2016 eGolf SE: $2500 down, $79+tax per month, 7500 miles/yr

saintforlife said:

Just got this quote for a 2016 eGolf SE from Volkswagen Hayward in the SF Bay Area:

- $2500 down + drive-off fee ($2200-$2500 estimated by dealer)
- $79+tax per month
- 36 month lease
- 7,500 miles per year
- $15 per month more for 10,000 miles per year

This is the first time we will be leasing a car. Can someone tell me if this is a good deal or if I should negotiate further with the dealership? Also I know the per month payment will be more than $79. I just don't know how much the tax will be or how to calculate it. Help a newbie out here. TIA! :cheers:

Click to expand...

miimura said:

I won't make a judgement about how good the deal is, but I would suggest not to give them anything more than the CA rebate when you sign on the line. Most insurance policies will not give you anything when a leased car is totaled, they just pay off the leasing company. VW leases also have Gap Insurance coverage, so even if you owe more than they get from your insurance, you don't owe them anything. So, all this points to giving them as little of your own money as possible up front. In fact, you can tell them you want $0 drive off if you want. The monthly payment will be higher, but the first 8-10 months will be covered by the rebate. The thing to look at is the "Rent Charge" in the contract. That represents the effective interest rate of the lease. Some people here said that they had a high rent charge but got a bigger up-front incentive.

Click to expand...

saintforlife said:

miimura said:

I won't make a judgement about how good the deal is, but I would suggest not to give them anything more than the CA rebate when you sign on the line. Most insurance policies will not give you anything when a leased car is totaled, they just pay off the leasing company. VW leases also have Gap Insurance coverage, so even if you owe more than they get from your insurance, you don't owe them anything. So, all this points to giving them as little of your own money as possible up front. In fact, you can tell them you want $0 drive off if you want. The monthly payment will be higher, but the first 8-10 months will be covered by the rebate. The thing to look at is the "Rent Charge" in the contract. That represents the effective interest rate of the lease. Some people here said that they had a high rent charge but got a bigger up-front incentive.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Is the 'Rent Charge' expressed in dollars or as a percentage? Would it be obvious if it were higher than normal?

Click to expand...

bizzle said:

I don't think you would get to keep the rebate money if the car is totaled. It's contingent on owning/leasing the car for a certain amount of months.

Click to expand...

saintforlife said:

Wife was adamant that we didn't put anything down and roll everything into the monthly payment. We ended up with $263 per month for a 10,000 mile 3 year lease on a 2016 SE base model.

Here is how the lease broke down:

Capitalized Cost Reduction: $7500
First monthly payment: $263.51
Registration fees: $259
Acquisition fee: $625
Cal tire fee: $8.75
Electronic vehicle registration: $15.50
Acq. fee tax: $54.69
Doc fee/CCR Tax: 663.25
Total: $9469.70


Gross Capitalized Cost: $25849.68
Capitalized Cost Reduction: $7500
Adjusted Capitalized Cost: $18,349.68
Residual Value: $11,680.50
Depreciation and any amortized amounts: $6,669.18
Rent charge: $2053.98
Total of base payments: $8723.16
Base Payment: $242.31
Sales/use tax: $21.20
Total payment: $263.51

I can't help but feel that we paid too much in rent charge and the residual was too low. No idea what Doc fee/CCR tax is and why it is so high? The problem is the dealer does not show these detailed numbers until the contract is ready to be signed. They make you sit in a room and wait long periods of times between questions and only discuss vague per month numbers. With the $2500 CA rebate, we will pay around $7500 over the 3-year lease.

Could we have done better for $0 down? We literally didn't put a single dollar down. By the way we bought the car during the labor day weekend.

Click to expand...

miimura said:

bizzle said:

I don't think you would get to keep the rebate money if the car is totaled. It's contingent on owning/leasing the car for a certain amount of months.

Click to expand...

Correct. The CA rebate is pro-rated based on 30 months. If the car is totaled or you sell it, they can come after you to return the portion you didn't earn. If you get another EV and apply for the rebate, they will certainly want to settle up the old one first before giving you another rebate.

Click to expand...

miimura said:

saintforlife said:

Wife was adamant that we didn't put anything down and roll everything into the monthly payment. We ended up with $263 per month for a 10,000 mile 3 year lease on a 2016 SE base model.

Here is how the lease broke down:

Capitalized Cost Reduction: $7500
First monthly payment: $263.51
Registration fees: $259
Acquisition fee: $625
Cal tire fee: $8.75
Electronic vehicle registration: $15.50
Acq. fee tax: $54.69
Doc fee/CCR Tax: 663.25
Total: $9469.70


Gross Capitalized Cost: $25849.68
Capitalized Cost Reduction: $7500
Adjusted Capitalized Cost: $18,349.68
Residual Value: $11,680.50
Depreciation and any amortized amounts: $6,669.18
Rent charge: $2053.98
Total of base payments: $8723.16
Base Payment: $242.31
Sales/use tax: $21.20
Total payment: $263.51

I can't help but feel that we paid too much in rent charge and the residual was too low. No idea what Doc fee/CCR tax is and why it is so high? The problem is the dealer does not show these detailed numbers until the contract is ready to be signed. They make you sit in a room and wait long periods of times between questions and only discuss vague per month numbers. With the $2500 CA rebate, we will pay around $7500 over the 3-year lease.

Could we have done better for $0 down? We literally didn't put a single dollar down. By the way we bought the car during the labor day weekend.

Click to expand...

The CCR Tax is your local sales tax on the $7,500 Cap Reduction. The rent charge is the effective interest rate. I don't think I would have signed that lease because you're basically paying $57/mo in interest. The other way to look at it is VW Credit allegedly gets the Federal Tax Credit of $7,500, but they only passed through (7,500-2053.98-625) $4,821.02 of it to you. BMW was doing that for a while on the i3 - passing through about $4,800 of the tax credit claiming that was the only benefit they got.

Our 2015 LE only had a rent charge of $119.37 and the residual was $13,022.60.

According to LeaseHacker, some leasing companies allow you to put in a refundable security deposit to reduce the rent charge. I've not specifically heard of VW Credit doing this.

Click to expand...