Welcome to Episode #2 of our weekly podcast here at Miracle Ford! In this episode, we talk with General Sales Manager of Miracle Ford and Miracle CDJR (Miracle Auto Group). In this episode, we get to learn a little be more about Mark, his beginnings in the business, and he also shares about the benefits and details of Leasing vs Buying a new vehicle. Enjoy!
Transcript John Haggard: 00:01 Welcome to the Miracle Ford podcast, where each week we hope you will be able to learn the best ways to purchase, maintain and accessorize your new or preowned vehicle and how to sell your vehicle for the highest resale value possible, when you’re ready. I’m your host John Haggard, and throughout each month, right here we’ll have different team members join us from Miracle to bring you tips that you can actually use. And by the way, we will also post a transcript of each podcast so that you can easily refer to it for information that you’d like to pull out right there at your fingertips. Today on the podcast, we’ve got Mark Ledford, he’s the general sales manager for the Miracle Auto Group, and that includes Miracle Ford in Gallatin. And Hey Mark, welcome to the podcast.
Mark Ledford: 00:41 Hey John, how you doing today?
John Haggard: 00:43 I’m doing great, man. Good to be here. You know, before we start, a lot of people want to know, well, who is it that I’m dealing with if I came down to Miracle today? Who are these people? So I thought it’d be kind of fun to learn a little bit about you, how you got in the car business, how long you’ve been, say at Miracle and just how did you get started?
Mark Ledford: 01:00 Fantastic. I love the business. I’ve been with the Miracle Group coming up on six years now. My father was extremely inspirational in bringing me into the business many, many, many moons ago. Been around the business for about 35 years now. Been in the business, so to speak, for, I’m coming up on but 25 years now. So, it’s a fun business to be a part of. And, again, my father was extremely inspirational in bringing me into the business.
John Haggard: 01:27 And how did you get started? Were you sweeping the lot, were you sweeping, you know, cleaning out bathrooms, what were you doing?
Mark Ledford: 01:33 Yeah, tell everybody all the time. You know, it’s Kinda funny because I’ve kind of worked in a lot of different areas. You know, from the time that I was a kid and really where I guess I could say I cut my teeth and started was just working in detail. You know, in the summer months growing up as a high school kid and in between summers and football practice and all that stuff, you know, just coming into work, and being around the business a little bit. It was fun. It was just meant to be for me, I guess.
John Haggard: 02:00 We know they always say, if you’re going to learn the business, learn it from the inside out and really start at the bottom rung and, and work, you know, work your way all the way up.
John Haggard: 02:09 So today’s topic is leasing versus buying a vehicle. A lot of people were asking questions about that. And of course that’s a real wide topic. You could probably spend maybe a couple of hours on that, but, we’ve asked Mark to help us understand some of the differences between leasing versus buying. And just to know how to make the right decision, how to save the most amount of money so you can keep that money in your pocket as much as you can. So I guess Mark, just from a summary standpoint, the difference between leasing and owning, what should somebody do? What are the factors that say, this is where you go, this is what you do?
Mark Ledford: 02:45 I think honestly, John, what we try to do is just sit down with the customer, have that discussion about what are their goals, what are their habits. How many miles a year are they driving? What do they want to accomplish? Do they like to trade every two to three years? So really it depends on the customer. And I think that that’s the discussion that a lot of dealerships just don’t have with their customers is what is it that you hope to accomplish? What are your habits? And that’s going to dictate to us how to help you decide, is leasing or owning better, which one’s going to be more beneficial for you. You know, in today’s world, obviously, vehicles have gone up in price, and what we have found is a great way to go now, and still get the things that you want and the payments just not way, way crazy for you, is to look at a lease option. You can save a lot of money a lot of times on the lease option.
John Haggard: 03:39 Well you know, leasing has been around a long time. As you, as you think about it, is there a trend? Are more people leasing now than they were or is it about the same? What’s the difference about it now?
Mark Ledford: 03:53 Well, we are definitely getting more and more people I think that are walking in the door asking us about leasing than what we’ve seen over the years past. It’s still been around for a long time. I think it just got pushed aside for whatever reason. Maybe bad habits back 40 years ago. But leasing is becoming more and more popular, as it’s discussed more. I think our younger generation understands that, there is a different way to go than what my parents did. You know, back in those days. And so it’s become more and more prevalent. We see probably more of the younger generation and we still actually see a lot of business owners and high level management folks that come in and inquire and do a lot of leasing. So just to also let people know that our management staff within our dealerships, a majority of us lease cars. So it’s just a great benefit for a lot of people.
