Doing my regular car price scanning I noticed something that I hadn't seen in a while. Leasing rates for luxury cars seem to be coming down, especially for those with new models on the horizon. Leasing fell out of fashion for a couple of years but it seems to be making a comeback in a big way. I have leased several cars in the past and never had any trouble, the Pilot was my only lease where I was charged lease end costs. I had two Saturns and a Focus with no return trouble whatsoever.
BMW are currently offering 0.9% 3 and 4 year lease rates on any remaining 2013 3 Series. Of course the residuals have gone down on these so the payment has not gone down that much overall. Even new 3 Series rates are not bad at 3.9%. Check out my post on leasing basics here: http://nlcarblog.blogspot.ca/2011/10/leasing-basics.html
Mercedes are offering 2.9% lease rates on C Series, there is a totally new C Series coming in the spring so they have to make sure they get rid of all older models before the new ones appear. Audi are also offering 2.9% rates on A4 Komforts and 3.9% on the other A4 models.
The lower rates combined with traditionally solid residuals mean you can really save on the monthly payments compared to purchasing compact luxury sedans. The 3 year residuals are normally in the 58% - 60% range with four year residuals around 50%. Of course leasing is not for everyone, if you like holding on to cars for a long time it won't work but if you're like me and switch cars every three or so years it can work out well.
I'll be doing a few follow up posts to provide more detail on the deals above.
