The term lease price refers to the negotiated or discounted price of a leased vehicle.
Just as price can be negotiated when purchasing a car, price can also be negotiated when leasing. The lower the price, the lower the monthly lease payment.
Price is the only factor that dealers can negotiate in a lease. All the other factors, such as money factor, residual value, and term are usually dictated by the dealer’s car company — actually the financial company associated with and usually owned by the car company.
Often, car companies offer special promotional lease deals in which lease price is already discounted and therefore needs no further negotiation. Other elements, such as money factor and residual value, are often modified to make the deal even more attractive.
It’s important to point out that lease price is usually not the total amount a lease is based on. This total amount is called “capitalized cost” or “gross cap cost.” It can include not only the lease price, but also an acquisition fee (bank fee) and other costs. If for example, a customer has chosen an extended warranty or credit insurance from the dealer’s F&I manager, those costs will be included in the capitalized cost on which the lease will be based. Sometimes these added costs are not shown in detail in a lease contract.
Customers who see that the cap cost in their lease contract is different than the lease price should ask the dealer representative to explain the reason. It will probably be legitimate, but it’s easy enough for a dealer to “forget” a negotiated price discount and simply base the lease on full MSRP sticker price.
To summarize, a low lease price is an important part of getting a good car lease deal. Dealers sometimes tell customers that lease price can’t be discounted. One of the best ways to get the best lease price even before visiting a dealer is to get a no-haggle price from Edmunds.com. Unless that price contains some car company incentives that don’t apply to leasing, that will be the price that the lease will be based on.