CINCINNATI—The divide between the monthly payment on a vehicle lease, compared to the monthly payment when financing a vehicle continues to widen.
And the biggest reason—MSRP and estimated sales prices continue to grow. Sending consumers looking for ways to keep the monthly payment down.
“In fact, it’s one of the top reasons why one-third of every vehicle sold today is in a lease program,” said Scot Hall, EVP of Swapalease.com, which recently looked at the average costs for leasing and traditional financing.
Swapalease.com, the nation’s largest online lease marketplace, analyzed monthly payment offerings on some of today’s most popular leased vehicles, and compared it to monthly payments in a 60- or 72-month finance program (at 3.50% and 3.75%, respectively). The payments include average down payment offers already baked into the deals for both the lease and finance offer.
“For example, if you leased a Volkswagen Passat 1.8TS you'd pay $149 per month (36 months),” said Hall. “However, financing the same car for 60 months would cost $360.94 each month, and even at 72 months you'd still pay $308.16 each month.”