[GTOJ]

Hey guys and gals I wanted to post the new incentive for the GTO. Today I received the new rebate sheet and low and behold the GTO finally has a Smartbuy it is as follows: Smart Buy 5.50% interest rate, 24 months has a 64% residual, 30 months has a 57% residual, 36 months has a 53% residual, and 48 months has a 45% residual. Let me know if any of you guys were wanting to Smart Buy the GTO because this will definitely bring your payment down!!

 

[sxty8goats]

GTOJ,

Please explane the "residual" ? I bought mine with a 5.75% loan but this is the first I've heard of residual.

 

[phobos512]

Allow me to say that I got a FAR better interest rate than that. That is all.

 

[isszy]

GTOJ,

Please explane the "residual" ? I bought mine with a 5.75% loan but this is the first I've heard of residual.

Residual (or balloon) is what the car must be worth at the end of the lease. At 64%, if you pay $32K for the car, you must get at least $20500 as trade/private sale to pay out the lease. Any extra is usually yours (less capital gains tax in Australia - you look after your car, the government wants it's share of the profit you make ).

 

[sxty8goats]

So GTOJ is advertising Lease Rates? If you have to lease the car you can't afford the car. GTO, Honda or Yugo, leasing is a bad idea. It is akin to renting with the exception that not everyone can afford a mortage. You can always buy a POS car that will serve you well. Leasing only works financaly for a business that can write those expenses off.

 

[sxty8goats]

Allow me to say that I got a FAR better interest rate than that. That is all.

I was 4 points off from the "Far Better Rate". It is a bit of a sore point. My credit rating didn't include my 4.8 years of truck payments that were never late because the rating agency didn't recognise Chrysler Financal. My score w/out the truck was 696, I needed a 700 or better.

Ricken Fricken Rackin Fracken..

(yea, I could have shoped the rate a bit but I am Lazy sometimes..)

 

[Huntress]

Agreed.... leasing is just bad business for the non-business consumer.

 

[GTOJ]

I am just giving you the new information I received from GM. As for leasing being a bad idea it really is up to the person. Some people might not want to keep the car more than 3 yrs. If they know this up front that is a good thing. The way you have to look at a Smartbuy is that if you plan on keeping the car only 3 yrs. then you save money buy not truly financing the car because then you might be upside down and not get what you want on trade. With the Smartbuy you know exactly what the end purchase price is if you decide to keep the car which is the residual value. I am just trying to educate people.

Thanks,

Jason Feuerberg

 

[OrangeCrushM6]

That depends

Agreed.... leasing is just bad business for the non-business consumer.

Depends on what you want. If you want a new car every 2 or 3 years and
the piece of mind your ride is always under warranty, then leasing is the way to go. If you don't want payments all the time then by all means buy the car
and hang on to it.

 

[sxty8goats]

I am just giving you the new information I received from GM. As for leasing being a bad idea it really is up to the person. Some people might not want to keep the car more than 3 yrs. If they know this up front that is a good thing. The way you have to look at a Smartbuy is that if you plan on keeping the car only 3 yrs. then you save money buy not truly financing the car because then you might be upside down and not get what you want on trade. With the Smartbuy you know exactly what the end purchase price is if you decide to keep the car which is the residual value. I am just trying to educate people.

Thanks,

Jason Feuerberg

Sorry Jason,

I did not intend to attank you personaly. I was unaware that a SmartBuy was a lease so the residual surprised me. Also I didn't realise that the residual was ga-run-teed. (can't spell so I'll throw in my best cajun cheff imatation)

 

[Miss-our-GTO]

Sorry Jason,

I did not intend to attank you personaly. I was unaware that a SmartBuy was a lease so the residual surprised me. Also I didn't realise that the residual was ga-run-teed. (can't spell so I'll throw in my best cajun cheff imatation)

SmartBuy is NOT a lease. (SmartLease is a lease) SmartBuy is a Buy. It is a form of purchase financing. It just dosen't have equal payments as the more common financing forms.
The residual value is the estimated future value at the term you finance for. Your payments are base on getting from the purchase price/finance balance to that number. Your final payment would equal that number. When it comes due, GMAC gives you three options with them. 1) Pay the full amount, get your title. 2) They will "buy" the car back for the payment amount. In effect a wash, no money changes hands. They will look for excess mileage or excess wear/tear/modifications. There also is a $250 fee if you do not get another new GM car with one of the "Smart" programs. 3) "roll over" or refinance the amount of the balloon at the same rate and payment that you had. Lots of info at the GMAC site, think it is http://www.gmacfs.com then look for automotive.

As for the benefits to leasing. Each person is different, so a blanket statement such as it is bad for everyone but a business is incorrect.

 

[CF4Eyes]

If you have to lease the car you can't afford the car. GTO, Honda or Yugo, leasing is a bad idea.

Before I begin, let me assure you that I intend no offense, and I apologize in advance if you become so. I am just posting this to make sure we don't have this website devolve into what most others generally are. I love this site, and it's very valuable to me. One thing that I like best about it is the level of discussion that we often have here. It's by far one of the more mature and intellectual sites I've seen. With that said, please read the below with an open mind, and as I said before, I do not mean insult anyone here, I just want us to be more careful.

I've seen comments like this before around here, and pointed out something similar to it once prior. I'm getting worried that some people on this board may be developing a sense of hubris that is not healthy for us. Owning a GTO is definately a small, wonderful club to belong to. However, we should be careful in the future not to become a group of people that excludes anyone.

It could be taken by someone who want to be insulted that you were saying, to paraphrase, that people who are not as well off financially as you may be undeserving of this car. A person could mis-interpret this to seem that you are attacking (as you said yourself) them and implying that they are not as good as you are for whatever reason.

