saeyedoc

I was told I could lock in rates for 30 days, they figure once my vehicle is on a ship, we can lock it in.
I'm holding my breath on that, hoping residuals will be high since mine is a 2012. My dealer wanted to mark up the base MF by .00040, which he is the max. I was able to negotiate a max markup of 1/2 that as part of my deal, along with a % off MSRP.

Minok

Not at all unusual. Its normal that you cannot lock in financing terms until the actual sale takes place. Just like when you buy a house and put down earnest money. The financing costs are not locked down until the time you lock them down with your financing institution, and its up to them to decide what they allow. Some allow locking in rates a month or two before closing, but if closing goes too far, or you need more time, you run a bit of risk with the moving rates.

It may be that for car financing, they cannot secure the actual capital used for the lease until the car is actually sold, and as such, cannot compute their cost of the capital until then, hence not know what the cost to you should be till then.

DLennox

Most banks auto approvals are only good for 30 days. Outside of that, you need to re-apply.
Also, most auto manufacturers no longer offer "price protection" on an order. You get the incentives available at time of delivery, not time of sale.