Last week, I reported on a lease deal that seemed too good to be true. A Colorado dealer was offering the Fiat 500e for lease for a tiny sum of money. This week, I’ve received a report from one of our readers that actually scored one. I’m told this deal is even better than expected.
In case you missed it, here are the basic fundamentals of the deal. Larry H Miller Chrysler Dodge Ram Fiat is a dealership down in Denver, Colorado. They offered 27-month leases on the new Fiat 500e for $0 a month and $0 down, leaving you to just pay tax. The small print suggested you’d have to pay around $1,297.68, plus a disposition fee of $395. That comes out to a total cost of $62 a month—a wildly cheap figure!
When these deals come up, there is often a lot of skepticism as to their legitimacy. However, for once, we have real proof from a local reader on the ground! Carson Giardini lives in Colorado, and he’s signed on the dotted line for one of these fine electric automobiles. He gave me the low-down on just how the deal went down.
“I recently leased a 500e,” explains Carson. “It was chaotic, with around 35 people simultaneously trying to secure one.” No surprise, given the deal on offer. Despite the predicted taxes listed on the dealer website, Carson got out for less. “I paid $1,111 out the door,” he explains. “Although the car wasn’t yet prepared for delivery, I expect to pick it up on Monday or Tuesday.”
Unlike a usual lease that is paid by the month, the dealership is running this a little differently. “It’s a true one-time payment lease,” says Carson. “I expect to pay $1,111 in taxes, paid at the dealership, and $57 per year for three registration and renewal fees.” As per the advertised deal, Carson secured a 27-month lease with 10,000 miles a year. All in all, that’s a bargain for a fun EV city car. It might only have 117 horsepower and 149 miles of range, but it’s a hoot to drive and cheap as heck to boot.
I was really glad to hear from Carson. We see a lot of wild deals in our daily work—some good, some very bad. Ultimately, though, it can be difficult to verify the ground truth. A dealer might advertise a superb offer, but strictly limit it to only a couple of cars. Worse, they might go for the dreaded bait and switch. In this case, though, it seems everything’s on the up and up. Carson was able to get the deal as advertised. It’s worth noting that in this case, the low price is all down to state and federal incentives. Unfortunately, that means it’s only available to residents of Colorado.
Based on Carson’s testimony, it sounds like these Fiats have been pretty popular. At the time of writing, the dealership wasn’t picking up the phone, so I can’t confirm how many are left. There are still 64 examples of the Fiat 500e listed on their online stock list. However, I noted Carson’s specific car was still listed as available online, so that figure probably isn’t accurate. I’d suspect very few are still available, if any.
It may already be too late to secure this deal, which wouldn’t be surprising given the price. Where else can you score yourself a brand-new car for the price of a good meal a month? Colorado is truly showing us the way forward. We should all be so lucky!
Image credits: Fiat, Carson Giardini, Larry H Miller via screenshot
Was going to pick one up as a fun second car but my insurer wants almost $2k annually for comprehensive. $5700 all in for 27 months, or $211/month. Not bad if it’s your main… wish it was a tad cheaper to insure though, and I’d be all over it. Might scratch the weird itch I have to get another Chevy Volt and 500 Abarth at the same time. But probably fail at both. lol
So looking into the taxs and use taxes on a lease since the lease is under 36 months and a one pay there are loopholes in collecting the yearly fees if they paid full sales tax.
So if I’m reading this correctly, the dealer is pocketing the sales incentives/rebates from Stellantis, CO rebate/tax credit, and Fed tax credit. Is that correct? If so, does anyone know the approximate amount they are receiving per car?
I don’t know exactly how it works, but I think in the case of the fed credit, the manufacturer is passing on the credit to the lessor via a tax loophole. So the dealer isn’t seeing the money from that because the manufacturer is effectively discounting the unit.
From the paperwork above, it looks like they are getting $16,100 per car in rebates, which works out to $596 per month for 27 months, paid all up front. That is actually a pretty good take on a $34,000 vehicle. It estimates the residual value in 27 months to be $20,092, which i suspect may be less of a good deal for Stellantis or whoever ownership reverts to then.
Copy that, thanks.
