Top Car Leases March 2010

Acura TSX Lease Offer

Acura TSX

You can almost never go wrong with a 0-Down Car Lease from Honda, Mazda or Acura. All three of these car manufacturers are at the top of the March 2010 Car Lease Ratings which is largely due to the fact no down payment is required! Yes, you read that right. For no money out of your pocket and 30-days without a payment, you can drive away in either the well-equipped $24,000 Honda Accord LX-S; the practical $18,210 Civic-DX-VP; the sporty and fun $17,350 Mazda-3 i-Sport or the luxurious $35,610 Acura TSX V6. All of these cars have Excellent Lease Value Ratios (LVR) At the top of the list is the ever-practical, quality 2010 Honda Civic which leases for $190 a month and a stunningly low LVR of just 1.04 The Mazda 3, Mazda 6, Accord LX-S and Acura TSX lease for $190, $239, $280 and $420 respectively. When you look at the lease payments on the rest of the luxury cars in the table below, the Acura TSX for $420 a month and nothing down, looks even better. There are now 5 different American cars available for reasonable lease payments between Cadillac and Buick. The new Buick Lucerne and LaCrosse got very favorable ratings in the April Issue of Motor Trend, but they have a ways to go in the finance department. The high, $2699 down payment required of the Buick LaCrosse unfortunately prevents it from having a very competitive lease payment or LVR. You will actually pay less over 36 months to lease the $35,660 Acura than you will pay over 39 months to lease the $27,880 Buick LaCrosse. Remember, though;  it takes time to build a reputation and if the new Buicks are as good as the reviews indicate, these lease prices should eventually become far more attractive.  See the table below for the rest of this month's auto lease specials.

RankModelTermPMTDown1st MonthMSRPAVGTotal CostLVR
1Honda Civic DX-VP Auto 201036$190.00$0.00$0.00$18,215.00$190.00$6,840.001.04%
2Mazda 3 i-Sport Auto 201042$199.00$0.00$0.00$17,805.00$199.00$8,358.001.12%
3Mazda 6 Sport Auto 201042$239.00$0.00$0.00$21,170.00$239.00$10,038.001.13%
4Honda Accord LX-S 201036$280.00$0.00$0.00$24,065.00$280.00$10,080.001.16%
5Acura TSX 6-Cyl 201036$420.00$0.00$0.00$35,660.00$420.00$15,120.001.18%
6Nissan Altima Sedan 2.5S 201039$199.00$2,999.00$199.00$22,870.00$275.90$10,760.001.21%
7BMW 3350Xi Sedan 201036$439.00$5,464.00$439.00$47,500.00$590.78$21,268.001.24%
8Nissan Maxima S 201039$329.00$2,999.00$329.00$31,530.00$405.90$15,830.001.29%
9Acura RL39$539.00$2,999.00$539.00$47,640.00$615.90$24,020.001.29%
10Cadillac STS AWD V6 201039$579.00$6,729.00$579.00$58,005.00$751.54$29,310.001.30%
11Cadillac CTS RWD 3.0L Sedan 201039$369.00$5,844.00$369.00$39,990.00$518.85$20,235.001.30%
12Volkswagen New Beetle Manual 201036$199.00$1,999.00$199.00$19,440.00$254.53$9,163.001.31%
13Cadillac CTS Sedan RWD 3.0L 201039$369.00$6,294.00$369.00$39,990.00$530.38$20,685.001.33%
14Nissan Sentra 2.0 201039$179.00$2,449.00$179.00$18,130.00$241.79$9,430.001.33%
15Nissan Armada SUV 201039$519.00$2,999.00$519.00$43,980.00$595.90$23,240.001.35%
16Buick Enclave CX 201039$429.00$2,659.00$429.00$36,290.00$497.18$19,390.001.37%
17Volkswagen Passat Automatic 201036$329.00$2,499.00$329.00$27,945.00$398.42$14,343.001.43%
18Volkswagen Golf 2DR Manual 201036$209.00$1,999.00$209.00$18,370.00$264.53$9,523.001.44%
19Buick LaCrosse CX 201039$359.00$2,659.00$359.00$27,835.00$427.18$16,660.001.53%
20BMW 550i Sedan 201036$809.00$6,184.00$809.00$61,475.00$980.78$35,308.001.60%
21Cadillac DTS Luxury 201039$699.00$8,749.00$699.00$52,740.00$923.33$36,010.001.75%
22Mazda Tribute SUV 201036$329.00$2,924.00$329.00$22,880.00$410.22$14,768.001.79%

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Monthly Car Lease Specials for February 2010

