Mercedes Lease

[PlasticOrPlastic]

I currently drive a Cadillac CTS, and love the car but soon I'll be doing a career change, and the payments just wont fit my budget.  I've been looking at leasing a Mercedes CLA, in order to drop my payments.  I guess I'm just a bit confused about the down payment ($3700) some people say not to do it because even with GAP insurance if you total the car your DP is gone and you get nothing.  Is there room to negotiate the DP?  I've never leased before so I've just been reading up on what to expect.  I read the sticky about leasing but it says the same thing "dont put down a large amount".   Anybody have any experience with this? 

[redshift1]

Most dealers will roll the lease downpayment in to the monthy charge. Usually they need about $1500-$2000 for first months payment and fees associated with the transaction. That said your monthy payment will increase more than you might imagine. I was looking at a Porsche lease of about $600 per month with  about 6-7K down,

rolling all but about $1900 in to the monthy payment increased the monthy to $1050.  Call the internet specialist at one of the MB dealerships and they can calculate the difference,  takes about 2-3 minutes. 

[ExplicitElicit]

The reason I would never put a large DP is for the reason you stated, you could loose it if the vehicle were deemed a total loss. Another reason is because of State taxes, you will still need to pay taxes on that amount, even if you roll it into the lease you'll still pay it slowly over the life of the lease. All leases are negotiable, so you should be able to settle on even ground with the dealer.

[PlasticOrPlastic]

Thanks a lot to you both! 

I'll have to talk with my salesman.  The $350 payment looks really good but if I roll the DP into the price it pushes me up closer to my current car payment, sort of defeats my purpose.  Thanks again for the replies.

[Creditaddict]

"most" cars can give even lower drive off costs and lower monthly payments then what is advertised.

Look at Inifniti, they have some amazing lease deals and I have seen as little as about $650 down and the most I put down was $1100 on a 24 month premium with navigation (all things that are not even in the lease special advertised)

you can make an INQ on a car off a dealer website and ask for numbers based on minimum drive off, 24 months or 27, I tend to not like 36+, 10, 12k miles a year what ever you want and they can give you those numbers.

[PlasticOrPlastic]

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@Creditaddict wrote:

"most" cars can give even lower drive off costs and lower monthly payments then what is advertised.

Look at Inifniti, they have some amazing lease deals and I have seen as little as about $650 down and the most I put down was $1100 on a 24 month premium with navigation (all things that are not even in the lease special advertised)

you can make an INQ on a car off a dealer website and ask for numbers based on minimum drive off, 24 months or 27, I tend to not like 36+, 10, 12k miles a year what ever you want and they can give you those numbers.

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What Inifiti did you go with CA?  I was looking at them as well but I haven't seen many good deals in my area. 

[Creditaddict]

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@PlasticOrPlastic wrote:

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@Creditaddict wrote:

"most" cars can give even lower drive off costs and lower monthly payments then what is advertised.

Look at Inifniti, they have some amazing lease deals and I have seen as little as about $650 down and the most I put down was $1100 on a 24 month premium with navigation (all things that are not even in the lease special advertised)

you can make an INQ on a car off a dealer website and ask for numbers based on minimum drive off, 24 months or 27, I tend to not like 36+, 10, 12k miles a year what ever you want and they can give you those numbers.

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What Inifiti did you go with CA?  I was looking at them as well but I haven't seen many good deals in my area. 

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nothing at this point.