ewf

From an article in October: Along with the strong Internet interest and dealer orders, Ford said the Automotive Lease Guide, which sets the residual values of vehicles, has ranked the Edge the highest in its segment. That means it should retain more of its value longer, something consumers consider important. Ford says an Edge SEL with all-wheel drive will offer a best-in-class residual value of 51 percent after three years, quoting ALG numbers. "We're also seeing strong forecasts of 48 to 49 percent on Ford Edge (front-wheel drive) models," said Cisaurk, who attributes the vehicle's high residual marks to Ford's pricing strategy of offering more standard features. That compares to residual values after three years of 48 percent for the all-wheel drive Nissan Murano SL, 43 percent for the all-wheel drive Pontiac Torrent AWD and 47 percent for four-wheel drive Toyota Highlander LTD.

It seems you probably don't know how a lease is calculated. $424.00/month for a 24 month lease is not bad. If you tried to purchase that same $28,000 car at the same 2.9% interest rate your payment would be over $1200/month. If the residual value at 24 months is 64%, then you're basically financing about $10,000 for 24 months. How can you say lease rates are not that good? I wouldn't call 2.9%, "not that good". You seem to be confusing lease rate with monthly payment. If you determine the quality of a deal by the monthly payment, then you probably wouldn't know a good deal if it were staring you in the face.

I don't think this is a "bad launch for Ford." A bad launch is when you ship cars that aren't ready for prime time and then word of mouth spreads like wildfire and then everyone starts saying, "Why the heck didn't just get the cars right instead of rushing them out." Long term thinking rather than short term thinking is the key to Ford's survival. If you decide not to cancel, you'll probably appreciate the extra time they're taking to get this right.

The Edge's 3 year residual value has been set at 51%, meaning after 3 years, the Edge is anticipated to retain 51% of its original value. When you finance a vehicle, you are paying for the entire vehicle and building equity at the same time, so when you are finished paying it off you own the vehicle in return. When you lease a vehicle, you're paying essentially only for the depreciation but you never build any equity unless you decide to purchase it at the end of the lease term. So if the residual is 51%, that means the depreciation is 49%. The lower the amount of depreciation (higher residual), the lower your payments will be with all other things being equal. When a vehicle's depreciation is high (residual value is low), your lease payments will be higher. There is a way around that where the manufacturer can subvent (subsidize) the lease. In this case, the manufacturer artificially increases the residual value of the car for the purposes of the lease in an attempt to make the lease affordable. Of course, the manufacturer basically eats it at the end because they have essentially paid extra to get you to lease the car, but when the car is returned after the lease is up, they cannot sell it for the artificially increased price. So when the residual value is relatively high, it is a Win-Win situation for the person leasing and for the manufacturer. You get a lease at a good monthly payment, and the manufacturer doesn't have to spend extra money to give you a good deal on the lease.