FR-S lease available in US
 

I remember about a week ago hearing a lease option was available in Canada.

I live in New England and the #1 volume Toyota/Scion dealership offers a lease on the FR-S.

I apologize in advance if this is old news.

Who is the #1 volume Scion dealer in CT? Do they have a demo car already?

I don't know in CT. The dealership I went to is Balise Toyota/Scion in West Springfield, MA. About 30min from Hartford. I'm sure a google search will answer your question.

They have an ultramarine AT first 86 model there. The person who bought it came in with his wife and I was told he has to discuss the payment and their budget. I can't believe he ordered one not sure if he can afford :iono:

It is possible he will not take the car. They are allowing everyone to sit inside, touch the paint, windows, etc. I sat in it and even the salespeople were leaning on the car and touching the windows and paint. It's def going to need to be cleaned.

My dealer is offering a residual of $16669 on a manual. That's pretty affordable if you ask me.

I meant to ask who's the #1 volume dealer in New England, not in CT. :D
I am familiar with Balise Scion in MA though. Thanks for replying.

They're very friendly there. Just don't lower your guard. When I purchase a car I'm not only purchasing it but also the dealership too.

I would be very comfortable doing business with them.

Now, it's a matter of seeing if Bertera Subie in Hartford will give me more for my trade-in. I would certainly prefer a limited BRZ

The lease is good on these cars. I'm going to be putting $1000 down on mine and the payment is around $330 including taxes. Almost a 67% residual ($16,698) at 12k per year.

Ruskymx

For a 36-mo. lease? If so, that is a good residual! Audi's residuals are pathetic, usually hovering around 50%. Good thing our cars more than make up for the crappy lease deals :D

I'd consider leasing a BRZ if I could keep the mileage low; it would keep me from modding it until the warranty expires and the lease is up, then I could buy it out and add mods to it. Buuut I drive about 24,000 miles/yr... ugh.

Yes, that's the 36mo residual. 24mo is $18k, but Toyota only offers 15k miles (or higher) for 2 year leases. I have all the residuals at my desk at work that I can post if people are interested. I can put them up here tomorrow.

Ruskymx

Longo Scion is the #1 volume Toyota/Scion dealership ;) I'm going to have to fly over there with a crowbar to make sure they have their fine print of "in New England" in order :lol:

You know. I never in my life thought about leasing a car until today. I want this FRS sooooo badly. But I want a GT-R more. I've been thinking all day about it and may have more to think about.

If I just lease the FRS for meh 3-4 years ish, then I could get an R32 shipped to the states with no problems (25+ year old is a MUCH easier process).

Can you guys school me on a lease?

Is the residual what you pay at the end of the lease if you want to buy the car out? If not, is that dependent on the dealer, or does Toyota have a buy out price for the car listed?

If I were to bring the car in for warranty work with mods on it, will that cause an issue when it comes time to turn the car in (with the car returned to stock)?

This one is probably a dumb question, but are you charged sales tax when you lease a vehicle, or just when you buy the car out? If it is the latter, is the sales tax assessed on the actual purchase price of the vehicle or what the car cost new?

Is the residual what you pay at the end of the lease if you want to buy the car out? If not, is that dependent on the dealer, or does Toyota have a buy out price for the car listed?

-Yes. Residual is on your contract and that is the purchase price of the vehicle once your lease is up. The residual is determined by the financing institution. Usually you want to go with the actual manufacturer's bank (Toyota Financial, in this case) as their residuals are usually higher than those found 'in the wild'. At least termination, you have the option to buy the car out for cash, or finance as well. Credit will be run again and you'll pay taxes on the residual value as well.


If I were to bring the car in for warranty work with mods on it, will that cause an issue when it comes time to turn the car in (with the car returned to stock)?

You need to return the car as you received it. Minor things are typically overlooked (tint and such). However, if you have excessive wear/tear, you may have to pay for repairs to those items. TFS has a guideline on what they consider excessive wear/tear. Talk to the Finance Manager at the dealership for a brochure that outlines what is 'normal' and what is over the top.


