Pruis leasing?

I think the reason you're not getting a response is that there are not many (if any) Prii leased in the US. I did a little looking, before I took the plunge and bought mine, and there was very little information. A brief squib here:
http://www.soultek.com/clean_energy/hybrid...hybrid_cars.htm
seems to confirm this.

Buy one. Especially if you can get one before the tax credit is halved after September 30th. Shop around, find a good auto loan (try credit unions, in particular), and go shopping.

Wish you luck... and if you're dead set on leasing, try calling dealers (it'll take quite a few, I'm sure) and eventually you should be able to find one.

 

leasing is NOT a good deal.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(azzieo @ Aug 11 2006, 07:00 PM) [snapback]301547[/snapback]</div>

I ordered my first Prius from my lease company yesterday. Probably not much help to you since I live in The Netherlands, but I thought I'd post it anyway. I'm not sure what residual and financing % mean, but I'll tell you what I'm paying. New price for the car is €33,937.25 ($43,100). This is the Prius Tech Edition (with nav and IPA ) with metallic paint, including VAT and everything the dealer does. Lease costs are €1,049.32 ($1,333) per month including VAT and fuel and everything, based on 30,000 km per year for 42 months. This might seem expensive to you, but keep in mind fuel is around €1.45 / liter ($7 / gallon) here.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(azzieo @ Aug 16 2006, 01:29 AM) [snapback]303952[/snapback]</div>

just out of curiosity, how is leasing a good deal? it seems to me that, with the fairly high resale value many are getting with the prius, it will overall cost less to buy the car and later sell it... from my experiences, leasing deals will generally have you paying about the same per month as financing, and in the end you have to give the car back!

Even ignoring the potentialy turbulent sales prices for used cars, which is better: leasing and having to give the car back after shelling out a ton of money, or shelling out the same amount of money but keeping the car twice as long and running it into the ground?

Also, it's not irrelevant to the topic - the topic is "Prius Leasing". it simply didn't answer your question.

I'd love to see this math you use to show that leasing is a good deal.

Also, check out: http://www.toyotafinancial.com/estimator/t...14#displayPoint

Toyota provides a side by side comparison of financing versus leasing payments. When you consider the fact that financed, you can keep the car for 10 years with a low probability of anything going wrong (and you have the extended warrenty if it does), the financing costs really are lower than the leasing.

for a 3 year lease on a $22k prius, you pay 64% (14k) of the cost of the vehicle... and yet they can turn around and sell the car for a KBB of $19k! Financing instead, you pay a total of $25k, and at the end of three years have a KBB trade in value of $14k, for a total cost of ownership of $11k... or a private party KBB of 16k, for a total cost of ownership 9k.

Heck, even after 5 years ownership, you can still get a trade in value of $10k, and yet the difference between financing payments and leasing payments is only 6k...

So, where's your math?

 

The best leasing deals are usually subsidized by the manufacturer, and Toyota is not offering any leasing support on the Prius at this time.

Another reason leasing rates are not good for the Prius is because the residual is well below 50%, from what I discovered. Not sure why there's such a disconnect between the Prius residual and it's (currently) high resale value. Anyway given the low residual and standard cost/money factor (which will vary on your credit rating of course), I think most people will agree that there are no good leasing deals available for the Prius at this time. Of course some people may find other advantages to leasing, vs buying, but that's a whole other topic. My 2 cents.