2017~2024 Lease end conditions and possible charges?

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I'm considering leasing a CX-5. I'm wondering what Mazda's requirements are at lease end that i would have to pay for. I did a search and found info from a dealer website that Mazda will not charge up to $1000 for excess wear and tear
or any other issues like dings, etc. Is this true?

Are there any other things for me to know about what Mazda expects at lease end? I've leased other brands before and they do not charge for scratches, dents, dings smaller than a certain size. Thanks.
 
Mazda leases are now serviced by Toyota Financials through a partnership. Used to be Chase until late 2019 or early 2020 but no more.
Somebody with a recent lease may be able to give exact details.

What I heard about Toyota Financial Mazda is that they dont offer built in gap coverage for the duration of the lease, so one has to pay for gap coverage separately.
With Chase it used to be included if you maintain normal insurance with certain max deductions.
Also the up to 1000 for dmgs on lease return was a Chase lease thing. Same for lease end fee. There was only a 50 usd fee I think.

Not sure if new leases have that as well for lease end fee. Be careful since not all dealers websites are up to date. One would assume its a bit different given that its a different company giving the money now and servicing the leases.
Again, one who leased in the last 1 year can give more specific details on the recent lease contracts.

The rest should be the usual for any lease. Dont dmg the car, decent tire thread upon return, no dings to windshield, etc. And one always has the option to 'tradein' the lease before expiration and get into a new car thus skippinh the whole lease end process.
 
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Mazda leases are now serviced by Toyota Financials through a partnership. Used to be Chase until late 2019 or early 2020 but no more.
Somebody with a recent lease may be able to give exact details.

What I heard about Toyota Financial Mazda is that they dont offer built in gap coverage for the duration of the lease, so one has to pay for gap coverage separately.
With Chase it used to be included if you maintain normal insurance with certain max deductions.
Also the up to 1000 for dmgs on lease return was a Chase lease thing. Same for lease end fee. There was only a 50 usd fee I think.
When I went to re-up my lease for my '20 GT I worked the whole deal on the phone, telling the dealer I wanted the same deal and payment as my last '17 GT. We went back and forth a little and worked it out. Then when I went to do the swap the dreaded finance guy explained that since Toyota Financial was now handling the lease, all the wear and gap protection that was previously covered in the Chase lease was now optional and would cost an extra $380 for the gap coverage and $495 for the wear coverage. I've learned that on leased vehicles you should start looking around a couple of months before it's actually time to turn in the car so you don't get caught in a time crunch where the dealer has you in a bind. In this case I still had a month before my lease was ended, so when they told me about the extra costs I explained I would be happy to take my car back home and restart all the negotiations, or they could eat the extra costs and we would go forward with the lease.

There was much meowing on their part, but I just stuck to my guns and explained that this was supposed to be the exact same as my last lease, and no one had mentioned the extra expense of the coverages to me up front. In the end they ate the cost of the extra coverage.

When I went to their website a few days later they had my '17 up for about 5 grand more then the payoff on the lease so they made out just fine anyway.

FWIW the new coverage is more expansive than what Chase covered, so it might not be a bad deal, just make sure you include it as part of the upfront negotiations when you're comparing it to other leases from other manufacturers.
 
Before you lease a car, watch this. It tells you everything about a lease that the dealership will never tell you. If you still want to lease after watching, at least you'll know what you're really getting into.

 
Just curious how many of you lease? Also, how many miles per year are you allotted on your lease, and what is your car payment? Last, which model do you have? I on the fence of buying vs. leasing my next vehicle.
 
Just curious how many of you lease? Also, how many miles per year are you allotted on your lease, and what is your car payment? Last, which model do you have? I on the fence of buying vs. leasing my next vehicle.
Each individual will have a different payment because there are too many variables and each of them is negotiable. Additionally, Mazda corporate will offer special lease rates certain times of year, and dealers are often willing to waive fees, match previous payment rates, or offer accessories like floor mats as part of the lease. Another factor is if and how much of a down payment you make.

I lease a 2019 CX-5 Touring with floor mats and door edge ppf, 36,000 mile allowance, for 36 months. Monthly payments are $270 with $2000 down.
Previously leased a 2018 Outback Premium. No down payment, 30,000 mile allowance, 36 month lease, $340/month.
 
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When I went to their website a few days later they had my '17 up for about 5 grand more then the payoff on the lease so they made out just fine anyway.
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Seems like you might have done better selling it to someone like Carvana, rather than turning it in.
 
Seems like you might have done better selling it to someone like Carvana, rather than turning it in.
It's possible. I really wanted one of my step-kids to buy it for the payoff since there's no way they could have gotten a deal like that anywhere else, but no one had the scratch right then.

In the end it cost me 4500 down and 330/ month for 30K miles, but that includes the Chicago 27/month lease tax. That's not bad when you figure in Soul Red and the PP. All the dealers in the area were within a few dollars of that price, and Mazda paid the last and first month of the leases. Figure in the freebie on the insurance and some free oil changes and it's a fair deal I think. Over the course of the lease the car costs me about 450/ month or .52/ mile if I use all the allotted miles.