I'm not this person, though I'm more financially challenged that most of the people on this board. It seems that many of us here do very well in the money department. Unfortunately, I have to get by on less than others. I'm not insulted, but I would suggest that you choose your words more carefully in the future because you might cause people that could contribute a lot to this site to leave because they perceive it to be elitist and an unfriendly place.

Please, let's try to keep everyone who visits this great site constructive and willing to participate. We shouldn't drive anyone away. Even though I can't afford the car I want when I want it, doesn't mean I shouldn't have one, right?

With that said, I think having this option would be good for someone like myself, primarily because I really would love to have a GTO very soon. I also am anticipating my financial situation to improve greatly in the next couple of years, so with this option, I would be getting an easier monthlier payment for the time I'm not doing so well, and then will be able to pay off the car when I'm doing better, or give it up as the case may be when the program ends in whatever time I choose.

The more I read about this car here and elsewhere, the more I find it so difficult to wait for a better deal to come along. Man...I love this car. The more options they come out with for people to obtain one, just means I'm THAT much closer to having it myself, rather than just living vicariously through you guys

-Chris

 

[gto_in_nc]

If it weren't for the fact that I have a 10-year-old Messy Marvin (ask me about the crayons left in the rear console of my Bonnie in a Disney parking lot in Kissimmee some time...) and a little black dog that loves to ride (anytime, anywhere), a lease might make sense for me. The problem from my viewpoint is that I then can find myself in the situation of having to pay money to get rid of my car. In the long run, this would probably still be cheaper than higher monthly payments and the loss of trade-in value from "excessive wear-and-tear" but I just don't like the possibility of an indeterminate exit expense.

 

[sxty8goats]

Chris,

I am sorry if I sound elitist. While it is true that I am curently at an above avarage wage bracket, that has not always been the case. I have driven many a POS in my time, most of which cost me less than a months pay. This GTO is the first luxury typw car I have owned in my 17+ years as a driver. I had a 68 GTO convertable that I paid 3000$ cash for but that is as far as I have gone in the past for a toy. I have long been an advocate of paying cash for everything except cars and houses. And I truly try to be realistic in my transportation needs. I decided that I could afford this car after paying off my last vehical and saving for many years to put a sizable down payment. A car like this is a toy. It worries me to see young buyers that overextend themselves to buy something like the GTO and continue to live in an apartment. It is not the fault of the buyer, it is the fault of the credit issueing agency that pushes absurd loan rates to underqualified buyers who really can not afford the products they are buying. I have a friend in Florida who was so far in debt, he was only able to make minium monthly payments on his loans. He paid close to a total of 7000$ to the CC companies in 98 and less than 190$ went to his principal. This socity has a "Bigger Better Faster More" mentality and does not have the sensibility that should go with it.

 

[CF4Eyes]

Chris,

I am sorry if I sound elitist. While it is true that I am curently at an above avarage wage bracket, that has not always been the case. I have driven many a POS in my time, most of which cost me less than a months pay. This GTO is the first luxury typw car I have owned in my 17+ years as a driver. I had a 68 GTO convertable that I paid 3000$ cash for but that is as far as I have gone in the past for a toy. I have long been an advocate of paying cash for everything except cars and houses. And I truly try to be realistic in my transportation needs. I decided that I could afford this car after paying off my last vehical and saving for many years to put a sizable down payment. A car like this is a toy. It worries me to see young buyers that overextend themselves to buy something like the GTO and continue to live in an apartment. It is not the fault of the buyer, it is the fault of the credit issueing agency that pushes absurd loan rates to underqualified buyers who really can not afford the products they are buying. I have a friend in Florida who was so far in debt, he was only able to make minium monthly payments on his loans. He paid close to a total of 7000$ to the CC companies in 98 and less than 190$ went to his principal. This socity has a "Bigger Better Faster More" mentality and does not have the sensibility that should go with it.

Not elitist at all to me, reasonable yes...but nothing bad there.

Hey, yeah, I agree with your philosophy completely, even though I myself don't adhere to it and yet I try to live by the same things too. I know, I'm a hypocrite, but you know, do what I say, not what I do, right?

I'm glad you didn't take offense, I wasn't trying to take a shot at ya, and It's nice to see folks that say something, and then are perfectly capable of backing it up with reasoning. We're all pretty damn good people here on this board, I'm happy to be a part of some mature discussion. It make some of the other boards I frequent look like a zoo in comparison

I was for a long while in a great situation, financially. Then I got laid off with the tech bust. I'm still trying to recover, but I learned a lot of valuable lessons on living within your means in the interim. Hopefully, I'll get back to where I was, even though I am doing okay, who doesn't want to keep up with the Jones'

The GTO is a toy, but man...I wish I had these when I was a kid instead of Lego's

Looking forward to some good deals to come in the next year or so myself!

-Chris

 

[sxty8goats]

The GTO is a toy, but man...I wish I had these when I was a kid instead of Lego's

Looking forward to some good deals to come in the next year or so myself!

-Chris

I was lucky enough to lean the leason early. I tried to buy my first house when I was 25 and I was @ 3000$ in CC debt. I couldn't get a mortage so I started paying everything off. By the time I was 27 I was completely debt free. 3000 may not seem like a lot but I was not earning all that much. I was feeling pretty good for the next year, then I bought the truck. Still felt good but now I had a debt. I actualy acheived one full year as an adult, debt free. I don't think I will ever be able to do that again. Now I have the house and a Goat. (truck is paid for)

 

[OrangeCrushM6]

You don't understand leasing then

If you have to lease the car you can't afford the car.

Being able to afford it has nothing to do with it. For some people the lease
is a perfect solution, but it must fit you. Be careful about these statements.