I drive about 25k miles on the business vehicle each year and there's no way I want to be out of warranty (40k miles) on a Porsche that is driven daily.

 

Taking a step back: if a buyer is prepared to pay cash, but is considering a lease because of some other benefit other than the fact that they don't have the cash to buy the car outright, then the question is, what is the value of that benefit?

Examples of possible benefits to leasing, rather than paying cash upfront, might be (hypothetically):

1. Leasing is the only way to get the $7500 EV subsidy/rebate.
2. Investing the cash nets out to greater net return than the cost of leasing (after-tax investment income exceeds rent charge+applicable lease fees).
3. Mitigating the risk of excessive depreciation by having a decent pre-defined residual value.

If one or more of these factors applies, then you might want to consider leasing rather than paying cash. The reality is, I believe, if you are paying an effective lease interest rate of 9%, it's really hard to imagine that any, or even all, of the above factors would lead you to want to lease over any significant period of time. (Some OEM's, notably BMW for example, often subsidize #3 which then makes leasing way more attractive; Porsche does not appear to be doing this). Even with a 12-month lease, the rent charge+acquisition fee is already more than the value of the rebate. Also note, if you are definitely buying the lease out, then the mileage allowance is not particularly important.

Note however, #1 might apply to a Macan EV lease if you can lease and then almost immediately buy out the lease, depending on the lease terms for doing this, to get the EV rebate.

The thing many people don't seem to get about leasing is, all that is typically happening is that you are paying down the difference between the capitalized cost and the residual value, plus the fees and imposed interest (rent charge), and almost always you have the option of buying the car at that residual value at the end. There is no magic here, although dealers tend to try to hide what is really happening. If you intend to buy out the car eventually, then within reason the residual value is not that important (except that a subsidized residual value does more to protect you from unexpectedly high depreciation), because you are either paying down that depreciation monthly, or at the end when you buy out the lease. The interest rate (rent charge) is much more important, because that's plainly money out of your pocket. IMHO, a 9% interest rate on a $100k+ car is very hard to make sense of, even given the EV rebate and concern about excessive depreciation risk, again, unless the residual value is supported by Porsche, which I don't think is happening, or unless you can buy out the lease early without significant penalty--which is very possibly the case.

 

Exactly right!

I’ve been doing and redoing the math for the last several days, crunching all the numbers I get from the SAs I spoke with.

If someone has the cash to buy upfront, leasing makes very little sense, even factoring in the $7.5k incentive and the possible returns on investing that cash.

Buying and selling the car after 3 years still has you ahead unless the car sees a 70% devaluation (Porsche estimates the residual to be anywhere 51-55% after 3 years).

I really want to take advantage of the $7.5k incentive but numbers keep showing me it’s a mistake. And the one payment to pay out the lease brings very very low savings (think one month of lease at the very best).

But if one has to finance, entirely different convo.

 

In the past, Porsche Financial applied a Maximum Residualized MSRP (MRP), so a highly optioned vehicle required more cash and the residual as a percentage of the purchase price was even lower.

 

I sure don’t blame Porsche for doing that for many reasons (not that I would personally would consequently be happy if I lease a heavily optioned one — which I shall). Could well be buying ours outright for that and other reasons.

 

Yeah I started this thread as a simply a way to open the discussion on if a leasing can make sense for someone who has the cash to buy it outright, based on the $7500 EV credit. I highly doubt it will but it doesn't hurt to see how the numbers pan out. My SA told me he'll have numbers for sept in sept so I'm planning to hit him up this or next week and get some numbers myself to see. I don't see how doing any sort of long term lease will make financial sense. The only possibility of this being better will be if somehow the upfront fees + early payoff fees are less than the $7500 credit. But let's say after all the numbers are crunched and you can save yourself $1 - 2K, would it then not be worth doing it?

For anyone who plans to lease / finance anyway, the whole discussion is moot anyway.

 

Thanks and if I might add in one more thing — though important to note up front that we do not have a business against which leasing can have its strong benefits.

Our current, BMW BEV, is our first vehicle we have leased. The previous 55 were all financed when we were young, outright purchased the last three decades. To us that our EV vehicle in our garage is not ours but a lease, feels wrong. Therefore also for that contributing reason, e.g., the satisfaction of our owning what is in our garage, our 57th one would be a purchased Macan EV.

Of course each of our circumstances and feelings are different.

 

I'll have the discussion with the finance guy at my dealer in 2025 when my Macan comes in. I can pay for the car in cash, finance, or lease BUT I do not keep these non-GT business cars more than 18 months as I drive 2k+ miles a month and I don't want to own a regularly driven Porsche out of warranty. I'd be open to a 12-month, 18-month, or ever 24-month (if I can pull the lease forward to get into another Macan lease 6-12 months early). I'm hoping that with the Fed dropping rates about 1% before my Macan arrive that'll lower the money factor but we'll see.

 

That is the same way my wife feels with cars, as she pays cash and then owns for a long time. I am opposite, as take no different satisfaction from owning or leasing. I would much rather lease and have a new car every two or three years. I don’t like the whole trading in or trying to sell an owned vehicle either. I wish Porsche had better leasing plans, as the Macan makes little sense to lease (as of today) or for me to even buy, since an EV will depreciate so fast and also continue to change fast. Really like the Macan EV, at least on paper and will be interested to see if my mind changes when seeing and driving one in person. 🙂

 

Based on previous EV values after only 1-2 years , It seems that leasing would be the best option. Also if leased through Porsche Financial Services you will get the $7500 (USA) tax credit no matter your income level. If you buy the Macan will not qualify for any US EV tax credits. I would only buy if I was planning on keeping it well over 4 years or if you plan on driving over 15k miles per year. Simply look at used Taycan prices and this should be an easy decision. Lease new buy used in general.

 

Did you actually do the math on this?

Because I did - and the Macan would need to devaluate over 65% in 2 years for the lease to break even vs buying upfront and selling (referring to a Turbo).

 

Here are some residual values for 2024 Macan 4 and Macan Turbo (no turbo included) at 15k miles per year.
Macan 4-----------24mo-63%, 30mo-58%, 36 or 39mo-54%, 48mo-45%
Macan Turbo ----24mo-60%, 30mo-55%, 36 or 39mo-51%, 48mo-44%
Add 2% for 12k miles and add 3% for 10k miles per year. (add 1% for each drop in miles at 7500,5000,2500 miles)

 

Essentially this is what Porsche thinks it will drop. I think they tend to be come in a little low.
Here are some residual values for 2024 Macan 4 and Macan Turbo (no turbo included) at 15k miles per year.
Macan 4-----------24mo-63%, 30mo-58%, 36 or 39mo-54%, 48mo-45%
Macan Turbo ----24mo-60%, 30mo-55%, 36 or 39mo-51%, 48mo-44%
Add 2% for 12k miles and add 3% for 10k miles per year. (add 1% for each drop in miles at 7500,5000,2500 miles)

 

Exactly. I see no scenario where leasing gets you ahead of buying cash and selling, even with the $7.5k incentive.

But as I said, if you have math that shows otherwise, I’m genuinely interested!

 

It’s math. Not maths. None the less you are assuming the car won’t lose much value in two years. Basically I would lease every EV UNLESS you plan on keeping it after the lease or for longer than 4 years. Think of a EV like the lasted iPhone. Every couple years they get better. More battery life, more features, better software . So owning old EV ( with exception of EV companies that updates software for free and adds new features often) is like owning an old iPhone. Nobody wants an old iPhone.