I'm also not the guy who needs to beat a dealer out of every last dime. I like the dealer enough to have bought 4 cars from them ( a Mazda5 and three CX-5's) and they've always been pretty straight with me. I spent enough years in retail negotiating deals on audio gear that I understand you have to make some dough.
 
Thanks for all of your replies. I definitely think I am going to give leasing a shot next year when they released the new 2023 CX-5.
 
in Q4 Mazda usually pushes the leasing apr to almost 0 on trims up to GT /included/ of current year. I guess to stimulate moving current year inve tory. No idea for 2021 q4 but they have been consistent past years.
If that helps.
 
In 6/2019 we leased our FWD GT PP for $350 mth with the 1st payment due at signing. 12k/yr for 36 mths. This includes 7% sales tax so the base payment itself is 327/mth. It seemed like a good deal at the time (payment is 1% of the cars MSRP of $33k)
 
Before you lease a car, watch this. It tells you everything about a lease that the dealership will never tell you. If you still want to lease after watching, at least you'll know what you're really getting into.

Ramsey has a one size fits all approach, which in actuality should only be followed by the un-disciplined. One example of his "I'm so smart" (and he is pretty knowledgeable) is that he'll tell you tell you that a well invested mutual fund will double every 7-10 years, which is probably true. But then he'll tell you that is you have a $300,000 mortgage and $300,000 in savings, you should pay off the loan so you're earnings don't go to the bank. Uh, not wise if you claim you're money will double in 7-10 years if kept in mutual funds. So which is it Dave?
 
Whether you lease or buy is certainly a complicated calculation depending on how you look at all the angles and weight them to your particular needs. In my case a car is sort of a waste of money as I am mostly retired and don't drive all that much since the wife and I both have cars. The sensible thing would be to either have one car, or a dirt cheap one for me. But I like having a nice but reasonable car at my disposal so I'm willing to spend the money. I also like rolling them every 3 years since these days the tech (mostly) gets better every year and I never spend a dime on things like tires, batteries etc and the car is always under warranty. But that's just how I weight all the factors personally.

Here's a link to a spreadsheet I use when going into all the negotiations with the dealers that has proved helpful. The interesting thing about a lease is it's irrelevant what the car is actually priced at, only what it costs you out of pocket for the duration of the lease. If you punch in all the numbers for the down payment, monthly cost, your leased miles and few other factors it'll tell you what you're actually paying for the car for the duration of the lease. You can also enter in other data like how much extra miles cost if you go over your leased miles, or how many miles you think you'll use if it's under the leased miles so you can see what it actually will run you per mile, then you can do if/then comparisons.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2a1907uw7jsxxjp/lease calc.xlsx?dl=0

Hope it might be useful.
 
The one where you carry zero debt. It's only through having no debt when you can start building true wealth.
Well, not exactly. You build credit through having debt and paying it off. Also with interest rates as they are now, it makes no sense to pay off debt when it is almost free to carry. For example, I refi'ed my house at 2.375% fixed. Why would I pay it off early when I can invest the money and make more than the interest I pay on the loan? I also get to write off the mortgage interest on my taxes which makes the effective rate even lower.
 
Whether you lease or buy is certainly a complicated calculation depending on how you look at all the angles and weight them to your particular needs. In my case a car is sort of a waste of money as I am mostly retired and don't drive all that much since the wife and I both have cars. The sensible thing would be to either have one car, or a dirt cheap one for me. But I like having a nice but reasonable car at my disposal so I'm willing to spend the money. I also like rolling them every 3 years since these days the tech (mostly) gets better every year and I never spend a dime on things like tires, batteries etc and the car is always under warranty. But that's just how I weight all the factors personally.

Here's a link to a spreadsheet I use when going into all the negotiations with the dealers that has proved helpful. The interesting thing about a lease is it's irrelevant what the car is actually priced at, only what it costs you out of pocket for the duration of the lease. If you punch in all the numbers for the down payment, monthly cost, your leased miles and few other factors it'll tell you what you're actually paying for the car for the duration of the lease. You can also enter in other data like how much extra miles cost if you go over your leased miles, or how many miles you think you'll use if it's under the leased miles so you can see what it actually will run you per mile, then you can do if/then comparisons.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2a1907uw7jsxxjp/lease calc.xlsx?dl=0

Hope it might be useful.
Question for you. On the calulator you provided, there are numbers included which I assume are from a previous deal you were working. Do you actually put 4 or 5k down on your leases? This never made sense to me when you could just do the lease with zero down and pay the same amount over time (keeping it in your bank account longer for interest). I do all of my leases with only the first payment due at signing.
 
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It's just a balancing act. More down = lower monthly. Since I'm mostly retired these days I prefer to give 'em chunk up front when I have the money sitting there and keep the monthly lower as my income will vary from month to month. I could have done zero down but the monthly would have gone up appreciably. That's why I use the sheet, I can tell them to give me a price with different (or no) amounts for a downstroke and look at all the options at once. And again, in the end all that really matters is what the car ends up running you total for the duration of the lease since you don't care about depreciation or the long term value of the car, outside of how that factors into the deal you negotiate from the dealer's perspective.