Describing the power output of the 500e as “only” 117hp is mind-boggling to me. I would argue that’s overkill for such a small car, especially as less powerful motors should use less energy, which would theorerically mean more range from the same battery pack (anyone more knowledgeable than me in this area please feel free to correct me, I’m just going by common sense here, and I imagine there’s a tipping point at which less power becomes too inefficient to help increasing range).
Yeah, it’s only like 300lbs heavier than a Ford Fiesta, so that 117 should be fine. (My Fiesta in non-ST trim, with the 1.6L makes only 119HP.)
I suppose Lewin might be unimpressed with the power because this is a small car that weighs 3,000 pounds before you put people in it. The new 500e is 600 pounds heavier than what an old Fiat 500 Pop weighed about a decade ago. Still, Thomas called the acceleration fine in his review:
EV motors have more or less a flat efficiency rating. It could have a 400 hp drive unit and probably get as much range. You only really lose efficiency adding an additional gearbox such as AWD. Otherwise it’s mostly down to cost; you don’t need as beefy of electronics/wiring for less power delivery.
I’ll grant that it was perhaps poor wording on my part. The “only” more refers to the limited range; I believe 117 hp is perfectly adequate in this car, particularly given the instant-on electric torque.
Ah yes, I understand. With batteries being constrained by car size/architecture, while adding weight, I suppose it’s still hard to get a lot of range out of smaller vehicles. That’s why I was arguing the power figure could be even lower, hoping that meant more range – it appears that migh not be the case.
My best hope is folks who might have been hesitant to try EVs and/or small commuter vehicles find this to be a great transportation solution. If I still lived in Colorado, I 100% would have.
I wonder which level of Larry Miller’s “5 Levels of Drinking” bit involves giving away a Fiat.
Is this some kind of loss leader where they hope you’ll pick one up and be like, “Fuck it, this one was free, so I might as well buy a Wrangler while I’m here!”
the sales manager was on camera stating it was a volume deal to keep the flow of products coming, or something to that effect. Basically after factory rebates on slow selling inventory the Colorado ev rebate incentive is enough to pay the dealer.
But the real trick is going to be what is the value of these things after the lease runs out. seems like a win for the customer as they will get out easy on something that has slim chance of retaining secondary market value. So I do kind of wonder if the dealer is in effect Robbing Peter to pay Paul in 27 month.
But it is a good gimmick to get people used to the good and bad of the EV market/options.
The residual value is the bank’s problem, not the dealer’s.
I was under the impression, off lease vehicles were returned to the dealer to Resell?
You can turn them in at the dealer, but that’s just a service the dealer provides as part of their franchise agreement. They belong to the lessor (i.e. the bank).
Soo, has anybody set up a racket where you can buy 1 square foot of land in CO so you can get in on this?
Haha. Welp you’d have to file your income taxes here too, so it ain’t that easy :).
What if I have no income?
Eh, it worked for Established Titles. The grift that sold people a square meter of land in Scotland (not really) so you could legally call yourself a Lord (not really). Despite being debunked almost immediately as complete horseshit, it didn’t stop the company from selling $90 pieces of meaningless paper for like a year.
Exactly what came to mind before I commented. Would be hard to claim residency on one square foot anyway. I don’t think I could stand in one spot for 6 months plus 1 day.
There’s an island on a lake in Maine where they sold off square foot lots to people from away. That way the island never got developed and didn’t ruin everyone else’s camps. Sounds like it worked out pretty well.
The guys at the TFL Tubes channel got one of these on Friday and posted a short video about the whole process. They even got the sales manager to give a vague explanation of how the dealership makes it work financially.
https://youtu.be/vqksxc6m69o?si=Z1CMm4Xd_3tsTMWl
I genuinely wish this deal was available in Texas. That car would be perfect for my commute (56-65 miles each way daily). I could plug it in at the shop to top off to be on the safe side for my trip home, and drive it half the time to save a fortune on gas.
Because Texas is upside-down negaverse land, they don’t have any EV incentives, they have an extra tax on them.
Thing is, if it were even just 2,500 dollars over 27 months it would not be a bad deal to get your feet in the door. Leases of course can be scary if it is your only car and you misjudge your mileage requirements. but still. I would drive even a Fiat 500 for under a hundred a month in rental fees essentially.
