Enter a nickname for your lease quote. This will be used as the name if you choose to save your quote. Nicknames will make it easier to sort through your saved quotes.

Enter the annual mileage allowance quoted for the lease quote. Some lease programs will allow you to buy discounted miles up to 6 months prior to the end of your lease. However, some lease programs only allow discounted miles if purchased at the beginning of the lease. Check with your dealer for details.

Enter the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) including all of the additional equipment for your desired vehicle. This information can be found on the car's window price sticker. You can also find this information on the lease quote that your dealer provides to you. This number is important when calculating a lease because it is used for calculation the car's depreciation value.

Enter the negotiated selling price of the vehicle. The lower the price, the lower your monthly lease payments will be. Use resources such as Edmunds.com and TrueCar.com to determine what the going price is for your vehicle and negotiate it down as a low as possible.

Enter the total down payment you would like to make. We always suggest making ZERO down payments. Why? Because if you wreck the vehicle or it is stolen (a total loss), then you lose your entire down payment. Also, you have to pay sales tax upfront for the down payment instead of rolling it into the monthly lease payment.

A smarter choice is to put your money down as a Multiple Security Deposit (MSD) instead. The logic of an MSD is simple. If you give the leasing company a security deposit, your lease is considered lower risk and they will reduce your interest rate a.k.a. money factor. Also, security deposits are fully refundable at the end of the lease. That means if you wreck the vehicle or it is stolen, you get the security deposit back.

Enter in any rebates here. When searching for a car, always look on Edmunds.com or TrueCar.com for rebates and incentives. There are several rebates and incentive discounts available that will reduce the selling price. Most rebates are taxable. This means you have to pay the sales tax upfront on the rebate. Under the advanced settings option, you may select taxable or non-taxable. Check with your dealer to determine whether rebates are taxable or non-taxable for your location.

Select the duration of your lease. Most leases are 12 months, 24 months, and 36 months. Longer term leases generally don't make sense because you are still responsible for maintaining the vehicle. The objective of a lease is to utilize the vehicle while it's still new so you don't have expensive maintenance costs (i.e. transmission repairs, etc).

Enter in your Local Sales Tax Rate in a percentage format (i.e. 8.25). Do not include the % symbol. Just enter the number in a decimal format. If you do not know your sales tax rate, ask your dealer. If you are lucky enough to live in an area that does not collect sales tax, leave it as 0.

Enter the residual value of the vehicle after the end of its lease. A vehicle loses value every day that you drive it. The residual value is the market value of the vehicle at the end of your lease. The leasing company will estimate how much value it will lose and calls it the “residual value". Ask the dealer for this residual value. It is usually given in either a percentage format or a dollar value format. Make sure to enter this number into the calculator and select the right formatting.

Enter in the Money Factor or Interest Rate for your lease. Leasing companies will represent the interest in either a Money Factor Decimal Format (0.0013) or a percentage format (3.12%). Most leasing companies love to confuse you with the Money Factor Decimal Format because it is harder for you to tell if it is a good interest rate or not. You can show off your lease skills at the dealership by easily converting the Money Factor number to a standard percentage format by multiplying the Money Factor by 2400. Example: 0.0013 x 2400 = 3.12%

Select if you want to make Multiple Security Deposits (MSD). Most luxury vehicle manufacturers have a MSD program but not all manufacturers do. Always ask the leasing manager about their MSD program because you can reduce your interest rate by more than half.

What is a MSD? The logic of an MSD is simple. If you give the leasing company a security deposit, your lease is considered lower risk and they will reduce your interest rate a.k.a. money factor. Most leasing companies allow you to make multiple deposits which also multiplies your interest rate reduction. Also, security deposits are fully refundable at the end of the lease. That means if you wreck the vehicle or it is stolen, you get the security deposit back.

Select the total number of MSD that you would like to make. The logic of an MSD is simple. If you give the leasing company a security deposit, your lease is considered lower risk and they will reduce your interest rate a.k.a. money factor. Each MSD you make will lower your Interest Rate by a set discount rate. Most leasing companies will limit the maximum number of MSD that you can give. For example, BMW allows up to 7 MSDs with a rate reduction of 0.00007 Money Factor for each MSD. So 7 x 0.00007 = 0.00049 Money Factor or 1.176%. You can convert Money Factor (MF) to Percentage (%) by multiplying the Money Factor by 2400.

If you are an investor, you can view MSDs as high yield guaranteed investment. For example, on my 2015 BMW 528i lease that I closed, I made 7 MSD payments at $500.00 each which totaled $3,500.00 (refundable at the end of the lease). Because of the 7 MSD payments, I saved 1.176% in interest which equates to $1,805.00 savings over the entire lease and is a 51.57% total return on investment. These are real figures from my lease.