And I suppose you can look at the interest you could make on the money you don't put down up front. In the stock market right now 4 grand over 3 years might be worth it, though that is of course a gamble. But just keeping it in a savings account you'll probably lose money after inflation as interest rates are crazy low. My savings account is paying .02%. Even a with a 3 year CD you'll be lucky to get .5% at the moment.

It's an interesting trade off right now. With mortgage rates at the unbelievably low percentages they're at the banks don't pay jack on savings accounts and CD's , which make sense. But I'd certainly rather pay 4% on $250000 over 30 years instead of having a $20000 saving account paying me 3% a year. My first mortgage was at about 10%, and I remember my mom telling me she paid 19% back in the 70's on her first condo. But then again, I'm pretty sure that condo cost less than my Mazda. o_O
 
You build credit through having debt and paying it off. Also with interest rates as they are now, it makes no sense to pay off debt
I couldn't care less about a "credit rating" because I pay cash for everything. I haven't made a car payment since 1999, and if feels oh so good. There is no conceivable way I would ever put myself into that kind of trap of having a monthly payment on something that is absolutely guaranteed to be lose massive amounts of value again.

A lease is even worse. Not only are you outlaying thousands upon thousands of dollars over the course of the rental agreement, (and yes, it absolutely is a rental agreement!) when the agreement is finally over, you have literally nothing to show for the thousands in cash you spent. You're $10-15,000 out of pocket, and yet you have an empty driveway.

But if you for some reason you think that's a good idea, and you like having debt instead of being debt free, knock yourself out.
 
It's just a balancing act. More down = lower monthly. Since I'm mostly retired these days I prefer to give 'em chunk up front when I have the money sitting there and keep the monthly lower as my income will vary from month to month. I could have done zero down but the monthly would have gone up appreciably. That's why I use the sheet, I can tell them to give me a price with different (or no) amounts for a downstroke and look at all the options at once. And again, in the end all that really matters is what the car ends up running you total for the duration of the lease since you don't care about depreciation or the long term value of the car, outside of how that factors into the deal you negotiate from the dealer's perspective.

And I suppose you can look at the interest you could make on the money you don't put down up front. In the stock market right now 4 grand over 3 years might be worth it, though that is of course a gamble. But just keeping it in a savings account you'll probably lose money after inflation as interest rates are crazy low. My savings account is paying .02%. Even a with a 3 year CD you'll be lucky to get .5% at the moment.

It's an interesting trade off right now. With mortgage rates at the unbelievably low percentages they're at the banks don't pay jack on savings accounts and CD's , which make sense. But I'd certainly rather pay 4% on $250000 over 30 years instead of having a $20000 saving account paying me 3% a year. My first mortgage was at about 10%, and I remember my mom telling me she paid 19% back in the 70's on her first condo. But then again, I'm pretty sure that condo cost less than my Mazda. o_O

The other consideration against a large down payment on a lease is that in the event your car is totaled in an accident you lose the down payment. Most or all leases build in gap insurance so it doesn't make sense to prepay the balance.
 
I haven't made a car payment since 1999, and if feels oh so good. There is no conceivable way I would ever put myself into that kind of trap of having a monthly payment on something that is absolutely guaranteed to be lose massive amounts of value again.

A lease is even worse. Not only are you outlaying thousands upon thousands of dollars over the course of the rental agreement, (and yes, it absolutely is a rental agreement!) when the agreement is finally over, you have literally nothing to show for the thousands in cash you spent. You're $10-15,000 out of pocket, and yet you have an empty driveway.
That seems a little bit oversimplified. Whether you pay up front or take out a loan you still have a car which is depreciating over time. If you buy a car for 30 grand, it's worth 30 grand minus X per month / year or whatever. So after 3 years if it's worth 20 grand you're still out 10 G's. If you keep it 10 years it's not worth much (unless you play with collector cars) so it's not like you still have a bunch of money sitting in the driveway. And if you keep it that long it will have certainly have cost you some change to keep it going. Also with leasing you don't find out after 5 years that the some poorly engineered thing like cylinder deactivation has turned out to be a problem and will now run you a big expense to fix.

Debt can certainly suck if managed poorly, but I believe most true wealth is generated by using other peoples money at a rate that pays you more than you're paying them to use it. It's just bad management if the asset depreciates faster than you can use it to generate money. So cars suck to be sure, but if you borrowed money to buy a rental building 20 years ago, and have paid it off while the value of the rental money you take in has climbed steadily since then you end with a long term gain that can fund a retirement, while not leaving you broke from the original purchase. That's another oversimplification but it gets the idea across.

Unions and access to credit is what really created the middle class in this country, without it the vast majority of people would never own a home, which is most people's largest asset. It's all about not using credit to live beyond your means, and having a long term plan to manage your dough.

Just my .02, I'm certainly not a finance wiz.
 
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