Online Forum for the 2012 Rav4 EV

Just beginning to look into leasing one and shipping it N. to Seattle and am very thankful to have found this forum. Can someone please post a link or re-post the info. about why one should not do a lease with "money down"? I've been going thru older posts, but not finding the specifics on that point. Cheers!

If the vehicle is totaled your insurance pays off the lease (not you) and you are done. The more you put down the more you lose. Besides it is virtually 0% lease so no reason to put anything down as there is no savings.

BTW the great lease deal needs to be registered in CA.

I've been seeing posts related to the amount put down, the "drive-off cost", being taxed, somehow. My question is this: I see that everyone here is striving for the $0 down lease. Why is that, versus the money down lease?

That was answered above. Any money that you put down (down payment) is "at-risk" in the event that the car is stolen, totaled, etc.

Here's an extreme example. You lease a car and pay the entire lease up front (yes, this actually happens). Then you drive off the lot and and a truck plows into it, and subsequently the insurance company writes it off as a "total loss".

Can you see whatt happened to your money? You never owned the car, so you see absolutley zero insurance money from the total loss.

Toyota cracked down on out-of-state leases in October 2013. You will have to "scam the system" someway, or buy a used Rav4 EV and ship it.

Thank you, and I totally get it. I hadinterpreted from other posts that there was some financial "hit" involving taxes by going into a lease paying their advertised "drive off" $.

The thing that people don't understand is that you have to pay all the taxes on the car before they apply the Toyota Lease Cash cash, so it looks like you're paying tax on the incentive. You have to think about it as somebody giving you a down payment, not a discount on the car.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's exactly what "lease gap coverage" is supposed to take care of. It costs a couple dollars a month, and covers the difference between what the car is worth, and what Toyota will ask you for if the car is totaled. Dianne said we should not technically have to worry about this when putting very little down, since the lease obligation should be much less than the book value on the car, but it's a small price to pay just to be sure. I'm still a bit fuzzy on the whole thing so anyone else who knows more please feel free to chime in.

Gap covers the negative equity. The more you put down the less it pays...

Worst case it is like 0% financing. Putting the least down is always better. Let the down payment sit in your own bank account.

Toyota Incentives end tonight (9/2/14). I wonder if they will continue the lease incentives. I assume they probably wont end completely but Id guess they may reduce it because they are going into the final stretch.

Newbie here. Found
D this forum by pure chance. Lots of useful information and tips. Used the information here to get the lease deal. Yesterday got the shoreline blue with zero down, unlimited miles, I keep the 2500 rebate and total out the door price including tax is 462.31 per month.

Questions about the charger. What kind ? Any alternatives to Levitron? They said don,t charge to extended range? Any feed back. Thanks guys.