Decided to Lease a Bolt This Week - What Is Your Opinon of these terms?

[coastalcruiser]

Basic facts:

1) I have a lease on a Prius that will terminate this August. Was planning on leasing a Bolt at the time. HOWEVER, now that GM has hit the 200K mark I am sure that Bolt lease prices will go up by then. So I am thinking of terminating my Prius lease now and grabbing a Bolt before lease prices go up.

2) So I spoke to my local Chevy dealer and this is the deal they are offering:
a) LT with DCFC, but no option packages (which is fine).
b) $1,000 drive off (yes, all fees included)
c) $405 /month (with tax)
d) 36 mos, 12K miles

There is also an option to pay down $2995 and pay $344 /month. All other terms the same

Good deal? Bad deal?

[BoltEV]

There is also an option to pay down $2995 and pay $344 /month. All other terms the same

I have no opinion on the basic lease deal but the “option” is a foolish approach.

Why pre-pay an additional $1,995 (or $55.41 for 36 months) to save $6 per month additional?

A better option is to Pre-pay $34,995 (less tax credits) and pay zero per month!!! Hahaha

[It’s a joke! I recognize that sales tax is not factored in!!]

[theothertom]

Hard to say without more information
Sticker?
Capitalized cost?
Residual?
Money factor?

FWIW I was offered a '19 LT with DCFC and a couple of packages for ~550/mo lease. No money down, 3 yr, 10K per year. Includes all taxes and fees but sales tax is "only" $500 here in South Carolina. I decided to buy instead.

[coastalcruiser]

Hard to say without more information
Sticker?
Capitalized cost?
Residual?
Money factor?

FWIW I was offered a '19 LT with DCFC and a couple of packages for ~550/mo lease. No money down, 3 yr, 10K per year. Includes all taxes and fees but sales tax is "only" $500 here in South Carolina. I decided to buy instead.

Helpful to know. I don't have answers to most of your questions until I visit the showroom again today. Although I can't tell you the exact "Sticker" price, the lease is based on a "selling" price of 33,800, minus 4250 in various discounts and rebates (but NOT any state or country rebates, which add up to $4500 in my locale), which nets to $29550.

Regarding RESIDUAL, it is my best understanding that it is only of consequence if there is a chance I will buy the car at lease end. There is no chance of that in this case.

[theothertom]

Selling price of $33,800 is an ok price given it's not an end of month or end of year deal. Sometimes you can get a slightly better deal if it is the last day of the month and the dealer needs to sell a car to meet a quota. But sometimes they've already met their quota and won't offer as good a deal. So it's a gamble. Overall, regardless of how they got there, $405 per month is a good deal IMO.
Residual is important in that it determines how much your payment is. Selling price minus residual value is the amount of money you are borrowing and paying interest on. So you want the residual to be as high as possible, and the selling price to be as low as possible so that the amount you borrow is low. By the way, residual is usually quoted as a %, but it's a % of STICKER, not the selling price. This works in your favor to keep the residual value high.
At the end of the lease, if the true market value is less than the residual, then the dealer will most likely offer you a deal to buy the car and the finance company will "eat" the difference. If the market value is more than the residual, and you want the car, then you'll effectively be getting a discount if you buy it.
IMO, the technology is changing so rapidly that it'll probably be in your best interest to walk away from the car in three years. There'll be better (and less expensive) EV's on the market by then. That's why I wanted to lease but the payments were just too high for me. I'm gambling I can sell my car in a couple of years and be ok.

[PackardV8]

To answer the OPs question - No, I wouldn't lease on those terms.

IMO, the technology is changing so rapidly that it'll probably be in your best interest to walk away from the car in three years. There'll be better (and less expensive) EV's on the market by then. That's why I wanted to lease but the payments were just too high for me. I'm gambling I can sell my car in a couple of years and be ok.

