Featured Everything you need to know about leasing a BEV or PHEV—Consumer Reports

So they say leasing can be fine. Only thing is roughly only one out of 5 lease cars.
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Here's what they're offering @ the local dealership, (2) bZ4X in stock. $29,500 over 39 month period, if you purchase at lease end. Didn't calculate tax, license, title, since you'll incur that cost anyway you slice it......
Not bad, considering the MSRP is $45K.

Had to make an adjustment, missed the $350 disposition fee.


Special Lease - $239 per month for 39 months
Details: $1999 due at signing. Qualified lessees can lease a new 2024 bZ4X 2WD Wagon XLE Battery Electric Vehicle Model 2870 for $239 per month for 39 months with $1,999 Due At Signing. Based on 12,000 miles/yr. Security Deposit waived. Lease includes $16,250 cash incentive and excludes tax, title, license, registration fees, and dealer options and charges.Each bZ4X comes with Toyota Safety Sense (TSS 3) - a suite of advanced safety features which include: Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Automatic High Beams, Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection function and Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist - at no additional cost.Includes Two Years No Cost Maintenance with 24-Hour Roadside Assistance
Terms available on approved credit through Toyota Financial Services (TFS) at participating Toyota dealers. Not all customers qualify. Lease example based on 2024 bZ4X 2WD Wagon XLE Battery Electric Vehicle Model 2870 with Total SRP of $45,199, net capitalized cost of $26,480, and a lease end purchase amount of $17,176. $1,999 Due At Signing includes $1,110 customer down payment, first month's payment of $239 for 39 months, and $650 Acquisition Fee. Security deposit required with exception of prior Toyota Financial Services (TFS) financing history and/or TFS credit rating in which a security deposit may be waived. Tax, title, license are extra. $16,250 cash from TMS must be applied as a capitalized cost reduction (down payment) that is excluded from due at signing; no cash back option. Dealer contribution may vary and could affect lease payment. Individual dealer prices, monthly payment, and other terms and offers may vary. Must lease from participating dealer's stock and terms are subject to vehicle availability. Lessee responsible for maintenance, excess wear and use, and will pay $0.15 per mile for all mileage over 12,000 miles per year. $350 disposition fee is due at lease end. Cannot be combined with TFS Finance Cash, Down Payment Assistance, Trade-in Assistance, Customer Cash, APR, Finance Subvention Cash. Offer available in CA regardless of buyer's residency; void where prohibited. Expires 01-06-2025. Dealer sets final price. See your participating Toyota dealer for details. Toyota Financial Services is a service mark used by Toyota Motor Credit Corporation (TMCC). Retail installment accounts may be owned by TMCC or its securitization affiliates and lease accounts may be owned by Toyota Lease Trust (TLT) or its securitization affiliates. TMCC is the servicer for accounts owned by TMCC, TLT, and their securitization affiliates.
Expires: 01-06-2025

 

With the exception of the EV1, leasing turns new cars into affordable used cars with residual warranty. Those cars become excellent buys in part because leasing leads to better maintenance. Furthermore, the leased service corrects early infantile problems. It is my recommendation when adopting a new technology.

If the new technology doesn't work out, the car can be sold with little loss of value but lesson's learned. Only the 2017 Prius Prime, sad to say, taught valuable lessons about EV range and control laws in a PHEV. It was the 2014 BMW i3-REx that showed by example what a PHEV should be.

Bob Wilson

 

i've never been able to distinguish between a good lease price and a purchase price. so many variables, and the few lease come ons i have pursued fell apart at the dealer level.

 

Personal experience from leased 14 PiP - already knew I had muddy looking oil before 5k service and wanted to see if they'd notice. They didn't ! I changed it myself after the service. I wouldn't go near the dealer the misses wanted to use for the Primes 30 month free, but wound up having to fix a few things at 36k like the brakes, besides noticing that the tires weren't rotated until the last free service.
Service and Maintenance? guess it all depends who you are and what you expect from a service provider.