Select the rate reduction per MSD. Ask your dealer what the rate reduction is for each MSD. The logic of an MSD is simple. If you give the leasing company a security deposit, your lease is considered lower risk and they will reduce your interest rate a.k.a. money factor. Each MSD you make will lower your Interest Rate by a set discount rate. Most leasing companies will limit the maximum number of MSD that you can give. For example, BMW allows up to 7 MSDs with a rate reduction of 0.00007 Money Factor for each MSD. So 7 x 0.00007 = 0.00049 Money Factor or 1.176%. You can convert Money Factor (MF) to Percentage (%) by multiplying the Money Factor by 2400.

If you are an investor, you can view MSDs as high yield guaranteed investment. For example, on my 2015 BMW 528i lease that I closed, I made 7 MSD payments at $500.00 each which totaled $3,500.00 (refundable at the end of the lease). Because of the 7 MSD payments, I saved 1.176% in interest which equates to $1,805.00 savings over the entire lease and is a 51.57% total return on investment. These are real figures from my lease.

Enter the Acquisition/Bank/Initiation Fee. Leasing companies refer to this fee with different names, but this fee refers to administrative fees to create your lease. This fee is charged by the leasing company and not the dealers (however some dealers mark it up for profit). Sometimes this fee will also cover GAP insurance. For example, the acquisition fee that BMW charges always includes GAP insurance so you do not have to buy it separately. This fee is typically rolled into the cap cost and is factored into your monthly lease payment.

Enter the GAP Insurance Fee if applicable. If you wreck the vehicle or it is stolen and becomes a total loss, your auto insurance company will pay the fair market value of the car. The problem is that in some leases you owe more than what the insurance will pay. You must pay the leasing company this difference and that is where GAP Insurance kicks in and covers the deficiency. Most lease agreements will require GAP Insurance coverage. Sometimes GAP Insurance is automatically included in the acquisition fee (like BMW), sometimes it is purchased separately through your leasing company, and sometimes you can buy it directly from your auto insurance provider.

From my experience, if it is not included in the acquisition fee, always buy it directly from your own auto insurance provider and not the leasing company. It is significantly cheaper to add GAP Insurance to your existing auto insurance than to buy it from the leasing company.

Enter the Document Fee. Document fees cover the cost a dealership incurs to process a vehicle lease. Some state laws will cap this fee and some are unlimited. Here is a list of the states that limit doc fees (subject to change):

AK: Capped at $129.00
CA: Capped at $80.00
IL: Capped at $170.00
LA: Capped at $100
MD: Capped at $200
MI: Capped at $200 or 5.00% of vehicle price, whichever is less
MN: Capped at $75.00
MO: Capped at $199.00
NY: Capped at $75.00
OH: Capped at $200 or 5.00% of vehicle price, whichever is less
OR: Capped at $100.00
PA: Capped at $133.00
RI: Capped at $200.00
WA: Capped at $150.00
WV: Capped at $175.00

If your state is not listed above, your dealer is probably not capped. Check with your local Automobile Dealers Association for more details. You can always attempt to negotiate documents fees. However, most dealers will not negotiate down document fees. Some states standardize the fee and it's charged equally throughout, while some just have a cap. It doesn't hurt to ask, but it is unlikely that you can negotiate this fee down.

Enter the License Fee. This is a fee that the DMV charges for your vehicle. This will be printed on your lease agreement. If you are unsure, leave this field blank until you finish negotiations and they print your lease agreement.

Enter the Title Fee. This is a fee that the DMV charges for your vehicle. This will be printed on your lease agreement. If you are unsure, leave this field blank until you finish negotiations and they print your lease agreement.

Enter the Registration Fee. This is a fee that the DMV charges for your vehicle. This will be printed on your lease agreement. If you are unsure, leave this field blank until you finish negotiations and they print your lease agreement.

Enter all other fees that you will pay for your lease. An example is the California Tire Fee. These fees will be printed on your lease agreement. If you are unsure, leave this field blank until you finish negotiations and have the printed lease agreement. Once you have the agreement, you can enter all the fees in here to verify your dealer's math. Most other fees are paid in full at drive-off and are non-taxable (set as the default). However, under the advanced options, you can change it to add the fees to cap cost OR make the fees taxable.

Enter all other cap cost adjustments. You can enter a positive number to add to cap cost or a negative number to reduce cap cost. Most people will not use this field because all of the cap cost adjustments are done automatically by the other fields. If you are unsure, leave this field blank.

Enter in your trade-in value. You can add a positive number if the dealer is giving you money for your trade-in OR a negative number if your trade in value is less than what you owe and the dealer is rolling the negative equity into your new lease.

Most dealers will treat the trade-in value as down payment. We strongly suggest NOT applying trade-ins as a down payment but instead use the trade-in value as a refundable MSD to lower the interest rate OR use the trade-in to pay off the Drive-Off Fees OR just take the trade in as a cash payment. The reason is because if the vehicle is wrecked or stolen and becomes a total loss, you will lose your down payment (your trade-in value). We always suggest putting a ZERO down payment if possible.