A very public lease in Portland

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hookemducks

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2015
Messages
8
Hey all,

I am considering leasing a 2015 Spark EV from one of the Portland area Chevy dealers.

To simplify the process, I will be communicating with dealers only via e-mail, and will post the content here, with their knowledge.

I will spell out the details of my proposed lease terms here and to the dealers, and see how it unfolds. I'm shooting for an excellent deal, and will not budge from it, unless there is some detail I am missing and need to tweak.

If I don't get the deal I'm after, then I will wait to buy a used EV in a few years, since the prices seem to be plummeting. I enjoy my current ICE (2006 Mini Cooper S JCW), so no biggie if it doesn't work out this time around.

This is sort of a social experiment, one that I hope to benefit me, the dealer and prospective EV leasees.

Stay tuned...
 
hookemducks said:
Hey all,

I am considering leasing a 2015 Spark EV from one of the Portland area Chevy dealers.

To simplify the process, I will be communicating with dealers only via e-mail, and will post the content here, with their knowledge.

I will spell out the details of my proposed lease terms here and to the dealers, and see how it unfolds. I'm shooting for an excellent deal, and will not budge from it, unless there is some detail I am missing and need to tweak.

If I don't get the deal I'm after, then I will wait to buy a used EV in a few years, since the prices seem to be plummeting. I enjoy my current ICE (2006 Mini Cooper S JCW), so no biggie if it doesn't work out this time around.

This is sort of a social experiment, one that I hope to benefit me, the dealer and prospective EV leasees.

Stay tuned...

With a lease you will not get to use the federal tax credit. What other rebates are available to you in your city, county & state to help offset the cost of the lease?
 
Wentworth publicly lists the best deal that you'll get on a new lease:

http://www.wentworthchevrolet.com/portland-chevy-spark-special-discount-offers-oregon

If your "excellent deal" is shooting for a lower price than this, I think you're likely to be disappointed. The dealers are hardly making any money as it is on these deals, and they sell every single one they can get at these prices without any special efforts, so there's no reason for them to be dropping prices. Supply is low, and due to these very low prices, demand is higher than supply.

If you were trying to purchase, I expect you'd get a bigger variance from one dealer to the next and from one state to the next. With leasing at this extremely low price point, the variability is low, and Wentworth has publicly advertised the most aggressive lease rates in Oregon (to my knowledge).

Good luck!

Bryce
 
With a lease you will not get to use the federal tax credit. What other rebates are available to you in your city, county & state to help offset the cost of the lease?

Well, I figure that the leasing company(GM) will get the Fed $7500, so that is what I base my discount on. I am not aware of any other local rebates...would love to know if I'm missing something.

Wentworth publicly lists the best deal that you'll get on a new lease:

http://www.wentworthchevrolet.com/portl ... ers-oregon

If your "excellent deal" is shooting for a lower price than this, I think you're likely to be disappointed. The dealers are hardly making any money as it is on these deals, and they sell every single one they can get at these prices without any special efforts, so there's no reason for them to be dropping prices. Supply is low, and due to these very low prices, demand is higher than supply.

If you were trying to purchase, I expect you'd get a bigger variance from one dealer to the next and from one state to the next. With leasing at this extremely low price point, the variability is low, and Wentworth has publicly advertised the most aggressive lease rates in Oregon (to my knowledge).

Yeah, I noticed their add. Thank you for the reality check on inventory and prices. The thing is though, as I looked at reviews of the local dealerships, I became less enthralled with the idea of dealing with these businesses. I'm hesitant even with a screaming deal to do this based on the mixed reviews. So I'm thinking I'll put together an offer that is worthwhile to me, keeping the potential negatives in mind.

Here's what I'm thinking:

A Blue Spark EV 1LT with blue cloth interior.
MSRP: $25995
Base cap cost: $18495
Acquisition fee: $400
$0 down payment
Adjusted Cap Cost: $18895
Residual Value: $16897 (65%)
Money factor: .00125
Monthly Payment: $100.24
Terms: 36 months

Or
MSRP: $25995
Base cap cost: $18495
Acquisition fee: $0
$0 down payment
Adjusted Cap Cost: $18495
Residual Value: $16377 (63%)
Money factor: .00125
Monthly Payment: $102.42
Terms: 36 months

$0 disposal fee or turn-in fee.
10,000 miles per year.

Thanks guys for chiming in!
 
hookemducks said:
With a lease you will not get to use the federal tax credit. What other rebates are available to you in your city, county & state to help offset the cost of the lease?

Well, I figure that the leasing company(GM) will get the Fed $7500, so that is what I base my discount on. I am not aware of any other local rebates...would love to know if I'm missing something.