“ I genuinely wish this deal was available in Texas.”
Do have any other fantasyland wishes?
Cheap V8 Mustangs? A revival of GM squarebody trucks? A new V8 4Runner with full-time 4wd?
I wish stuff like this was available elsewhere. With NY’s weight based registration scheme, this would work out okay for ancillary costs. Plus safety only inspection since there are no direct vehicle emissions.
Even though I don’t need a new vehicle, I’m seriously thinking about inquiring into some of the insane deals being advertised here in Denver. Crazy $0 down deals on the Ioniq5, Ariya, and the PHEV CX-90. My neighbor just got a top spec Ioniq5 for a one-pay lease of something like $6k or $8k for 36 months. I know these incentives are dropping in 2025 due to the orange menace taking office and the CO incentives ratcheting down, so this may be the cheapest I can ever lease a new car. However, the Audi Q8 etron on the used market is also an insane deal.
I live in Denver and I think this guy’s expectation of what he will pay for registering the vehicle is incorrect. As far as I know, registration and ownership tax is based on the MSRP, not what he paid. I’m thinking annual registration is going to be more like $500-600 for the first year minimum. The calculation adjusts over the age of the vehicle, so by something like year 7 you have a flat ownership tax fee. You can do this calc yourself here: https://mydmv.colorado.gov/_/#1
Vehicle registration based on MSRP is dumb. It means a modest family that manages to scrape together enough to buy a new Civic is paying more annually than Joe Millionaire who has a collection of old muscle cars.
I don’t know how to fix it though; probably a flat registration fee or one that scales with weight and miles at renewal…
It’s annoying for sure and one main issue with leasing cars since they are “always” new. My wife’s 2022 Tiguan costs more than my ’13 Cayenne to register even though the original MSRP on the Cayenne was more than double the Tiguan. Then again, the amount of people driving in Denver with NO tags or expired temp tags (over one year expired in a lot of cases) is astonishing, and seems like police feel little need to enforce it. These cars are usually old as hell though, so it’s not like they needed to fork over thousands to register the car. It’s probably because you need to have insurance to register a car here.
Very much agreed. It’s how Maine does it too – and why my $5500 15yo Range
Rover cost $500+ a year to register.
And also another reason why serial leasing is dumb in states that do it this way.
The sad thing is that enough people signed a petition to get changing it to present-value-based on the ballot in Maine, but the town and city governments (the money goes to where you live, not the state) spent $$$$$$ on ads opposing it (called it giving the wealthy a tax break!) and it didn’t pass. It was true that for it to be revenue-neutral excise tax on ALL new cars was going to go up slightly for the first few years. But I find it hilarious that all the rednecks driving beat-up pickups that cost a fortune new are all going to keep paying out the ass for them forever. Lots more of those than there are old Range Rovers and Mercedes in Maine.
$500 per year?? How many states are like that? In my province it’s flat rate $90/yr or $170 for two years
Michigan does this too. I pay $350 each year for a 20 y/o Jag (original MSRP of ~$75k) while my spouse’s brand new car (original MSRP $25k) only cost us $130 to register.
Could be way worse – imagine if you are Hoovie with a Bugatti Veyron? Lowest one of those is going to go is something like *$10,000* per year. I am sure whatever town or city you lived in would send you personalized thank-you card every year.
And for extra fun – there is a state program to get you to snitch on your neighbors who register cars out-of-state. Nice fat rewards for turning them in.
No idea how many states do it this way, but quite a few have value-based taxes one way or another.
On the bright side, it is deductible from Federal Income Tax, subject to the $10,000 state and local tax limitation, if you qualify to itemize deductions.
That’s the fuckedupest system I’ve ever heard. And people complain that plate renewals are $170 in Illinois. I hope our state government never hears about this.
I remember that Massachusetts did some sort of voodoo math like this for the “excise tax”. I paid more for my 3 year old Jetta than my GF paid for her brand new Hyundai. Course this was like 1987, so maybe they were onto something
Massachusetts has a formula that is based on $25 per $1,000 of assessed value, with assessed value based on a formula that multiplies the MSRP (base for the model without options – even if your car came with lots of options) by a percentage, that goes like this 50% for a model year car before the matching calendar year (e.g. you buy a 2025 MY in October 2024), then 90% the year of the MY, then 60%, 40%, 25%, and 10% thereafter.
