A Chevy Equinox Lease Is Now Cheaper Than An Equinox Gym Membership (Expired)

$151/Month, $0 Down for non-GM lessees. Program valid through January 4, 2016.

We often hear that cars are the second-biggest expense after housing. It doesn't have to be that way.

These days, a membership at the posh gym chain Equinox will set you back about $160 a month. For the same price, you can now lease an Equinox SUV—and have enough left over for a Planet Fitness membership. Here's how.

2016 Chevrolet Equinox LTZ (source: chevrolet.com)

1. Selling Price

The 2016 Chevrolet Equinox LT has an MSRP of $27,345. Aim for a dealer discount of $2,000 for a selling price of $25,345 before incentives. There are countless dealers on car buying websites and newspaper ads offering such a discount this time of year.

2. Incentives

The following incentives from GM are available to most individuals. They can be stacked:

General Incentives
GM Financial Lease Cash	$1,300 (all)
Bonus Tag Cash	$500 (Bonus Tag only)
Incremental Bonus Customer Cash	$750 (regional)

The $1,300 GM Financial Lease Cash is available to all consumers. Dealers can assign up to 15% of their inventory with a Bonus Tag, which is an additional $500 incentive. You can identify Bonus Tag cars on the dealer's website. Finally, there's $750 in Incremental Bonus Customer Cash available in most regions, including the following states: 

AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IL, MD, MI, MN, MO, NV, NH, NJ, NY, PA, TX, UT, and VA.

There are also targeted incentives; these cannot be stacked:

Targeted Incentives
Website Private Offer	$1,000
Competitive Lessee Conquest Cash	$1,500
Volt Loyalty Cash	$2,500

Folks have reported getting a $1,000 Private Offer by browsing the Chevrolet.com website. The offer pops-up after a few minutes of browsing. Alternately, there's $1,500 Cash for those who currently lease a non-GM vehicle (no need to terminate existing lease). Current Chevrolet Volt owners or lessees are eligible for a $2,500 Cash incentive.

For the purposes of this example, let's assume you lease a non-GM vehicle. After adding up the General Incentives and the Competitive Lessee Conquest Cash, the incentives total $4,050.

2016 Chevrolet Equinox LTZ interior (source: chevrolet.com)

3. Putting It Together

After the dealer discount and incentives, the price of the car (i.e., net capitalized cost) drops to $21,295. GM Financial estimates that a 2016 Equinox LT will be worth 69% of its MSRP ($18,868) after 24 months of use at 10,000 miles per year. Therefore, the total depreciation expense is $2,427, or about $101 per month.

The money factor (MF) for the Equinox is .00070 (1.7% APR). GM Financial will waive the $595 acquisition fee if they raise the MF to .00125 (3% APR); it's cheaper to do so than to pay the acquisition fee. The monthly finance charge will be $50 per month.

Add the monthly depreciation expense and finance charge, and you get the lease payment: $151 per month. 

Here's what you should expect when all is said and done. We've added in Los Angeles County sales tax (9%), license/registration, and fees. Program valid through January 4, 2016.

Total Drive-Off
First month's payment (after 9% tax)	$165
DMV license/registration	$265
Dealer document fee ($80 max. in CA)	$80
Down payment	$0
Sales tax on incentives and doc fee	$372
TOTAL DUE AT SIGNING	$882

Did you recently lease an Equinox? Share your deal below!

Select Make: Select Make

Select to auto-populate the acquisition fee, disposition fee, and MSD fields.

MSRP:

Sales Price:

% off MSRP

Taxed Incentives:

e.g., cash-back offers, loyalty cash, bonus cash.

Untaxed Incentives:

e.g., manufacturer-to-dealer cash rebate or if you live in a state where customer cash rebates are not taxed.

Down Payment:

Not recommended

Acquisition Fee:

I want to pay my acquisition fee upfront.

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( miles/yr)

Miles/yr: 10,000 12,000 15,000

Adjusting the miles changes the residual(%).

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Enroll in Mercedes-Benz Autopay to lower the MF by 0.00010

I want to pay my total lease payment upfront to lower the MF by 0.00073.

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Money Factor after MSD:

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Tax your state, county, and city levy.

Tax is levied on the monthly lease payment (most states).

Tax is levied on the sales price upfront (e.g. VA, TX, GA).

Tax is levied on the total lease payment upfront (e.g. NY, MN, OH).

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First Month's Payment:
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Tax on the total lease payment:
Tax on cap reduction and fees:
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Leasehackr Score:

The number of years it would take for the accumulated monthly payments to exceed the MSRP. The higher the number, the better it is to lease as opposed to buy.

Disposition Fee:

Total Lease Cost:

The total cost of leasing over the lease term, including applicable taxes but excluding registration/license fee and the refundable MSD payment.

December 21, 2015 Edit: Updated to correct Bonus Tag incentive amount, which is $500 on leases and $1,500 for purchases.