New Tesla Model S Lease as of 5/1/16

[whitex]

The issue at hand is that Tesla's need to be made to order. That causes 2 issues, your trade-in value is not guaranteed, and neither is your finance rate. The latter can be locked by financial institutions but usually not long enough from order to delivery. This is where the traditional dealer model or finding what you want on the lot and picking it up the same day has an advantage (probably one of the only advantages). When I ordered my second MS, I figured I'm risking $2,500. The plan was that if the trade in price was going to drop too much (heck, the Tesla offer dropped $5K after the first week, so it was a real possibility) or the interest was going too high, I would just walk away from my $2,500 and keep my old Model S. Luckily it all worked out ok (thanks in part to a very helpful used car dealer), but it I do remember the trade-in and interest rate being my least favorite parts of the Tesla buying experience - basically you cannot plan ahead exactly what you will pay.

 

[mechapreneur]

Cr@p like this is why Tesla NEEDS it's own Financial arm like all the other major manufacturer's have. It's where they make a TON of money too. Why does the guy who started Paypal need to use another bank to finance his cars?
The lease was already TERRIBLE compared to other luxury manufacturers.

Tesla needs capital for R&D and to expand production. If they did their own financing, they would be sinking capital into your lease expecting a 1.5% rate of return which sucks. They can mint money much fast than that by spending a couple billion to bang out 500k Model 3 pre-orders in two years, netting $20B or a 1000% return on their investment, or 300% if you consider it's over three years.

Just shop around for the best rates in the two weeks before delivery.