This is the one thing that can make buying a car new and keeping it for five years more attractive than leasing for three years at a time – otherwise in that scenario you are usually better off leasing until you are willing to keep your new car seven or more years.
Last time I registered a car in Colorado there was something like $170 of “fees” that had nothing to do with the car. Things like DUI enforcement surcharge, bridge repair fund, etc. In Maryland it’s a much more straight forward registration fee.
Yep, even after it goes to a flat ownership tax of $3 when the car is something like 7 years old, there’s probably $100 worth of fees.
It is a little annoying in Colorado, but those fees were added in lieu of voters not approving an increase to the fuel excise tax which hadn’t changed in decades.
Yeah, Good old TABOR
vehicle registration should have nothing to do with the value of the vehicle. it costs the same to put a plate on a Civic as it does a Bugatti.
the state just wants to TAX things but they can’t call it that so they call it a FEE and poof, now it’s OK.
In Maine they are quite straightforward about it. It’s Excise Tax.
It’s not about the cost for the plate – that IS the same whether it’s for a Bug or a Bugatti – IIRC the registration fee is $35 plus a few bucks if you don’t do it directly at the BMV (e.g., at your local town or city hall). The $35 goes to the state, the Excise Tax goes to the city or town you live in, unless you are one of the handful of people who live in unincorporated areas of the state – then I assume that goes to the state too, but I don’t know that for a fact.
Same policy here in WA. The 3-decade old Mercedes I bought was still being taxed on a very lightly depreciated $57K MSRP. However, the loophole is that on a used car they will reduce the taxable value by the value of repairs that it needs. You just have to show up with a couple of written estimates.
The only state where owning something old and British makes financial sense.
In Maine have an excise tax collected by the local town, and it’s brutal. Based on vehicle value, paid yearly. If you buy a new car it can easily be over $1000.
To be clear, it’s not based on value. It’s based on *MSRP* – it doesn’t matter that it’s worth scrap value today, it’s paid on what the MSRP was when it was new – not even what you paid for it. And no net of trade either. And it doesn’t matter if you are the 1st or 22nd owner.
First year it’s 2.7% of MSRP+ dealer fees. And of course, if you paid ADM, that gets taxed too for the first owner anyway. For my ’16 M235i, it was well over $1500 the first year. Declines for seven years, then flat forever at the 7th year rate. Fun, and I am ever so glad that I can now register some of my cars in FL, where it’s a flat rate based on weight. My Mercedes wagon that would be $400+ annually in Maine is $77 for TWO years in Florida. Unfortunately, the added insurance cost makes up for it. TANSTAAFL – sigh. Though in recent years I am finding that insurance cost for my cars in Maine is going up a LOT faster than for my cars in FL, so that is evening out quickly.
Sorry I should have been more clear, it’s based on MSRP here tooAh I see your earlier comment. Yeah it sucks.
If you didn’t have to be a Colorado resident, I’d go get one of these. 149 miles of range will cover two weeks of work commute for me and then some, and since it sounds like I’m going to have a garage to park/work in shortly, I wouldn’t be limited to things that can be done in a day with my 3. There are also at least a dozen chargers within half a mile of work and since I’m third shift, they’re rarely in use.
And then drive it home 149 miles at a time?
If it were a lease, shipping it home would make sense to keep the miles down.
Just rent a one way Uhaul and tow it back, pricier rental but still peanuts compared to what a new car typically costs
Exactly. That plus $1111 out the door and the $72 a year it would cost to register here is still less than the down payment I put on my last car.
Wouldn’t let me edit this comment, but that $72 a year is incorrect. Apparently it’s $400 the first year and then $200 a year after that to register an EV here. That no longer beats the down payment on the Civic, but I bet it still comes out ahead.
For reference, I only had the Civic for three years before it was totaled.
Nah, I’d rent a UHaul and bring it back. It’s only an 8-hour drive and I could visit an old friend while I’m at it. Maybe visit Garden of the Gods while I’m there, since I missed it last time.