 

The 2017 Prius Prime "EPA sticker" did not mention a maximum 16 A, J1772 charging rate. It also didn't mention below 55 F, the control laws would trigger gas engine operation. Those are basic engineering flaws that I suffered by owning it for a year. Which is why I traded it in for a 2019 Tesla Model 3:

• 2017 Prius Prime - 16 A, J1772 (3.8 kW) only
  • 2014 BMW i3-REx - 30 A, J1772 (7.2 kW) and CCS-1 charging (50 kW)
  • 2017 Tesla Model 3 - 32 A, J1772 (7.6 kW) and J3400 charging (178 kW peak)
• 2017 Prius Prime - below 55 F, flooring the accelerator starts the gas engine
  • 2014 BMW i3-REx - flooring the accelerator never starts the gas engine
  • 2017 Tesla Model 3 - there ain't no engine

Bob Wilson

 

What about ...... ?
misstatements make others question all other statements.

Tesla in cold weather – your questions, answered | Hertz.

riddle: What makes such ridiculous statements suspect, when (for example) 80% of cars sold in frigid Norway now days are electric?
(disclaimer; at -22°f Teslas have more issues with operation then a gasser when it's extremely frigid for extended periods .... so don't drive it in Kazakhstan, or Siberia during those seasons)

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*shrug*

For my money leasing is great when you want to know the total cost of ownership from day one.

Purchasing is often less expensive, but definitely less predictable because you don't know how much you'll recover in eventual resale or trade.

Taxes (and rebates) were always just the extra point to help decide.

 

continuing story from #6 above: I had some $ denaro and decided to use it up front and put it down on a 2 year commitment for the 14 PiP. It turned out nicely with a sub 200 payment schedule. My salesman was wonderful, transaction went like clockwork and after talking with me, he (the salesman) decided to get a PiP too. I'd been waiting a long time for a plug (would have liked a C with a plug more) but wasn't complaining. Still don't understand other members pushing the ' no way a C can be more efficient than the regular Prius ' and all the other nonsense that gets posted by the legal, engineers and math wizzs here, misdirecting all over the place.
Who knows, I may be calling the kettle black, anyways, we'll see how the future shakes out <<$>> eventually.

Shortly after getting the Blizzard Pearl 14 PiP base, I attended the TGB4 meetup in Boston. Met a lot of Prius people and Prius small business owners that produced after market parts, accessories for Prius and shared lodging with 2 of those owners. I had a great time to start off my Prius adventure at the TGB4 meetup.
Some might find this part funny, but I drove to Boston in our Civic Hybrid and was excited about the hills on I-90 - Mass Pike, north of Hartford. It exercised the Honda IMA at 70 mph in a way I'd never seen in that car.
Talk about draining the pack going up and regen ing over the tops ( both the hills and the battery pack ).
Oh, this thread is about leasing. Did I mention, I lost one of my PiP keys the day before turn in date. Talk about frustrating. I had no time to source a new key and had to pay dealer cost for the replacement.
And we all should know by now what that looked like. I wasn't happy, but I got over it, eventually. ( )

 

I'd a got on line real quick & bought a cheep/sketchy FOB on ebay (from experience - near 50% un-reprogramable for one reason or another) & handed both over to the sales crater.

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KBB says my 5 year old 40k miles '19 Rav4 hybrid would sell for about $7,500 less than I paid for it if sold in a private sale. 2 cents a mile in depreciation.

Someday I ought to add up service costs. They would be high for me since I replace things on a time basis and not on a mileage basis and I do services more frequently than Toyota recommends.

 

Not sure what you mean. Disclaimer was almost no one in the world except for 2 extreamly fridged areas of the world are less practical then a gasser ... & it's where Tesla's aren't sold anyway. Despite not being sold in either of the 2 countries, there are still several hundred Tesla's that have been imported into Russia. So even there - they didn't buy into your, "teslas don't run in frigid weather" FUD
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Must be frustrating to consider there's thousands of EVS in remote/cold areas like Wyoming & the Dakotas where drivers trek every frigid winter - despite the chicken little crowd crying "the cold temperature sky is falling".
This Region Has the Fewest Electric Vehicles. Here&#039;s Why. &#8226; Stateline

Probably best to never move from Paramount out to where harsh winters & a mere 3.9% of USA population live. It cause too much fearfulnes & all

 

My apologies @Gokhan, I didn't read it close enough:

Regardless, it taught me a valuable lesson on what NOT to buy. Fine print does not cure an inferior product. So I traded it in for a 2019 Tesla Model 3 about a year later.

My bitterness and resentment of that 2017 Prius Prime remains today. Pointing to the fine print just rubs salt in an old wound. That bad, $10,000 'depreciation' removed any confidence in Toyota engineering and I've never looked back. Thank you, a public service.

Bob Wilson