Wentworth publicly lists the best deal that you'll get on a new lease:

http://www.wentworthchevrolet.com/portl ... ers-oregon

If your "excellent deal" is shooting for a lower price than this, I think you're likely to be disappointed. The dealers are hardly making any money as it is on these deals, and they sell every single one they can get at these prices without any special efforts, so there's no reason for them to be dropping prices. Supply is low, and due to these very low prices, demand is higher than supply.

If you were trying to purchase, I expect you'd get a bigger variance from one dealer to the next and from one state to the next. With leasing at this extremely low price point, the variability is low, and Wentworth has publicly advertised the most aggressive lease rates in Oregon (to my knowledge).

Yeah, I noticed their add. Thank you for the reality check on inventory and prices. The thing is though, as I looked at reviews of the local dealerships, I became less enthralled with the idea of dealing with these businesses. I'm hesitant even with a screaming deal to do this based on the mixed reviews. So I'm thinking I'll put together an offer that is worthwhile to me, keeping the potential negatives in mind.

Here's what I'm thinking:

A Blue Spark EV 1LT with blue cloth interior.
MSRP: $25995
Base cap cost: $18495
Acquisition fee: $400
$0 down payment
Adjusted Cap Cost: $18895
Residual Value: $16897 (65%)
Money factor: .00125
Monthly Payment: $100.24
Terms: 36 months

Or
MSRP: $25995
Base cap cost: $18495
Acquisition fee: $0
$0 down payment
Adjusted Cap Cost: $18495
Residual Value: $16377 (63%)
Money factor: .00125
Monthly Payment: $102.42
Terms: 36 months

$0 disposal fee or turn-in fee.
10,000 miles per year.

Thanks guys for chiming in!

To be clear, the reference "advertised best price" from Wentworth is listed as $4,793 total lease cost according to the fine print for the 10,000 miles/year for 3 years. This is currently the cheapest EV lease available in the market, to my knowledge (compare to Fiat 500e, smart electric drive, Nissan Leaf, etc.). You're asking for approximately $800-1000 total lease cost below this already-lowest-in-the-market price. That surely eats into any margin the dealer might possibly have made pushing one of these off the lot. Back when GM sold their record volume of the Spark EV in April of this year, they made a short burst of volume available and dropped their prices pretty close to (but still above) your target price. You might have missed the boat on that very short window of time that GM dropped the price to see how the market reacted. Timing is everything! ;)

It's good to have ambitious goals, but keep this in mind when considering your target price. Like I said...good luck!

Bryce
 
Thank you for the perspective Bryce. This is very helpful.

Maybe it's better to use this as a starting point for negotiation rather than be completely firm with it. That is, if I actually want a deal to happen.
 
Nashco said:
Wentworth publicly lists the best deal that you'll get on a new lease:

http://www.wentworthchevrolet.com/portland-chevy-spark-special-discount-offers-oregon

If your "excellent deal" is shooting for a lower price than this, I think you're likely to be disappointed. The dealers are hardly making any money as it is on these deals, and they sell every single one they can get at these prices without any special efforts, so there's no reason for them to be dropping prices. Supply is low, and due to these very low prices, demand is higher than supply.

If you were trying to purchase, I expect you'd get a bigger variance from one dealer to the next and from one state to the next. With leasing at this extremely low price point, the variability is low, and Wentworth has publicly advertised the most aggressive lease rates in Oregon (to my knowledge).

Good luck!

Bryce

That's a very competitive price being offered. From the data points in the other threads (including mine), I'd be surprised if you do much better. Dublin Chevy has a 'come on' ad for $99 a month, but when you call they are magically out of stock and no dealer will match it (at least in SoCal).

Purchasing doesn't make sense at these rates - their is only a $1k rebate for purchasing vs. $10350+$1500 incentives on the lease (inc. the $7500), so you would be smarter to go with a single payment lease and then buy the car out than to finance the full amount.
 
I've negotiated an excellent lease with a local dealer, and I will report how it finalizes after we get the car. Selling my ICE car this weekend, then going to get the Spark.

The dealer would rather that I not share the deal they gave me, because they can't be doing it on a regular basis.
 
So whatever happened? Did you get the Spark EV? What was the rate you got it at? What started as a "very public" deal sure went quiet...

Bryce
 
I know, I should have wrapped this thread up. The dealer wanted to keep it quiet because of how good a deal it was. In the meantime, I had second thoughts about selling my current car, that I really enjoy. So for now, I am holding off on pursuing the Spark EV.

One thing I have recognized about purchasing/leasing decisions, is that it's always best to be patient. When I take my time, I typically decide to not go forward with a purchase. That seems to be what is happening here, however in this case, the EV pencils out to be a fairly comparable cost to own over the next few years to keeping my car. So Its not a matter of saving money. It's more about leasing vs owning what I have, and keeping it simple.

So, this thread is probably over, unless I come back to it later.

Sorry for starting something and then letting it slide!
 
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