Leasing a Prius Plug In

judging by the trade in value of the pip after one year, i'd say that leasing is the ONLY way to go. of course, i purchased.

 

Definitely, lease, it's much cheaper

 

I leased my PiP and couldn't be happier. Once the 2015 PiP's are out I can trade up or just purchase the one I have now if I choose. I had a 2010 Gen3 prior and love the upgrade. Even with the battery depleted I still average 4-8mpg better.

 

everyone has their own perspective, but my thinking is that i'd like to own the vehicle in a few years, then be able to enjoy the benefit of low fuel costs in addition to no car payments. if you always lease, you never have that chance.

 

At this point, I would go with leasing, because in just a few years, they'll have a model with much better range. The EV component was an afterthought IMO, just so Toyota could compete with other EVs on the market, but the next gen should have better integration, hopefully better range because of better battery placement/chemistry, updated interface, etc.

That's not to say the Plug-in is a bad car, I just wouldn't buy it if you think there is a TINY chance you might like the plug-in aspect. The plug-in is an EV with training wheels, it's a gateway drug

 

The Prius Plug-in is marketed (where it is marketed at all ) as a very efficient hybrid with a plug-in tweak. The Volt is marketed as primarily an EV with an ICE range extender. Different products.

It's so frustrating to see all those Toyota ads on TV, with no mention of the PlugIn. And I am talking about ads that mention the Prius, not he-man trucks advertised during sporting events. And they wonder why sales are lagging?? It almost makes you think that they really don't want them to sell, beyond what they need to satisfy government requirements.

 

all that being said, it's still a matter of residual vs trade in or private sales value.

 

Crunch the numbers and decide.

 

I bought mine and paying $417 a month (before $2,500 tax credit ). Got 0% finance for 60 months so why not.

It looks like the lease for PiP Base in CA is about $300 a month. If you can pay $100 per month more, you can actually own the PiP after 5 years.

Not sure about the lease in the East Coast tho.

 

Toyota has $5300 in lease cash through the end of June on the PiP, which makes it lease slightly LESS than a regular Prius. I saw it perusing their website; one two of the dealers I contacted "weren't aware" of it; though one did come to his senses.

The Prius body style suited our needs perfectly' the Plug In was icing on the cake. Daily commute is 11 miles round trip, so its all good

 

My Local Dealer has 2012 Advanced Models Brand New 5 MI on OD 32 K

 

In response to the people that say resale is looking bad, true but it's very relative to what you paid for it. If you were an early adopter than yes you are taking a bath. If you bought here recently or in the near future I don't think the resale value is an issue considering we are paying only slightly more than a Gen3 III.

 

Fred
Replying to your original post...since you have leased before, therefore are very familiar with the basic pros/cons of leasing, and the PIP has an enormous amount of obsolescence-heavy technology, and the next generation is very likely to eclipse the capabilities of this generation, and the factory and federal incentives have driven resale values very low, and the money factor essentially translates to or near zero interest, and you can always decide to buy the vehicle after the lease has run its term, I believe that it makes sense to lease the PIP.

Given that you will have a closed end lease, you are guaranteed two things at lease end; you will not have negative equity (a very real possibility if you buy and finance for more than three years), and will know the price to purchase (which you can easily compare to market value at that time).

I have two PIPs, both are leased. I would not have made any other decision on this vehicle.

One word of advice for all lessors; buy gap insurance. It runs about $10/month on a 36 month lease. You can pay for it up front, but I highly recommend burying it into the lease.

You will love this car! Please let us know what you decide.
Jim

 

+1 in regard to GAP coverage. I believe I paid $299 for piece of mind. Well worthit IMO.

 

I spoke with my accountant years ago about leasing; he warned me against it.

You only a tax deduction equivalent to your tax bracket; if you're at 25% tax rate, you get a quarter of your lease money back.

Terrible deal. Avoid the attractive offers and buy instead.

 

But your accountant wasn't accounting for rapid technology changes, or battery degradation, battery improvements, etc. Leasing can make sense when it comes to EVs. I recently saw a poll (believe it was for the LEAF), where over 50% had leased the LEAF, simply because of the so many unknowns associated with EVs.

If you don't plan to keep the car for 5 years (meaning used car value matters, etc.) then definitely don't ignore the option. Here's an interesting guide about the used EV market.

 

Hello. We previously ordered a 2007 Touring #6 brand new in super white. Great car. Sold it with good timing after a few years, and got most of our investment back.

Just having sold our last vehicle, we were looking to buy a Prius package 3 in June 2013 for cash (didn't care for the synthetic leather), but ended up leasing a 2013 Plug In Prius Base to get the big incentive. It's packaged like a #3, with dark interior, plus the addition of heated cloth front seats, remote air conditioning, upgraded PIP-specific aluminum wheels, and a few cosmetic touches.

Ours is white (Blizzard Pearl), an extra cost paint, with total MSRP $33415. There was virtually no interest on the lease (.0001 factor), so we just paid the first payment of $293. 35 more payments of $293 (with 6% MI sales tax included). This is for 15k miles per year, even though we usually only drive about 10-12k (we may go down to 1 car, both working from home, and we are buying it at the end anyway). So, if we take the 6% sales tax out of the payment, we have 276.42 per month x 36 = $9951. The 36mo/15k buyout on our car is $16900 and change, and we intend to buy it at the end, and keep it another year, two, three. So, we have an effective purchase price of $26850 + tax on the $33415 car. $6565 off MSRP, including paying the $650 lease acquisition fee in the payment. Some may have found a better deal, but we are very pleased with this. By the way, you can pay off the lease at any time, and/or pay off the entire car. We could give Toyota Financial the payoff today, pay the remainder of the MI sales tax, and then it's owned free and clear. But with the $650 acquisition fee already calculated in the lease, and the option to turn it in if something goes awry, why not ride it out for the 36 months, and see what happens?

