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