Lease New Cars: Do I Need Gap Protection?

Standard in most car leases, gap protection will cover your expenses if your vehicle is stolen or destroyed during the term of your lease. Depending on your circumstances, this could save you thousands of dollars.

How? Let's say your car gets totaled when you owe $7,500 on your loan, but the insurance company determines the value of the vehicle to be only $5,000. The insurance money can go to your loan payments, but that still leaves a $2,500 gap in the money you have and the money you owe.

Car lease deals with gap protection will cover any discrepancy between your vehicle value and your loan. Without gap protection, your situation will be treated as an early termination — kind of like when you try to cancel your cell phone or cable service before the contract is up.

Although certain safety precautions can help you minimize your risk, car accidents and thefts are impossible to predict or rule out entirely. For this reason, it's important to protect yourself and only lease new cars with contracts including gap coverage.

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Finding the Best Car Leasing Companies

If you’re thinking about leasing a car, choosing a dealership is just as important as selecting a make and model. Read on for some qualities to look for in potential car leasing companies.

Variety
Whether or not you have an idea of the type of car you’d like to lease, it’s best to do business with car leasing companies offering a variety of makes and models. In addition to providing you with plenty of options, a wide selection indicates that a dealership has a certain level of experience within the industry.

Financing
Just like makes and models, you want to keep your financing options as open as possible. Look for car leasing companies with flexible financing and special offers. At the same time, make sure your dealership has sufficient credit criteria to guarantee financial stability.

Service
Even if you’re looking to lease new cars, chances are you’re still going to need some maintenance and repairs over the course of your lease. For this reason, it’s important to find car leasing companies that provide on-site service. Your specific service needs will depend on your schedule, type of vehicle, and how many miles you expect to drive.

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Car Leasing Deals: It’s All About the Invoice

When buying or leasing a vehicle, you never have to pay the MSRP value. Still, studies have found that as many as one in seven U.S. car buyers think the list price is a fair price. If you’re looking for car leasing deals, it’s important to consider the factory invoice of your vehicle – how much the dealer had to pay to own the car.

The difference between the list price and invoice price represents the dealer’s potential profit margin. It’s also the space you have to negotiate a better price.

Experienced car buyers and leasers look up vehicle invoice prices online and negotiate up from the invoice, not down from the MSRP. A larger margin often suggests that your dealer will be more willing to lower the price – to guarantee a successful negotiation, restrict your search to cars with higher margins.

Car leasing companies will sometimes even consider leasing a vehicle for below its invoice price. This is because dealers are often eligible for rebates and special interest payments called holdbacks from the manufacturer, allowing them to negotiate below invoice and still turn a profit.

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The Best Brooklyn Cars to Lease

When it comes to cars, most people know what they like. This could be leather seating, mobile video, iPod compatibility, or simply ample cup holders. It’s obviously to important to find a vehicle with the features you desire, however leasing a car should add an extra dimension to your search.

Why? Your leasing expenses will be determined by your vehicle’s residual value: how much your dealer expects it to be worth at the end of the lease. No one can predict the future, but it’s still important to factor in the resale values of the vehicles you’re considering.

For example, you should avoid vehicles by companies that have had to order large recalls in recent years. This decreases people’s confidence in the make and will likely result in a lower residual value. Additionally, it’s best to pass up car models that are frequently redesigned. This can also decrease your resale value, as a new design will make your vehicle seem dated.

Overall, it’s important to lease Brooklyn cars with historically high resale values. Then you can start thinking about cupholders.

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