Why Lease a Corvette?
The Chevrolet Corvette has always been America’s sport car but relatively high prices keep them out of the hands of the average automotive consumer. With base prices from $55,500 to over $110,000, loan payments can be well over the $2000 a month mark. Affordability can be a real issue for those who would like to drive the “real American sports car.”
Corvette is an ideal lease vehicle for a number of reasons.
First of all many Corvette enthusiasts enjoy having the newest and more powerful versions every three years or so. Second, leasing provides a way to drive a car that might not be affordable otherwise. Third, lease residuals (resale values) are very high for Corvettes, which creates lower lease payments than for other vehicles in the same price class.
Corvette Lease vs Buy Comparison
Let’s take a look at a typical loan for a new Corvette and compare with a lease.
Our car will have a MSRP sticker price of $65,005. Let’s assume the discounted sale price is $64,000, a fair deal for this hot car.
We’ll use a new-car loan interest rate of 4.3% and go with a loan and lease term of 36 months. We’ll also assume a $3000 down payment or trade credit. For leasing, we’ll use a 60% residual at 12,000 miles per year.
We’ll ignore sales taxes for this scenario.
Loan
Using an auto loan calculator , we find that monthly loan payments will be $1809.12 for a 36 month loan. Payments drop to $1385.53 for a 48 month loan and $1131.69 for 60 months.
Lease
With leasing, we’ll also go for 36 months, 12,000 miles per year, and make the same $3000 down payment but we have to add an acquisition fee of, say, $695, increasing our vehicle cost to $64,695. Our residual value is 60% of the MSRP ($65,005) which is $39,003. Using these numbers in our Lease Calculator, monthly lease payments will then be $810.75 for 36 months.
At the time of this writing, there are no special promotional lease deals on the Chevrolet Corvette. It is a very popular vehicle and is rarely promoted with customer incentives.
Conclusion
In our typical 36 month example, Corvette lease payments are only 45% of loan payments — less than half. Lease payments are still lower even when compared to a 60 month loan.
Of course, a large down payment (cash and/or trade credit) will reduce monthly payment amounts for both a lease or loan, but will have the greatest effect with a lease.
In order to get the loan rates and lease deal we outlined above, you must have a good credit score. Get a Dark Web Scan and your Experian Credit Report for FREE!. The interest rate we used in the above examples will be higher for customers with less than “prime” credit scores.
Summary
It’s possible to drive one of America’s hottest and greatest looking sports cars for an affordable cost. This is one of the largest reasons for the lease popularity of the Chevrolet Corvette.
Although Chevrolet doesn’t often offer promotional incentives or special leases on the Corvette — because it sells and leases well enough without them — it is still worthwhile to check the Chevrolet web site for monthly special lease deals. Simply go to the site, Chevrolet.com, and select the “Offers” option on the menu bar.
And be sure to check our Car Deal Finder for the best Corvette deals at local dealers. You’ll get the lowest prices based on discounts and incentives without the need to haggle. Of course the best price gets you the lowest lease payment.