Best way to lease a Tesla

[Greg]

I'm new to leasing. I know you can lease a Tesla directly from them as well as other banks. There are a number of threads about getting loans from banks, but I have not seen any about leasing a Tesla. Any recommendations is greatly welcomed. Also, any feedback why I should not lease outside of Tesla is appreciated as well. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Dr Doom]

when you lease a tesla, they use US bank. I would talk to the staff at Tesla about conditions of lease. You can choose 10,000, 12,000, or 15,000 miles per years and it's usually a 36 months lease. When I was talking to them before, the APR was 4.8%. Also you have to put at least 7500 dollars down when you lease. I ended up deciding on not leasing because financially, it made no sense for my situation. But in some instances, you can write off the lease payments in your taxes if you own your own business. Also at end of the lease, you have option to buy the car.

 

[hmmm]

If you're interested in leasing, you should look into discounted inventory cars. The way leases work, the residual is based on the full, pre-discount MSRP so the residual will be much higher which will reduce your lease payments significantly vs leasing a similar new non-inventory car. Ev-cpo.com makes it easy to sort inv cars by discount amount. The key thing to consider is the discount as a percentage of the MSRP rather than the discount amount in and off itself.

There is a great thread on this from back in Q3 when some folks (including yours truly) got terrific deals:

Snagged a P90D Inventory car for $700/mnth on the new 24 month lease

Now, don't get your hopes (too) high, you won't find discounts as high as what we saw in Q3, but the math still works the same way.

 

[Greg]

I've got a model X on order so going with an inventory car is not an option. The APR of 4.8% through Tesla/US Bank sounds about right. The thing is this is a really high interest rate and that is why I'm trying to see if I can lease the car through a 3rd party bank to get a more competitive rate.

Has anyone done this before? If so what bank did you use and what was their rate?

 

[MXWing]

Greg, my thoughts are that a Tesla is far too expensive to lease. You are at a good point in the product cycle to consider owning the vehicle outright.

Likely, your new AP2 Model X wont even reach its full potential until a lease is over. So you get a lot of use. Certain things that I recommend like full tint (windshield as well), full xpel wrap can't be done on a leased car.

Interest rate would also be sub 2% if you shop around.

 

[evdreamin]

Greg - what did you end up doing? Did you go with the Tesla/US Bank Lease?

Others - Any other lease or ballon options for leasing a Tesla?

Thanks.

 

[Greg]

I leased it through Tesla. I did speak to an outside company that will lease cars, but they said their option is typically done when leasing a fleet of cars and if my motivation is to save money then leasing from Tesla is the best option.

 

[7summits]

Greg, my thoughts are that a Tesla is far too expensive to lease. You are at a good point in the product cycle to consider owning the vehicle outright.

Likely, your new AP2 Model X wont even reach its full potential until a lease is over. So you get a lot of use. Certain things that I recommend like full tint (windshield as well), full xpel wrap can't be done on a leased car.

Interest rate would also be sub 2% if you shop around.

Respectfully, your first comment is not accurate. There are so many factors that go into whether or not leasing is a better option than buying.

1) How long do you keep cars?
2) Risk assessment....you own a vehicle and get into a wreck, your resale value plummets.
3) Does it make sense to own a Tesla with so many upgrades to technology happening all the time? Again goes back to how long do you plan on keeping the car.
4) The model 3 and model Y represent a serious risk in regards to resale value to the S and X if you don't plan on keeping those cars for a long time.

The above are just a few. It is simple math and risk assessment exercise which is critically important with owning a Tesla. I know in my case based on the inventory deal I got, it made zero sense to buy the car.