Accord EX Lease

Accord EX Lease

Even with all of their bad publicity and the massive amount of money these Safety Recalls are costing them, Toyota is still putting out the most practical and best leases for an affordable family sedan. The 2010 Toyota Camry Sedan LE tops the Monthly Car Lease Specials List once again with an LVR (Lease Value Ratio) of just 1.08. For just $8,800, you can drive a maintenance-free, quality luxury sedan for 3 years. This is still a good deal, despite the awful safety reputation Toyota has endured while it recalls a large number of it's vehicles due to sticking accelerator pedals and other less serious issues on its hybrids. What this says to me is that Toyota cars still hold their value as well or better than any other car on the market, even while they recover from their current PR disaster. Still, you might wanna make sure that your gas pedal is okay, before you negotiate a new lease on a Toyota! Either that, or you should look at the next, best LVR Lease Score and my personal favorite this month. Read the rest of this entry »

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Best Sports Cars Lease Under $30,000

Top 5 Sports Car Leases

Top-5 Sports Car Leases

Since I started this car lease blog a few months ago, a couple of serious questions have been tugging at my heels:

  1. Can you have fun and still be practical with a car lease?
  2. What are the Best Sports Cars under $30,000 and does it make good financial sense to lease them?

My hope was to be able to answer, yes to both of these questions as I rounded up a few of the recent lease specials on sub-$30,000 fun, sports cars. I was pleased to learn that sports cars under $30,000 have lots to offer in performance, economy and overall value. Sports cars in this price category don't have to necessarily be lightening fast (though, the Subaru WRX certainly proves they can!), but they do need to be quick-enough and sexy-enough to look, feel and have a level of driving enjoyment that goes beyond a typical family sedan. I located five cars with attractive lease offers that fit into this budget and criteria:

  • Subaru WRX Manual
  • Mazda RX8 Manual
  • Volvo C30 T5 Manual
  • Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T Manual
  • Volkswagen CC Sport 2.0L Manual

Yes, these cars all offer a certain level of, "fun".
I truly believe that each of these cars have unique features, qualities and style that would make them good lease choices based on personal tastes and desire. However, a couple of them really stand out as providing the best bang for the buck, yet for completely different reasons. Here is a brief summary of each of the five cars: Read the rest of this entry »

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Leasing Special from GM

Cadillac CTS Car Lease Special

CTS Car Lease Special

GM is slowly, but surely getting back into the car leasing business. The Cadillac STS scored the best car lease deal for the December, 2009 Monthly Car Lease Ratings. For January 2010, GM has added some attractive lease offers on the Buick and Chevrolet.  I thought it would be fun to feature the latest GM car leases and rate them. While it is good to see General Motors leasing cars again, I am not real crazy about their GM Loyalty program. On their top car lease deals, GM is offering an extra $1,000 off to current GM customers. While this may seem like a nice way to reward the loyalty of returning General Motors customers, what kind of message does it send to the prospective Cadillac, Chevy or Buick shoppers who are considering one of their cars for the first time? It might be enough to dissuade potential new customers from trying their cars. After all, $1,000 makes a big difference on a short lease term, which brings me to the next problem. All of the General Motors car lease specials are based on a 39 month lease term. As I've mentioned before, I'm not crazy about lease terms that go over the standard 12-month periods. When the third year (36 month) is up you will have to pay for the car's registration again, only to turn it back into the dealer 3 months later. Then, of course, you will have to pay registration on the new car you buy to replace it. Never the less, these are some pretty good car lease offers. Below, you will see how the GM Loyalty Option affects the outcome. Honors for the Best Car Lease Offer of the group belongs to the 2010 Cadillac CTS Luxury RWD Sedan with the GM Loyalty Rebate of $1,000.  As you can see, non-GM owners will have to pay an extra $1,000 down at lease signing, which results in an average monthly payment that is $28.00 higher. Based on my LVR Car Lease Ratings Formula, this drops the ranking down from excellent to fair. This is hardly a way to entice former Lexus, Acura, BMW and Mercedes owners into trying a Cadillac. Read the rest of this entry »

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Best Gas Mileage Cars to Lease

honda insight car lease

honda-insight-car-lease

The reason we lease cars is to enjoy low monthly payments, pay little or nothing down and to reduce or eliminate maintenance costs. In short, we lease cars to save money. There is one way to save even more money: Lease a car that gets excellent gas mileage. The EPA has released their Top-10 Gas Mileage Cars for 2009 and 2010. Unfortunately this EPA listing of Fuel Efficient cars excludes the ones that are available for leasing. Of the Top-10 of Best Gas Mileage cars listed by the EPA, many of them are hybrids which either don’t lease at all or simply don’t make very attractive lease offers. Last year, Honda surprised me one month with a Civic Hybrid lease special that blew everything else away. For $199.00 a month and $2,299 down, you could lease a Civic Hybrid rated at 40/45 MPG. I have never seen a more affordable, economical way to enjoy a quality, new car for three years. Unfortunately, lease deals like this are rarely seen on Hybrid Cars. Because Hybrids require a sophisticated battery, they are 15 – 20% more expensive than standard cars. The uncertainty of the battery’s reliability and longevity probably add to their rate of depreciation. On a Toyota Prius or Honda Civic Hybrid, the battery depreciates faster than the rest of the car. Hence, most hybrid cars just don’t lease very well – at least not yet. Read the rest of this entry »

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