then she would have paid. Even if her vehicle after 3 years on a 5 year purchase (she still owes almost $11,000) is worth $16,000 (it won't be with 60k miles on it given the new model being released), it would still be cheaper for her to lease it.

Skdoula, I hope some of this makes sense to you. Basically, in this particular case, leasing is the best option for you as long as you don't drive more than 20k miles a year.

Jeff

 

Borrow the money from the bank and pay cash upfront. You'll get a better interest rate. Or, save until you can afford to pay cash.

There's a reason that GMAC was the only profitable part of GM - for a while, anyway.

The Personal Contract Purchase deal I got talked into, structured much like this deal, would have cost £5,000, or one-third, more over the whole contract. It actually cost me about £1,000 as I realised what I'd done and paid it off early.

 

People love to say that, and somehow accept it as true, yet I am sure that a person could literally stand next to a dealer's lot and offer people such money to buy their cars every day for months and get zero takers...

If that 'the moment you drive it off the lot' were actually true, people would be doing the above with success.

 

Generally-speaking, leasing is the worst way to get a car because you are overpaying right off the bat...to the tune of 15%+. This is why all the financial experts out there *strongly* urge against leasing a car unless you have a business in which you can write-off the entire expense. You would be better off waiting for those '09s to drop in price (and they will, they sure will). Your chance of getting a new '09 for somewhere in the $17K price is pretty good as the '10s roll out en masse.

Personally I think $22K is now overpriced for an '09 pkg II. Timing is everything. Better to wait, save up your $$ and get a much better deal on a purchase of an '09 rather than leasing. IMHO.