FWIW, I know two BEV lesees who accepted the same logic you did. They both love their BEV so much, they're going over the allowable miles. Both say nothing that great has come along in the past three years. Both say now they should have bought.

Bottom line - if a Bolt gets us where we need to go reliably, what does it really matter if a newer, better, more expensive BEV comes along in three years? (Does anyone really believe better and less expensive BEV will go together in the near future? I know I don't. Just ask those who've been on the $35,000 Tesla waiting list for how long now?)

jack vines

[BoltEV]

Bottom line - if a Bolt gets us where we need to go reliably, what does it really matter if a newer, better, more expensive BEV comes along in three years? (Does anyone really believe better and less expensive BEV will go together in the near future? I know I don't. Just ask those who've been on the $35,000 Tesla waiting list for how long now?)

Make that 3 leasees; although since I leased with 15,000 annual miles, I may not go over the mileage allowance.

I owned my 83 Volvo for 13 years. I owned my 97 Chrysler Sebring soft top convertible for 12 years. I purchased an 08 Chrysler Sebring hard top convertible the week Chrysler declared bankruptcy at a $15,000 savings and expected to own it for another 12 years.

However, having a geek background, BEVs and PBEVs are technology.

Not being happy with an 80-100 mile range with then state of the art BEVs, in 2013 I leased a Chevy Volt 1.0 for three years and I was the first one "off the lot" with my Chevy Bolt EV 3 year lease in January 2017.

Paying for a lease gives me the option to walk away from the car and get the "latest and greatest" technology that would then be available.

It is starting to look like the Model 3 at $35,000 is vaporware and I will not want a "luxury" BEV like the Jaguar iPace or the upcoming Volvo model, so indeed my options may be limited.

If so, I'll just go back to driving my Chrysler and wait for something better to come out, just like I did for the four months after I returned my Volt and waited for my Bolt EV!

[SparkE]

The Nissan Leaf e-Plus, Kia Niro and Hyundai Kona EVs should be available soon. (Of course, exactly HOW MANY of the Korean cars will be made available might be a worry, if the low Ioniq availability in the U.S. is any indication.) Ignoring the new Leaf (no thermal battery management?) ... Both the Niro and Kona are going to have around 240-250 miles of range.

But they might not be your piece of cake.

They are both labeled "crossovers" (although they don't seem THAT different from the Bolt form factor). So if mini-SUVs aren't your thing ...

The interior/console layout is a bit different (no shifter, I believe), the roominess "feel" is different, and the cargo space may or may not fit your lifestyle.

But rumor has it (based on units shipping in other countries) that the interior, materials, and S/W (such as emergency braking and adaptive cruise) are pretty top-notch. Not BMW 7-series top-notch, but a cut above the Bolt. Supposedly - I haven't seen either in real life yet.

Both also will still have the $7500 tax credit available, which will definitely help buyers, and *should* help leases prices as well (either through lower starting price or higher residual). Both start around $37K. Both will have charging at a faster rate than the Bolt currently does. (max 70kW for Kona, 80 kW for Niro, compared to the Bolt's 55 kW around 50-54% SoC, when it drops to 38 kW or so.)

Anyhow, those are the longer range EV options, it looks like. Until the $35K model 3 becomes available (if you like sedans) or the new VW comes out next year. GM hasn't announced an update to the Bolt yet, or any new EV model. I have been somewhat expecting a Buick-badged Bolt with a slightly larger battery (?75 kWh?), faster charging (75 kW?), more luxurious interior, with a slight stretch to it (slightly longer and a tad bit wider, but on the same Bolt platform). The silence is somewhat surprising to say the least.

[BoltEV]

Thanks for that update.

Both also will still have the $7500 tax credit available, which will definitely help buyers, and *should* help leases prices as well (either through lower starting price or higher residual).

Did you mean lower residual?

[coastalcruiser]

Thanx for the good input everyone. After an extended test drive the day before, I pulled the trigger on the Bolt lease yesterday. Very happy with the car so far.