Anyone have Tesla's actual leasing numbers?

[bandido]

Is Tesla trying to heavily dissuade people from leasing? I have been getting residuals on the south side of 50% and money factors of ~0.002396. My current 2015 Model S was around 60%. Anyone have any better experiences? Any independent lease companies do better?

Thanks!!

 

[ucmndd]

Wouldn’t surprise me given their newfound quest for profitability.

 

[kutkuzak]

Tesla leases are a complete and total ripoff. Run away, far away. Just buy it. Tesla basically has two residuals - the residual they give you for what you can buy the car back. That one is really high - you'd never want to buy the car at that price. Problem is, if that was the real residual, your payments would be lower. You're supposed to basically be financing the depreciation at a particular money-factor (interest rate basically). Tesla takes the 7500 tax credit and pockets it, (unlike Nissan which treats it like a down payment, reducing the cost as they should). Tesla also has a *horrible* money factor. If you run the numbers with any lease calculator you'll see the numbers just don't make sense - because they're not giving you the real numbers. You'll basically be paying $7500 *more* over the cost of the lease and then some because beyond the high money factor there's also other hidden fees in the monthly cost.
Unless you're writing the whole thing off as a business expense, don't bother - just buy it. One of Tesla's main advantages is the supercharger network for further travel - you're not going to be taking advantage of that in a lease with limited yearly mileage.
If you can finance a car over 6 years for about the same price as a 3 year lease something is very wrong with that lease.
I wanted to lease originally but when I ran the numbers saw them for the sham they were. I bought and am glad for doing so. I've already put way more miles on it than I would've thought, the extra money for AP is worth it, and I may actually get around to paying for and using full autonomous. With a lease it would never be worth it.

 

[LVThomas]

In a way, this is surprising and in a way it isn't. It is surprising because there are so many lease calculators available and someone knowledgeable about leasing would use one to ensure the numbers given align with the payment given. It is not surprising because Tesla seems to be arrogant when it comes to price and this is another example. For those that buy into it, they have an awesome car and I would think teaching people to look at numbers differently - not just the cost fo the car and payment - would be desired over trying to get over on people. Assuming the OP is correct, and I have no reason to think otherwise, I wouldn't have leased a Tesla and would be missing out on the driving experience. I would like to think I am somewhat knowledgeable about lease numbers and I would walk instead of getting taken.

 

[whitex]

In a way, this is surprising and in a way it isn't. It is surprising because there are so many lease calculators available and someone knowledgeable about leasing would use one to ensure the numbers given align with the payment given. It is not surprising because Tesla seems to be arrogant when it comes to price and this is another example. For those that buy into it, they have an awesome car and I would think teaching people to look at numbers differently - not just the cost fo the car and payment - would be desired over trying to get over on people. Assuming the OP is correct, and I have no reason to think otherwise, I wouldn't have leased a Tesla and would be missing out on the driving experience. I would like to think I am somewhat knowledgeable about lease numbers and I would walk instead of getting taken.

Why surprising? This is not new at all. Every time I was buying a Tesla since 2013 I always looked for loan vs. lease, see which one is more favorable (I have in the past leased vehicles instead or purchasing to save money, for example leased a Toyota once with a residual of $148. Why, because they had a promotional lease interest rate which was lower than loan. At the end I bought the car of course - confused the crap out of the finance guy but he finally got it after re-calculating my monthly payment for loan vs. my fancy super-low-residual lease). @kutkuzak is correct, Tesla leases can only be advantageous for those who don't plan to buy the car at the end and want a lower payment without having the hassle of selling the car. Also, if you don't have sufficient tax liability to get the $7,500 it may be somewhat beneficial. Basically:

1. Their interest rates are always higher for leases, 2-3% higher historically (the OP's money factor is 5.75%).
2. The residuals are artificially inflated by $7,500 because the leasing company (not necessarily Tesla) is pocking the $7,500 federal rebate. This lowers the capital cost, lowering the monthly payment, but you have to pay it on the back end if you purchase the car. You also pay full interest (so over a 3 year lease $1294 at 5.75%) on that $7,500 since it's added to your residual.
3. Tesla has lower limits on lease down-payments than I've seen on other cars.

Dealers like to bamboozle people by insisting to negotiate in monthly payments only. Tesla doesn't have dealers, but they also want to cash in on people wanting a car badly and not being able to do the math. At least their price is set up front, so there is no haggling requiring quick recalculations on the customer side to assess how good the deal is. Personally I can do the math on the spot often faster than the sales managers and negotiate the car price, but I loathe the process (I do it because it saves me good money, I consider 3-4hr negotiation for $6000 cash savings a good ROI). With Tesla it's simple, here is the price, take it or leave it, you know what you're getting into and nobody is trying to sell you "undercoating for only $14 per month" after you negotiated the deal and settled on the price.

 

[ArbitrageMan]

I

Is Tesla trying to heavily dissuade people from leasing? I have been getting residuals on the south side of 50% and money factors of ~0.002396. My current 2015 Model S was around 60%. Anyone have any better experiences? Any independent lease companies do better?

Thanks!!

I was just quoted .0021 and 60% for 10K miles from Tesla.

For comparison, the current lease numbers for August for a BMW M550 are .00166 and 60% for 10K... so, comparable.