John Haggard: 04:48 Yeah. Well if you look at payments and you look at amounts and that type of thing, the down payment if you will. If you’re going to lease versus if you’re going to purchase, is it the same or do you find that part of the transaction, the sign before you drive, is it less money down on a lease compared to a purchase?
Mark Ledford: 05:06 Yes, in a lot of cases, the money down on a lease can be much less. Just because a lot of times when you’re leasing a car, you’re not having to deal with negative equity when you’re doing leasing on a consistent basis. But typically when you see that we’re asking for a down payment or other manufacturers asking for down payments up front, a lot of times That can just be, that’s your first payment plus any fees up front. But however, just like a purchase, we can do zero down if that’s what the customer wants to do.
John Haggard: 05:37 All right. So it’s very flexible. There is what I’m hearing you say, and if you were going to look at just the monthly payments, for the lease versus monthly payments on a purchase, is there much difference there?
Mark Ledford: 05:49 In some vehicles I have seen up to $200 a month difference in payment between a lease option and a purchase option. And that is just fan. I mean that is just amazing to me. And when you look at those types of numbers and people can save that kind of money on a monthly term, I just think that, you know, a customer and a consumer has to look at that and consider that as something that, hey, I’ve got to really consider this option. It is a fantastic way to go on many of our models in today’s world.
John Haggard: 06:20 Well, if you can get $200 a month, if you think about that and keep that in your pocket times 12, you’re at what, 2,400 a year times the number of years that you are on the lease. So that, that’s pretty substantial cash, I would say.
Mark Ledford: 06:33 Yeah. You know what, anywhere from seven to $10,000 probably.
John Haggard: 06:37 Gotcha. How long of a lease term can you get today? Do you get no, how does that work? Or does it mirror a purchase?
Mark Ledford: 06:43 Well on the lease term. That’s what’s another beautiful thing about a lease term is typically you can pay less money and cut your term in half from what you’re going to pay on a purchase payment. Traditionally, the lease terms that we do are 36 to 42 months. And that’s where kind of what we call the honey hole. That’s where the manufacturer is gonna put the best incentives on the best residuals on for you. However, we have in the past, over my 25 years of doing this, I have seen customers do a 60 month lease before. So, you can go up to 60 months on the lease, but traditionally the purpose of leasing is to stay within that 36 to 42 month term because we understand that a consumer that’s leasing is traditionally probably trading in about every three to three and a half years anyway.
John Haggard: 07:31 Gotcha. And if you take a look at what’s included and the monthly lease payment, is maintenance included? Are there other things, can somebody get insurance included? How does that work?
Mark Ledford: 07:40 You’re going to be, the fantastic thing about leasing also is one of the things that has become ever more popular in our world today with a negative equity on vehicles is gap insurance. With a lease, gap Insurance is something that’s going to be automatically included in that lease for you. Because again, the manufacturer owns a vehicle, they’re protecting themselves. So you get the benefit of that. The other beautiful thing about leasing is traditionally you’re constantly under the manufacturer’s warranty all the time. So now we’re talking about not only a less expensive payment gap, insurance included that we’re also talking about cost of ownership here being down as well.
John Haggard: 08:18 All right. And when you’re saying gap insurance for folks who don’t know exactly what that is, what does that mean?
Mark Ledford: 08:25 Yep. Gap Insurance is simply going to be, if you purchase a vehicle and let’s say it’s totaled out in two years, and you owe $20,000 on it and the insurance company says we’re going to give you $15,000 for it, you’re responsible to pay that difference.
John Haggard: 08:40 Gotcha.
Mark Ledford: 08:40 What gap insurance does is it comes in and it takes up that gap for you.
John Haggard: 08:46 And to clarify again, that is included in the monthly lease payment.
Mark Ledford: 08:50 That is correct.
John Haggard: 08:51 Gotcha. Yeah, that’s good. That’s good protection right there. Well, let’s say you have someone went on a 36 month lease and they think, well it’s the end of two years. They get married and the wife says, I kind of sort of wish you’d drove this car or this instead of something else than what I’ve got right now. Can you get out of the lease or is it like non cancelable I mean you’re sort of stuck until the lease is over.
