A sign of the times: Cheap leases on cars
Detroit News - March 17, 2008
The following article was also posted online at www.leasetrader.com.
One of the valuable services we in the media provide is to offer proof of what you already know to be true. Like, have you heard the economy around here is swirling the drain?
The latest evidence includes a 2007 Buick Lucerne CX in Clarkston: Only $280 a month for two years. And a 2007 Cadillac CTS in Bloomfield Hills: 31 months, $375 per. And a 2007 Honda Civic LX in Grand Blanc: 32 months, $327.
All are listed at www.LeaseTrader.com, and more than likely, says the lease exchange's vice president for marketing, they're being dumped cheap because the owners can't afford them anymore. Or as John Sternal puts it, a shade more delicately, "we've seen a 24-percent increase in customers looking to downsize."
"You can tell just looking at the database," Sternal says. With jobs disappearing and gas prices elevating, Michigan hovers near the top of the list of places where "people are looking to get out so they can find something more affordable or something smaller."
What that sets up is a situation sort of like the housing market: Great bargains, assuming you're not so heavily invested already that you're immobilized.
I do not bring this up, by the way, to make life happier at LeaseTrader.com, though Sternal seems like a nice guy and he witnessed one of the great moments in Detroit sports history. I've never even leased a car. I buy 'em and drive 'em till the floorboards fall out.
In a region where employee discounts make leases almost irresistible, and where we tend to hold automobiles close to our hearts, I just wondered if we were letting go.
Walking away
Sternal, 33, works out of company headquarters in Miami and drives a 2004 Kia Optima -- which, in case you're wondering, he bought. He used to handle public relations for the Tampa Bay Lightning, and he was on loan to the NHL in 1997 when the Red Wings swept Philadelphia to win their first Stanley Cup in 42 years.
Better yet, he was on the ice at Joe Louis Arena during the Stanley Cup ceremony. And better still, he says, "I did not have to pick up the octopus."
Now he's beating the drums for LeaseTrader, where he says 35,000 people unloaded or picked up a vehicle last year.
In Michigan, he says, "it's heavily tilted toward the getting-out side." Lease-holders have already parted with the down payment. They're walking away from their rides anyway, "either because of job loss or income change or the housing situation or credit-card bills."
If you're getting out of a lease, Sternal's company charges $79 to list your car and $149 to transfer it. If you're getting in, it's $39 for a membership and the same $149 for the transfer.
That's a nice arrangement if you're LeaseTrader.com and still a nice one if you're picking up that Buick Lucerne, which has 1,425 miles per month left on the contract. With a friends and family discount, a 39-month, 15,000-miles-per-year lease on a 2008 CX starts with $500 down and runs $387 a month.
There are other advantages to a new car, of course, but a $280 Lucerne seems like a heck of a deal in a down economy, which, I regret to inform you, we have.
This story posted by LeaseTrader.com, the automotive service company that lets people transfer out of their Car Leases early. If you're looking to swap a lease or transfer out of your car lease, please visit www.leasetrader.com