They don't officially bring the Plug In to Michigan, so I traveled for it. Buffalo, NY would have been much closer, but I found an exquisite dealership with an amazing Internet department, called Acton Toyota in Littleton, MA. Shawn G was my rep. That area had $5500 lease cash, which the dealership gave us all of, plus sold it under invoice (there is only about $1300 from invoice to MSRP on a Plug In, which is crazy on a 33415 car, but...there must have been a volume incentive from Toyota to cut it that much). It was an advertised special on the dealership's website. I just emailed, confirmed the terms, and said, I'll take one in white. They didn't even charge me extra for the extra cost paint.

They picked me up at the Manchester, NH airport, free lunch at the dealership's restaurant, and had everything perfectly in order. I was in and out in 45 minutes, including lunch. Right to the turnpike with no Boston traffic, because they are in the burbs. Stayed in a fantastic eco-hotel called Hotel Skyler (with dedicated EV parking, but no plug) in Syracuse, NY that night...$90 on Priceline, which I booked in 3 minutes after pulling over immediately after a toll booth on the turnpike. Dined at a James Beard chef's restaurant called Parisa. The next day, Sunday, I headed for home, and was lucky to hit 4pm happy hour at Iron Chef Michael Simon's Lolita in Cleveland, OH...a delightful neighborhood spot. The car is so easy and comfortable to drive that I didn't mind the extra 2 hours for not going through Canada. A few hours later, I was back home in the suburbs of metro Detroit at 7:45pm.

If you don't mind a road trip - and working from home, I kind of miss them - I couldn't recommend this dealership, or my rep Shawn, highly enough. For those curious, I was going as fast as possible without getting stopped on the way home, and got 46mpg (no plug in at all). At home, we charge as much as practical without obsessing, and get 60mpg combined, which is slowly increasing. The shorter the trips, and the more frequent the charging of course, the higher your combined mpg. Some people never use gas. DTE energy here locally will install a dedicated, breakered 240v circuit, to code, and install a complimentary charging station for free (up to $2500 total)...and then sell you off-peak electricity at half price. It's not necessary for our particular driving and charging needs (and the PIP's tiny charge), as the included charger fills it up very quickly. But we may try it anyway. That's our story. We could not be more pleased with the car.

 

could you please tell me what the sale price was on the car then....you said it was under invoice? We are thinking to do the same thing in NJ/PA...talking to two dealers now. They must really need to get rid of the Plug ins.NJ has a $6300. lease bonus cash incentive on the plug ins. but we would love to start with an under invoice price. like you did. Thanks.

 

Glad to. The contract shows the "selling price" of the vehicle is $31472.00 According to TMV, our white car has a MSRP of $33415 (which is correct), and a dealer invoice of $32007. Not much mark up.

But there is a $650 lease acquisition fee by Toyota Financial. This dealer added a $290 dealer fee (doc fee), which I didn't say anything about since they were selling at a nice discount, and they didn't charge me extra, over the advertised special, for the $395 extra cost paint. And there was a minor $17.63 fee of some kind called "taxes" (license plate, title and registration were done back here in MI).

This brought the total cap cost up to 32429.63 including all above fees

We only paid the first payment to start the lease, 294.02

So, the entire $5500 lease cash went towards "down payment" referred to as "capitalized cost reduction."

Adjusted cap cost 26929.78

Residual buyout 16960.00 (and you can buy it directly from Toyota Financial with no added fee).

So, that makes the 36 month, 15k miles per year total depreciation $9969.78 (If a 12k miles per year lease was chosen, instead of 15k, the depreciation amount would be less, so the payment would be lower, and the residual/buyout value would be higher, since the lessee is not depreciating the car as much with mileage. Pretty simple.)

Divide by 36 = 276.94 monthly depreciation (the "payment" before interest and state sales/use tax).

The total payment with 6% MI tax is 294.02 (with tax being 16.64 per month). 294.02 total payment minus 16.64 tax minus 276.94 monthly depreciation = $0.44/month interest. Or 15.84 interest for 3 years. You could say Toyota financial is only "financing" the $9969 in depreciation, but it is also deferring/carrying the $16960 residual along for 3 years at no additional cost. Basically zero interest. (note they do get the $650 acquisition fee up front, so you could figure out an effective interest rate from that, but I won't go that far

Sorry to give that ugly lease calculation on such a beautiful car. But many people are not clear on how a lease works: monthly depreciation + interest (if any) + state sales/use tax (if any) = total monthly payment.

If you are near Boston, or even if you're far like us, I would definitely recommend contacting the Internet Specialist Shawn G at Acton Toyota. We have no connection to him or this dealership, other than the plug in lease. And we did the entire deal by email, no phone calls. Although they had 4 white Plug Ins when we first contacted them, some up to 60 days old on the lot, Shawn was kind enough to get a fresh incoming white unit right off the truck for us, detail and inspect it to verify perfection, and then keep it inside during all those nasty thunderstorms in June...for over a week. I mean, c'mon. Dealers always want the oldest unit sold first. But he did that for us.

I don't know if this forum allows email addresses, but Shawn's appears below. I'm sure he would be glad to answer a question for anyone here, even if you're not buying from him. Super nice guy. Feel free to reference our deal and/or this forum if you contact him.

shawn.gormley at actontoyota . c