Leases are typically extremely negotiable; I leased for about 10 years with extremely good experiences. I drive a bit more now & wanted to do modifications to my car, so I opted to buy this go-around, but my wife is currently leasing her Civic. Here is what I've learned:
1. Never make a down payment, that's just icing on the cake for dealerships. Tell them flat out $0 down, no security deposit. Some places require a $500 security deposit & will then refund it to you, so do that if you have to. Once you get serious, you can sometimes talk them into the extra goodies they try to sell you at the end for free (wax treatment, seat treatment, etc.). So no down payment + make them do freebies.
2. Good credit is key. Bad credit can easily add $100 or $200 to the monthly price (leasing is doable on bad credit, it's just really expensive).
3. Play the price game. The trick I've used the last couple of times is the ping-pong method: get a quote for the car you want. Go to a dealership for a competing brand with a similarly-priced car and get their numbers. Return to the place you wanted to lease from with their numbers, and see if they can beat them. It's worked every time for me!
4. Check Truecar.com (they bought Carwoo.com btw). Also check swapalease.com and leasetrader.com to see what people are actually paying for their leases - that will give you a pretty solid idea of the numbers in reality. Also USAA, Sam's Club, Costco, AAA, etc. - lots of resources for getting somewhat locked-in pricing & pre-negotiation are available. Go in armed with knowledge, not guesswork. Remember that monthly taxes can add like $35 a month to the lease deal, so a $235/mo lease can be $270/mo when the bill comes.
5. Realize that not all dealerships will play ball. Honestly, I've really only ever had one dealership that wouldn't budge (a local Nissan dealership), but when I went to a different Nissan dealership a few towns over, they were quick to beat the other one on price & negotiate. It pays to shop around. It also depends on the sales guy, but most of them are willing to work with in order to make the sale.
6. Do your research all ALL of the fees involved in leasing, especially the ones specific to your state. I had no idea that I had to pay sales tax on a leased car in Connecticut and was VERY surprised when I got a $400 bill in the mail at the end of the year. That was like 2 months worth of lease payments on my Saturn ION at the time! So get the A to Z nailed down for money up front, monthly money after taxes, and money at the end. Most dealerships require a $400 return fee called a disposition fee - that bites a lot of people who don't pay attention to the paperwork.
7. Make sure you can live within the mileage limitations (usually 36,000 miles over the course of the lease, or 12,000 miles a year). You can do as low as 10k miles on a special short 2-year lease or as long as 15k or 18k miles per year, including a 4-year lease. They will nickel & dime you to death if you go over. Some places charge 25 or 30 cents per mile over, so if you really exceed the range, it might be better to buy it out haha.
8. Remember that you are locked into a contract. You can't just return the car in the middle of the lease like you could do if you owned it. Maybe you can offload it through Leasetrader or Swapalease, but maybe not. So make sure the income is stable & you're not planning any major life changes that would increase miles or decrease the monthly budget for car payments.
9. Honda is really good to lease through. They don't have any kind of return fee & allow a lot of damage (I think like $1500 worth), plus if you go over-mileage & lease (or buy) through them again, they'll usually ignore the over-mileage you may have on the lease. That's another thing - you have to cover any major damage to the vehicle, so you may get nicked for repairs after you return it. Leasing starts sounding super stingy, but it depends on how you treat your car.
Basically, realize that dealerships exist to make money. They will always get the better end of the bargain, but you can mitigate both your stress and your wallet hit by doing some research & being prepared. If you just walk in, ask for lease, sign it, and walk out, you're going to get the worst deal possible because they'll charge you the max amount for everything, charge you for all the add-ons, and not be entirely clear about all of the fees, such as the disposition fee.
But if you're aware of all that & can fit it in your budget, it's great. I had nearly 10 years without any car hassles thanks to leasing. To some people it seems like a waste of money, but for me, having a reliable, low-hassle car was extremely important. I had been through some crummy cars before I started leasing (yay cheap college whips!) and didn't want to have to deal with that again.
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