2022 Prime LE vs XLE lease numbers

Jon - First, welcome to the forum. The $4502 federal tax credit can only be claimed if you purchase the car. In a lease situation it is claimed by the manufacturer. However, sometimes the manufacturer factors it into the cost of the lease to lower the price.

 

The APR, customer cash and lease deals advertised are based on when you take delivery and they can change month to month. The dealer likely has no idea what incentives will be available in 2 months. Even the tax credit is currently up in the air depending on some versions of legislation in Congress PHEVs may no longer qualify. Prices have also been swinging dramatically since summer. You could have grabbed a new prime in May with $5000 customer cash, down to $4500 in July and by September it was only $1500. By October and November dealers were selling them with markups of 5000+ over MSRP. Are we at the peak yet? Dealer's hoping for no. If we are would you like to be tied to a bad deal written in December for a car you could get for a steal in February?

 

Welcome to PC.

About leasing PP, historically Toyota has not put together a very attractive lease program on PP ever since the inception of the model. I have seen much better lease deals on Honda Clarity, Nissan Leaf, or Hyundai Ioniq over the same period. PP lease program by Toyota has been always with a large upfront down payment of ~$3000 and not so little monthly payment of $200-300. While Toyota was giving a large cashback up to $6000 off MSRP and the purchaser is allowed to claim $4500 in tax credit, there was no incentive to lease PP. As pointed out already, for the leased vehicles, the $4500 tax credit will only apply to the leasing company (lessor), not to the consumers (lessee).

Toyota New England doesn't even offer Toyota financed lease program currently on PP. NY region's PP lease program may also be eliminated soon. But, lease program does not have to be through the Toyota Financial Services (TFS). Most dealer has their own lease programs to offer, that is if they have the car to lease. If they don't yet have a car to lease on their lot, I don't think your negotiation with the dealer is going anywhere, at least not to your benefit.

If I were you, I would wait, unless you absolutely have to have a car now. This is the time that patience is a virtue.

EDIT: I just checked current Toyota offered lease program in NY region.
$3K down + $240x39 monthly payments = $12,360 for 39 months lease for LE with MSRP of $29,245.



Last year I purchased the 2020 PP LE final cost ~$18K after all discounts, cashback, and incentives were counted. And I sold it 10 month later for ~$22K for ~$4K profit. If I waited bit longer to sell it, I could have sold it at ~$25K this year for $7K profit. I hope you see where I am going with this. Timing is everything.

 

One clarification...the tax credit is claimed by whoever is the first buyer of the car. That will be the lessor (you are the lessee), whichever finance outfit you lease from. The tax credit should be deducted from the car's capital cost when calculating the lease...should be, right..... Check other leasing sources. The dealer uses the one that gives them the biggest commission.