Lease & then buy - ordering?

[jlkansascity]

OK, so I'm leaning towards the Ford edge vs. my other 2 vehicle choices (but no definite decision made yet as I still have to test drive the Kia and re-test drive the Santa Fe without the jabbering sales guy in the car this time).

 

However, due to my job, I am not wanting to purchase until I pass probation, Nov. 2nd. I want to be in the new car no later than 11/30/16 which is when the extended warranty expires on my POS chevy. And, last year, there were black friday deals the entire month of Nov, if I remember correctly, so that's also a factor.

 

Now, due to my bad luck with my POS Chevy, I'm very hesitant this go around, more with the Ford vs. Kia/Hyundai for a variety of reasons (2015 Edge problems with water leaks, etc. the seat backs don't cool, Ford's attitude over that and the buy-backs, etc.)

 

Although anyone can have a bad car (look at me).

 

So I'm seriously leaning towards leasing, and then if things are OK, purchase at the end of the lease. I've run the numbers, and without counting deals (basically I took the MSRP, 10% off and ran with that), it's *about* $1200-1500 more in the long run to lease and then buy outright vs. buy at 0% for 5-6 years. Maybe not the best financial sense, but I think I'd be more PO'd if I bought and got a lemon and then am stuck with it, vs. lease, get a lemon and then I can get something else (heck, maybe a used "competitor") if things go sideways.

 

That being said:

 

The Edge I would like is the Titanium AWD, 302A, with Driver's Package. I don't really want the 20" tires, but after test driving the one with the 19", I'm not keen on those either (to be honest, the SEL with 18" wheels seems a LOT smoother). So either way I'd probably switch out the wheels. (although leasing would probably have to keep the 20" around or whatever). The main issue seems to be in my area (Albany, NY), the dealers within 30' radius have never really stocked the Titanium AWD at all, let alone with the 302A (usually it's the base package), and I found ONE with 302A, but it's lacking the driver's package, and it's White (ugh).

 

Sooo:

Can you "order" one and lease it?

 

By "order" I don't know if that means the dealer searches other Ford dealers, or has to order custom-made from Ford. I imagine if they could order, say, one from Texas (I just picked some random state far away), there's probably like a $900 transportation charge, but I imagine IF another ford dealer has one in inventory it would be faster vs. ordering from ford and waiting 2-3 months (based upon how slow they delivered the 2015/2016 that people ordered). At least given my area, it seems our Ford dealers may be "low" on the totem pole for order status on that model.

 

Hope I spelled everything out in a non-confusing way. I don't mind getting a 2016 model year vs. 2017. At least, based on what I know so far, about the only "change" would be *maybe* addition of Fog lights on 2017, but Ford certainly won't be fixing the seat backs that don't cool.

 

Assuming you can order and lease/buy, I imagine you put down some form of a deposit. What about any deals? do you have to take delivery before the deal ends (by deals I mean like X cash back/rebate, X percentage financing, if I buy?).

 

Let's say you get the vehicle and want to confirm drive before taking delivery, and then you find something wrong with it, can you then refuse to take delivery and say, either give me my deposit back, or a diff. car? (one of the reasons I refuse to buy a car unseeen).

 

thanks in advance!

 

 

@mjonas; here is another trick;

 

if you can get access to a Ford XPLAN login, that site allows much better searching of existing inventory. I know from experience. We were looking for specific criteria and couldn't locate anything and neither could most dealers. Then my wife got the xPLAN login and was able to search all of California, Nevada, Utah and wherever we wanted to search.

 

JL