So I go to Dodge website and find that if I lease the 18 RT Durango AWD it would be 450 a month after 2500 down . I think about how I've been looking for a low mileage 16-17 RT for around 32-35 and how it would be 500-600 a month so why not lease and save a little .Thing is I go to a Dodge dealer and ask what I put nothing down 2hqt would it be and he said slightly under 900. Which I could understand for buying the car but I thought leasing was cheaper at least less than that. I expected 600 or so what am I missing ?

 

With a purchase, the out the door cost is spread across the length of the purchase. The reason a quoted lease payment is lower is because you usually have to put a big chunk down upfront. A lease is a glorified rental and you are paying the initiation fee, plus depreciation cost, PLUS the dealer's profit over a small period of 2-3 years. Say a vehicle loses 30% of it's value in the first 3 years; you are going to cover that depreciation with your payments and then the dealer gets the car back to sell and profit off of again.

In most cases, leases only make sense for businesses or folks where money is no big deal and they want a new car every 2-3 years.

 

That payment is a teaser rate to get people in the dealership, very few dealers will lease for that rate. This is the disclaimer from the Dodge website: "This lease rate is for estimation purposes only. You may not be able to lease your vehicle at this rate. A security deposit may be required. See dealer for details."

The problem is that to lease at the $450 rate the dealer must discount the car plus figure in any rebates. Your $900 rate was a "max profit" rate. You are paying full price for the car and all add-ons. Do a search on leasing vs buying and read away, as I am still trying to figure out the details myself. If you were to buy a end of year model, you might get a good rate, as the dealer wants the car gone.

 

Only time a lease worked out for me was when we were really upside down on a trade. We were able to pay off the negative equity in the time we had the vehicle for those 3 years, then just gave the vehicle back to the dealership and walked away. Since then though, we only buy.

 

My wife is currently leasing a 2016 Jeep Renegade. First off, as long as you understand what has been aptly explained by "coldsteel" above, leases are not evil things. It's an agreement. You get a car that you probably wouldn't be able to afford to finance (buy outright) in exchange for the dealer being able to profit off the vehicle twice. For some people, especially people like "jkeaton", leases are amazing things. Leasing is not like buying and sometimes, the lower monthly payment isn't worth what you give up. But many people on forums will try to convince you that leasing is the devil and it really isn't, as long as you fully understand what the deal entails.

Also, as an aside, for $900 a month, you can bet your sweet *** I wouldn't be leasing a Dodge Durango. You could get much more vehicle for that kind of money. That's a frigging mortgage, not a car payment. The wife's Renegade stickered for like $23,000 and our 36 month lease payment (12,000 mile a year lease) is like $300, and that was with $2500 down. Of course here in NY I'm paying 8.75% sales tax which is just lovely, but I digress.

 

I would also like to mention that you also get to pay the personal property tax, if applicable for those 3 years, which on a new vehicle can be fairly substantial on top of the actual lease payment and the full coverage on your car insurance required by the leasing program.

 

Which is a huge point if you live in a 10% sales tax state like some of us. I plan on using a company called Premier which allows car swapping, then only taxed on the actual payments.