thinking of leaseing a 2002 S60 base model,great deal $389.00\48 months no money down!!
I own a 850,have had a 240,940.will i like the S60?
Why is the battery in the back of the car?

Don't walk into a lease without having checked it out first. I leased my S60 because it is my wife's company car and will do low miles and be replaced at the end of the lease by another. I am a prime candidate for leasing.

Do your research on leasing. In fact if you are good with excel, you can write a program that will emulate the dealers lease screens. I have such a program, email me at stevestrash@comcast.net (my 'public' junk account to attract spam and the like) and I'll email it to you.

Make your best deal on the car before you tell them you want to lease. I'm not going to go into how to do that but go armed with every price you can find on www.carpoint.com

Some things to note. You will pay taxes. In some states like MD, you will pay the tax on the full price of the vehicle up front so there is $1500-$1800. Other states add 5% (or whatever) to the monthly payment. In the case of the latter you will also pay the % on the money you put up (if any) since that counts as a 'payment'.

Your title and tags should be about $150. Most leases require you to have new tags - you can't transfer them.

Volvo has an aquisition fee. Your dealer will possibly try to inflate it but don't pay more than $500. If you can get it lower then good luck.

There is also a $395 disposition fee payed AT THE END of the lease if you return the car. If you sell it no problem.

Don't fall for the usual paint protection/ding protection/leather protection/carpet protection scams that will be pitched to you. You must take care of the car but normal wear and tear is OK. Ripped seats are not OK - that's not normal W&T but the dealers 'leather plan' will not cover rips anyway. Buy a bottle of Lexol :D

Most importantly, make sure your dealer discloses the money factor (which is the APR divided by 2400 - multiply it by 2400 to get a rough APR comparison) and residual values for your exact model. Here is a cut and paste from a post of mine on Swedespeed that gives the rates as they were back in January for the S60:

MONEY FACTORS
2.4T 3year MF 0.00194 (4.7%)
4year MF 0.00231 (5.5%)

T5 3year MF .00201 (4.8%)
4year MF .00221 (5.3%)

RESIDUALS FOR 12000/15000 MILES
2.4T 3year Res 57%/55%
4year Res 51%/49%

T5 3year Res 56%/54%
4year Res 48%/46%

Sorry I don't have the details on the Base S60. I imagine that most Volvo dealers are open about the rates. Mine gave me the bound manual to look at.

Bottom line. Do not lease a car that you would otherwise not be able to afford i.e by financing in the traditional manner. A lease can save you money over a traditional financing deal ON THE SAME CAR not on one that is $10,000 more than what you could finance. You should do something with the dollar difference. I bought a 1987 765ti to mess with (and put miles on). If you are the kind of person that replaces their car every 3 or 4 years then a lease maybe for you but remember at the end of the lease, you have nothing unless you sell the car and then you still have to pay the lease company the residual value - you roll the dice.

Leasing a car that would otherwise be out of your reach is a bad idea. Sure the payments are the same as a loan but again, after 3-4 years, you have nothing. After 60 months on a loan you have a car that's yours.

Do not lease for any longer than the warranty on the car. With Volvos, 48 months is the max you should lease. Other cars usually have a 36 month warranty. If you lease for 48 and the transmission blow up in the 47th month, you're paying for it!!

Hope that helps. I have leased many cars and can answer any questions you may have. My email is above.



Steve in MD
02 S60 2.4T
87 765ti
Big Dodge Ram
Fast Vette Rag

Boy,

Village Volvo must have worked you hard, huh? Hehehe!

Your factors are way wrong, so are you residuals. What you posted are last month's program.

Factors are much lower and residuals went down by 2%, respectively.

Yannis

P.S. There is absolutely no problem in transferring a tag from one lease to another. You just have to get an affidavit from the leasing company and in the 8 yrs. I have been in the business I have never seen one who denied such request.


--
2001 V70 T-5M SR, Classic Red/Graphite Lthr., ipd ECU Upgrade, Cold Weather, Dolby Surr. Sound, Rear Spoiler, 17' 'Tethys' alloys

I know the lease residuals change as do the money factors. That's why I stated that they were January's. :-)

In my case, I was not returning a leased vehicle this time, I actually had a set of tags from 'somewhere else' ;-) but Volvo leasing would not let me put them on the car and anyway, the wife wanted 'Bay Tags' which are a fancy MD plate design. Now from lease to lease, maybe that is different.

Village Volvo were awesome BTW. Went back and got a Volvo car seat/booster seat for the offspring!

Hey Yannis, I thought the paint quality on the Tethys wheels sucks. I see you have them. Mine look like they were painted by me!! I looked at some others on Bill Kidd's lot the other day and they're all the same. What's with that?? The silver paint is really badly applied. Should I take them back??

Steve in MD

Steve,

I know exactly what you are talking about; quite a few of the 2001s that came with these wheels had that quality problem. In most cases, people either did not complain strongly or we got Volvo to throw in some stuff. But no one demanded that Volvo refinish the wheels.

I was pretty lucky (my alloys came from a 2001 S60); if you look very closely (at my wheels) you may see, where the spokes meet at the center, that the finish is not very strong but overall they are pretty good. I am not going to worry about it nor raise any issues with Volvo. It is pretty minor as far as I am concerned.


The vast majority of 2002 S60s that have Tethys on, are 100% improved.


Yannis
--
2001 V70 T-5M SR, Classic Red/Graphite Lthr., ipd ME7 ECU Upgrade, K&N Air Filter, Cold Weather, Dolby Surr. Sound, Rear Spoiler, 17' 'Tethys' alloys

Vetteguy,

Great summary of the leasing situation. All the points you make are important and should be considered. In my case, I leased, but tend to trade every 3 to 4 years, keep the vehicle in top shape and do not put an excessive amount of miles on the car.

I certainly do not understand leasing to the depth you do, but used a guide published at Edmunds to help me sort it out. It is the turn-in of the vehicle that always concerns me with a lease.

Thanks for a well thought out reply.

Regards,

Jim

P.S. It is good to see a little action on this site again.

Like Napoleon said, it smells new. The seats are comfy and the ergonomics are nice. Like the gentleman from Maine implied, but was polite enough not to say, you shouldn't ever lease a car.

-Phil Punxsutawney

I have looked at leasing myself but have never done it. My thought is that it's probably okay if you stay within the mileage limits and keep the car in decent shape. I also have an 850 and would be concerned about the smaller back seat of the S60. Regarding the battery, I think they put it back there for weight distribution but there are probably other reasons. Let us know what you decide.

They are all nice when they are new. You will love the S60! Don't ask my opinion of leasing. You wouldn't like it.