I’m jealous of the $57/year in registration. We live in an ad valorem tax state on tags, so a new $35k car is about $500 the first year, give or take. It drops off quickly from there (my beater 2001 car has been the bare minimum, $32, for over a decade)
I just commented on this, but it is the same here in CO. The guy is wrong thinking he’s paying based on the sales price. Ownership tax is based on MSRP in CO.
Yeah, thanks for the sanity check. I know some states have ridiculously low registrations, like $20/year no matter what, but anecdotally those are places with really high taxes elsewhere. CO (from my research) is somewhere in the middle on taxes. But I’m definitely jealous of state-level car and clean energy incentives!
In Michigan, it’s MSRP-based too, but *never goes down*. To add insult to injury, they double it, or close enough, on EVs, since they aren’t going to be paying gas tax.
My 2015 500e is close to $300/year to keep a plate on it.
Ouch…the “flat registration” is probably an incentive to get you into something newer. I know in Singapore (possible some other places) the registration actually goes up as the car gets older, basically a disincentive to keep older, dirtier cars on the road.
There is a cutoff somewhere in the early 80s, where it becomes weight-based (I think?) and gets quite a bit cheaper. So if that’s the case, they only want people driving newer cars, and very old cars. Of course, they could roll that date forward, but I doubt they ever will.
Add a zero to the end of that $57 and you’re in the ballpark for what his registration fees will actually be.
Colorado ownership tax is not registration, but yes, looks like about $500 in ownership tax. I can eat that for the first year. I’m sure my gas savings might supersede that amount.
Right, I was just lumping them together because you pay them as a combined fee.
I still think you got a good deal. It’s just going to sting a bit for registration (ownership tax portion) each year.
It’s rough to be a fellow citizen paying for other citizens’ vehicles. Elon said it best, get rid of all tax loopholes/subsidies/whatever you want to call them, that includes oil and gas, EVs, student loans, etc. Pay for your own stuff so the entire middle class doesn’t have to.
Sure, as long as we make sure Elon repays all the subsidies and loophole cash that he’s had no issue taking from the government.
The irony of Elon saying that isn’t lost on me, haha.
Closing the proverbial door behind Tesla
The government is spending money to reduce usage of gasoline, which benefits everybody. Maybe you don’t think the tradeoff is worth it, but that’s why the money is being spent.
I agree that reducing consumption of gasoline, and pretty much everything else, is a better long term choice for the planet. I disagree with the government taking money from the poor and middle class to support the upper classes.
If having a college degree is so good, then why is the government taking money from tradesmen to support those with college degrees?
It’s hard for me to trust that what the government does in most cases, outside of protecting constitutional rights, is actually beneficial to society. There are some very notable success stories, but far more failures.
Hopefully they figure out how to make electric vehicles a success, or maybe let the market naturally do that.
Be interesting to see what these will sell for when they come off lease. I suspect they will be pretty lucrative as a golf cart upgrade for senior neighborhoods. About one size too small for my taste though, I’m looking toward the Bolt.
The craziest part of the whole thing was the dealer not even attempting to put the extra cost/service packages on the lease because so many people were there to get this deal. The sales associate said “I just don’t have time to even try that” Excited to take delivery.
Amazing!
Great work! That also tells me the salespeople were probably getting a nice “unit bonus” for moving these if they were disincentivized to put the hard sell on you for other stuff. That’s a win-win.
Ugh, I WISH we had anything remotely close to this in Canada. I’d be all over this. Unfortunately, our Premier gutted our incentives, and our federal incentive is a paltry $5k CAD.
Yeah, but he got rid of the plate renewal fee that ‘everybody’ was clammering for.
He could have used that $1,000,000,000 per year to build the tunnel under the 401.
I bet despite the screaming deal, the way the federal and state incentives stack up plus what must be a load of cash from Stellantis per unit moved, this dealer is likely actually pulling a profit on these lease deals, and is moving enough units to keep everyone happy for at least the next 12 months.
I’m sure Stellantis is happy to see units move regardless of price just to keep Fiat barely relevant in the US and to help with their CAFE average. It’s a relatively small number of units sure, but with the shape Stellantis is in, anything and everything helps these days. Also smart of the dealer to clean out inventory before the very possible elimination of incentives comes in a couple months.