Mark Ledford: 09:16 Yeah. And I think that’s the misconception a lot of times about leasing John is that, I think a lot of folks feel like that’s just what they have to do. However, it’s no different than a purchase in a lot of cases. We can have the same discussion with them in regards to when they come in to trade that vehicle in two years, it’s no different than what a purchase would be. We can sit down and show them the options about treating that vehicle in and have that discussion.
John Haggard: 09:39 You know, one thing we hear a lot about in a lease is watch out about the mileage because if you go over that mileage man, they’re going to kill you with fees. What’s the reality of that?
Mark Ledford: 09:51 Okay, so standard mileage per year is 15,000 miles per year. However, if you do go over that mileage, all it is, is just anywhere from about 15 to 25 cents, what they call mileage penalty from the manufacturer. But, at that time, when you come in to turn that lease in, there are a lot of cases, and a lot of instances where manufacturers, if you stay with them, are going to forgive that and give you money to help upgrade to a nicer, newer vehicle.
John Haggard: 10:17 Just that simple really. All right. If you were just going to quickly recap, okay, should I lease or should I buy? What would you say? What would be my decision to make?
Mark Ledford: 10:28 I think that goes right back to the discussion that we try to have up front that I mentioned with the consumer is what are their goals? What are their habits, and try to sit down and have that discussion with them while they’re here. So that we can show them the benefits to leasing or purchasing and whatever’s best for them. Yeah.
John Haggard: 10:45 Alright. Well, you know, you said 35 years, I think, if I remember properly, that you’ve been in this business. So, you’re probably, I would think by now not working seven days a week, maybe only six. I don’t know. But what do you do for fun?
Mark Ledford: 10:58 The good news is, we’re off on Sunday, so only six days a week.
John Haggard: 11:03 And so when you’re on that seventh day, what do you like to do?
Mark Ledford: 11:07 You know, I’m a big outdoors person. Love being around the lake, hiking, sports, football and hockey, and then obviously, you know, family’s extremely important.
John Haggard: 11:16 Gotcha. So, you know, as a bottom line, because this is what it really gets down to when people begin to look, should I lease? Should I purchase? There are a lot of choices out there. And most of the dealers, probably all of them say, come see us. We’ve got the best deals, we’re the only one. Shop all the rest and then come here last. Those types of things. If you were going to tell people, look, there are a lot of Ford dealers out there, but there’s only one Miracle Ford if you will. And of course that’s true. Only one Miracle Ford, but what it really, why should someone deal with the Miracle Auto Group versus going somewhere else?
Mark Ledford: 11:51 Well, I think anywhere from our management down to our sales staff, John. And that is a great question, just because a lot of you do hear that on the TV, the radio a lot when people walk into a dealership. But we invest a lot of our time just learning our craft and talking about different options for customers. We want to be able to sit down and talk to you about what is the best way for you to purchase a vehicle today. Is it lease, is it purchase? Is it down payment, is it no down payment? So we want to have that discussion. So we really work hard on our craft to be able to separate ourselves from the competition. And in all reality, we just feel like we outwork the competition. And John, we just don’t really try to sell you a car. We just want to assist and help you buy a vehicle.
John Haggard: 12:33 All right? And local ownership too, right? Miracle Auto Group. I mean these are local owners who are here. They live here. You might see them in the grocery store at church, wherever it may be, as opposed to some big corporate, you know, conglomerate that might be out of Dallas, Texas or wherever.
Mark Ledford: 12:49 Absolutely. You know, again, we live in the community, we work in the community. We have folks that we have known for 30, 35 years around this community. So obviously it’s in our best interest to make sure that, you know, we are doing the right things day in and day out.
John Haggard: 13:03 All right, Mark Ledford, everybody, the general sales manager for the Miracle Auto Group, including Miracle Ford. And join us again right here for other topics on the podcast throughout each month, because our goal is to show you the best ways to purchase, maintain and accessorize your new or preowned vehicle. And here’s the big key, how to sell your vehicle for the highest resale value possible. When you’re ready to do so, and don’t forget, we’ve also posted the transcript of each podcast right here on the website so you can easily refer to at a particular topic, something you want to go over, and you’d just get the text right there and see it right at your fingertips. I’m your host John Haggard, and we’ll see you next time.