This one is probably a dumb question, but are you charged sales tax when you lease a vehicle, or just when you buy the car out? If it is the latter, is the sales tax assessed on the actual purchase price of the vehicle or what the car cost new?

You are charged sales tax ON THE MONTHLY PAYMENT. So that $249/month advertised price you see for a lease from any manufacturer is $249 +tax. You save on tax this way if you think you won't buy the car out. You're only paying tax on the portion of the car you use. You're not paying tax in the residual unless you buy it out. This may vary by state though... this is at least true in California.

Thanks! Im just crunching numbers to see which direction I should go. Ill need to talk with the finance manager to get hard numbers, but if its going to be about $340/mo with taxes to lease, then ~$16700 to buy out, Ill be paying about $2.5k more in the long run compared to financing it from the beginning.

Lol , what I meant to type was it's the largest volume dealer in New England :)

That's what you pay for having the luxury of backing out after however many months. But if you plan on keeping it, then make the decision now, finance it and save the ~$2,500 that you calculated.

This is very promising. I was hoping for those numbers. I plan on leasing the car and maybe buying a new FRS in three years. I imagine by then I can get a nicer version right off the lot. I'll keep this car bone stock.

Best bet on a new vehicle if you expect to keep it, pay outright. That's what I'm doing, well finance for 3 months to build a bit of credit since I haven't had a car loan in like 4 years.

Pay 2/3's or more immediately on the full 25-29k loan, then divide the rest out and pay off in 3-4 months. You pay very little in interest this way and still get the credit benefits.

Over the last 8 cars I've bought, $147,865.23 worth :eyebulge:, two were brand new, all of them by paying off early I've saved $7505.50 total. And I wasn't able to pay more than half down on any of those, it adds up quick, and those all had interest rates of 5.75 to 9.5% which isn't great but not terrible either.

A low interest rate of 2-3% or 0% would of course negate the advantages to a large degree. But unless you can pay the car off to begin with, it's not likely you would have excellent credit to get those kinds of deals to begin with. ;)

Obviously I keep a VERY detailed spreadsheet about my car loans. :thumbup:

Actually, this depends on state, as I just learned recently. I moved from NJ to FL last spring (2 months after getting my lease), and noticed that my current lease payments jumped up as soon as I registered the car down here.

As it turns out, in NJ, you pay for the entire lease's sales tax as part of your down payment. In Florida, you pay tax on each payment. Since I already paid all of the sales tax to NJ for the life of the lease, I have to fill out a refund form to get back the sales tax NJ charged me for all of the months the car is registered in FL.

In my case, it's kind of cool, because that means I get a check for 34 months' worth of tax that I don't actually finish paying to the state of FL until the lease is over in another ~2 years.

I included it in my last words in that post as the normal sized 'fine print' =P

If you are planning on moding the car? I would not lease it...

To get these kind of numbers you have to have an really good credit score right?

I agree, but most people will not mod this car, when they know a Turbo version is coming in 2015. It would be better to keep it stock and the miles low and lease it and then buy the turbo FR-S\BRZ in 2015. Come on know, we all know deep down in our hearts that there will be a turbo. The engine is just not ready yet. It will come out in the next gen WRX first.

If you lease the FR-S and the residuals are upper $16k range for 36 months, you know that the car is going to be worth more than that in 36 months.

If you gonna keep the miles low, why even buy this car in the first place? ;)

It won't mean that they're not driving the car, they just won't drive it that far. My car is daily driven, but since my commute is so short, I put on maybe 7,000-8,000 miles annually.

Those numbers were based off Tier 1 as far as I know. I didn't run my credit yet, but I think I should be in that range or higher. If it's over 720 then the payment would be a little less. If it's lower, then I am going to go ballistic on someone...lol, but the payment would be higher. From my experience, going from a Tier 1 to a Tier 2 would add around $20-25 per month in payment.

Here's a list of Scion's rate and money factors. To get an approximate interest rate from a money factor, multiply it by 2400 and it will be close. EX: .00200 * 2400 = 4.8% roughly.

Ruskymx

You totally did. Bad on me for missing it. I blame this cold medicine regime that's been influencing my sobriety for the past several days :P