One Pay Lease and Up Front Costs

S

Scott Bleier

New Member
The current lease and cap cost (if purchased at lease end) may be the best deal in automotiveland. The Touring ends up costing about $23-24k because all the incentives are taken by the leassor (Honda Finance) up front at the start of the lease.

If I do a one-pay lease and the car is stolen or totaled, is there a gap insurance that reimburses me for my up front payments? I've never leased before but the deal is just too good to pass up.
 
To get correct information about your insurance question, you may want to ask an insurance company (or a few). It’s probaby unusual to make a one time lease payment?

Your cost seems like one of those “If it’s too good to be true........” kind of things. Others on here have been reporting big year end discounts and you’re talking about $13,100 off the MSRP of the Touring, with Honda taking the credits and discounts. Wow!
 
In fact, if you look at any advertised offer from a NJ dealer the capitalized cost for the non-touring is less than $22k after lease payments and residual buyout.
 
Scott Bleier said:
The current lease and cap cost (if purchased at lease end) may be the best deal in automotiveland. The Touring ends up costing about $23-24k because all the incentives are taken by the leassor (Honda Finance) up front at the start of the lease.

If I do a one-pay lease and the car is stolen or totaled, is there a gap insurance that reimburses me for my up front payments? I've never leased before but the deal is just too good to pass up.
Click to expand...





Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
KenG said:
Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
Click to expand...

If you do a one pay....don’t pay off the residual until the end of 3 years.... that way the Gap Insurance is included because it is still under the lease contract.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
Scott Bleier said:
The current lease and cap cost (if purchased at lease end) may be the best deal in automotiveland. The Touring ends up costing about $23-24k because all the incentives are taken by the leassor (Honda Finance) up front at the start of the lease.

If I do a one-pay lease and the car is stolen or totaled, is there a gap insurance that reimburses me for my up front payments? I've never leased before but the deal is just too good to pass up.
Click to expand...
Wow thats an awesome deal. Dont let it slip away. But i don't think gap insurance covers you because Honda is the owner not you. This is how my contract read. If the car is totaled Honda gets all payments fron the insurance company and they can lease you another car. Because you are essentially renting the car to own.
 
I wish I had read this thread before I purchased my car. I didn't consider the lease because I looked at leases in the past and they didn't fit my circumstances. This is a lesson that both lease terms and circumstances may change, and every day is a new day.
 
This is a unique situation whereas the leasor gets the full benefit of a subsidy in fact better than a buyer of the vehicle if said vehicle is purchased at lease end. Instead of an indirect tax credit like the buyer gets a leasor get a direct credit of a subsidy that lowers the actual capital cost of the lease then buyout. Highly unusual and makes for a stupendous deal if the Clarity is your taste.

I'm still in the deciding phase as we know, the Clarity is an acquired taste. My second choice is the Accord Hybrid. The lease for the Accord is not beneficial as there is no real program. It is better to buy but monthly costs are almost double throughout the life of the financing!
 
Scott Bleier said:
This is a unique situation whereas the leasor gets the full benefit of a subsidy in fact better than a buyer of the vehicle if said vehicle is purchased at lease end. Instead of an indirect tax credit like the buyer gets a leasor get a direct credit of a subsidy that lowers the actual capital cost of the lease then buyout. Highly unusual and makes for a stupendous deal if the Clarity is your taste.

I'm still in the deciding phase as we know, the Clarity is an acquired taste. My second choice is the Accord Hybrid. The lease for the Accord is not beneficial as there is no real program. It is better to buy but monthly costs are almost double throughout the life of the financing!
Click to expand...
I was in the market for an accord hybrid when i leased the Clarity. Electricity is very cheap for me and i really haven't seen an increase on my electric bill after charging my car for about 6 months now. Im averaging about 77 mpg. Significantly better than any hybrid. I drove a camry hybrid before and the clarity was definately an upgrade for me. Much of my driving is about 90 percent ev. My long road trips pull the overall average down. So i would only consider another hybrid if i was traveling longer trips continuously.
 
My daily driving is a city commute. It is about 45 miles one way, from suburbs and highway driving for 35 of those miles, to city stop and go into heavy traffic every morning. Going home is the same but reverse. So my strategy would be HV mode most of the way in then EV, then reverse going home. I would end up near 100 miles a day without charging ability till I got home. This may be why the Accord Hybrid might be better. More power and mileage would be similar for my daily commute. I would lose the efficiency of driving around town in EV mode, burning no gas when not commuting...Plus being on the bleeding edge of vehicles with a made in Japan Honda that costs little to lease and run...But the Accord is more powerful, no doubt. Arrh!
 
The Accord hybrid is the same powertrain with a different battery, it is not more poweful. Edit: bad info, Accord Hybrid is a bit faster and has a larger gas engine.

100 miles driving per charging opportunity will still favor the Clarity, plus if you are eligible for tax incentives the Clarity will likely be cheaper than the Accord.

I suspect you would save around 0.5 to 1 gallons per day in the Clarity. My guess is cost tradeoff for fuel for the two cars is around 150 to 200 miles per charging opportunity, but I haven't calculated for Clarity specifically.

Both are great cars though.
 
Last edited:
Scott Bleier said:
I believe the Accord has the 2 liter vs. Clarity's 1.5, correct?
Click to expand...
Sorry, I was wrong. You are right, Accord has 2.0 L, but both advertise 212 HP, I think the Clarity gets more power from the battery so the engine in the Accord is a bit more powerful to compensate.
 
And testing puts it faster than the Clarity (MotorTrend has it at 6.7 sec vs their time for Clarity of 7.5 sec), so yes, Accord Hybrid will be faster. Sorry about the bad info.
 
I think in actual practice the two will feel similar, I think only reason Accord is faster is weight. 1/4 mile times are fairly close. The transmission is the same power split transmission, with direct overdrive or eCVT modes. My hunch is the Accord has a more powerful generator to compensate for its lack of battery power.
 
Last edited:
Scott Bleier said:
My daily driving is a city commute. It is about 45 miles one way, from suburbs and highway driving for 35 of those miles, to city stop and go into heavy traffic every morning. Going home is the same but reverse. So my strategy would be HV mode most of the way in then EV, then reverse going home. I would end up near 100 miles a day without charging ability till I got home. This may be why the Accord Hybrid might be better. More power and mileage would be similar for my daily commute. I would lose the efficiency of driving around town in EV mode, burning no gas when not commuting...Plus being on the bleeding edge of vehicles with a made in Japan Honda that costs little to lease and run...But the Accord is more powerful, no doubt. Arrh!
Click to expand...
Well if power is the the main issue get a tesla model x with ludicrous speed. With all upgrades around 160k $. I dont find myself racing around much even in my v8 truck wich is quite fast. I am very pleased with the 212 hp and 232 ft pounds of torque on the clarity. That is plenty of power for passing and such. The main issue with the clarity is a slight learning curve on drive mode selection and having realistic expectations of a phev. I personally have zero regrets.
 
Scott Bleier said:
This is a unique situation whereas the leasor gets the full benefit of a subsidy in fact better than a buyer of the vehicle if said vehicle is purchased at lease end. ...
Click to expand...

Tax calculations are a pain, but this is interesting. Financing details and Insurance will play into it in important and convoluted manners, but on the surface, given that (married filing jointly with standard deduction — again, details matter) you need a gross income of at least $89k to reap the full benefit of the federal tax credit, this is a way to get these vehicles in the hands of more consumers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top