A Chevy Equinox Lease Is Now Cheaper Than An Equinox Gym Membership (Expired)
$151/Month, $0 Down for non-GM lessees. Program valid through January 4, 2016.
We often hear that cars are the second-biggest expense after housing. It doesn't have to be that way.
These days, a membership at the posh gym chain Equinox will set you back about $160 a month. For the same price, you can now lease an Equinox SUV—and have enough left over for a Planet Fitness membership. Here's how.
1. Selling Price
The 2016 Chevrolet Equinox LT has an MSRP of $27,345. Aim for a dealer discount of $2,000 for a selling price of $25,345 before incentives. There are countless dealers on car buying websites and newspaper ads offering such a discount this time of year.
2. Incentives
The following incentives from GM are available to most individuals. They can be stacked:
General Incentives | |
---|---|
GM Financial Lease Cash | $1,300 (all) |
Bonus Tag Cash | $500 (Bonus Tag only) |
Incremental Bonus Customer Cash | $750 (regional) |
The $1,300 GM Financial Lease Cash is available to all consumers. Dealers can assign up to 15% of their inventory with a Bonus Tag, which is an additional $500 incentive. You can identify Bonus Tag cars on the dealer's website. Finally, there's $750 in Incremental Bonus Customer Cash available in most regions, including the following states:
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, MD, MI, MN, MO, NV, NH, NJ, NY, PA, TX, UT, and VA.
There are also targeted incentives; these cannot be stacked:
Targeted Incentives | |
---|---|
Website Private Offer | $1,000 |
Competitive Lessee Conquest Cash | $1,500 |
Volt Loyalty Cash | $2,500 |
Folks have reported getting a $1,000 Private Offer by browsing the Chevrolet.com website. The offer pops-up after a few minutes of browsing. Alternately, there's $1,500 Cash for those who currently lease a non-GM vehicle (no need to terminate existing lease). Current Chevrolet Volt owners or lessees are eligible for a $2,500 Cash incentive.
For the purposes of this example, let's assume you lease a non-GM vehicle. After adding up the General Incentives and the Competitive Lessee Conquest Cash, the incentives total $4,050.
3. Putting It Together
After the dealer discount and incentives, the price of the car (i.e., net capitalized cost) drops to $21,295. GM Financial estimates that a 2016 Equinox LT will be worth 69% of its MSRP ($18,868) after 24 months of use at 10,000 miles per year. Therefore, the total depreciation expense is $2,427, or about $101 per month.
The money factor (MF) for the Equinox is .00070 (1.7% APR). GM Financial will waive the $595 acquisition fee if they raise the MF to .00125 (3% APR); it's cheaper to do so than to pay the acquisition fee. The monthly finance charge will be $50 per month.
Add the monthly depreciation expense and finance charge, and you get the lease payment: $151 per month.
Here's what you should expect when all is said and done. We've added in Los Angeles County sales tax (9%), license/registration, and fees. Program valid through January 4, 2016.
Total Drive-Off | |
---|---|
First month's payment (after 9% tax) | $165 |
DMV license/registration | $265 |
Dealer document fee ($80 max. in CA) | $80 |
Down payment | $0 |
Sales tax on incentives and doc fee | $372 |
TOTAL DUE AT SIGNING | $882 |
Did you recently lease an Equinox? Share your deal below!
December 21, 2015 Edit: Updated to correct Bonus Tag incentive amount, which is $500 on leases and $1,500 for purchases.