VinFast is a Vietnamese EV car company coming to the US in 2023. And they’re attempting to entice customers in California by offering some California-exclusive lease deals. I did not say good deals lol… I said California-exclusive deals. There’s a difference. Let’s get into it.
The VinFast VF8 ‘City Edition’ is a generic EV crossover that comes with a low range of about 179 miles on a good day.
To lease the VF8 City Edition for 24 months, VinFast is requiring $5774 due at signing, and $599 per month. You’re allowed 10,000 miles per year, with a 25¢ charge for every mile over that. Tax/tag/title are additional fees due at signing.
So do the math, and your cost to lease the VinFast VF8 City Edition for 2 years, comes to $20,150. That does not include tax/tag/title fees. And – that’s assuming you keep the odometer under the 20,000-mile maximum. However to put it in perspective, if you drive only 40 miles per day on average, at the end of 24 months, you will have driven 29,200 miles. At 25¢ for every mile over 20,000, that comes out to an additional $2,300. Bringing your total cost of NON-ownership to $22,450.
*For about the same price as leasing a VinFast VF8 City Edition, you can BUY a new Toyota Corolla Hybrid. The Corolla Hybrid gets 53/46 combined MPG with unlimited range and no mileage limits.
VinFast also offers a slightly more interesting version of the VF8 City Edition… called the PLUS.
The VF8 City Edition PLUS is still a ‘City Edition’. Meaning, it still has the low 179-mile range. Probably lower in the real world. Because the PLUS gets about 50 more hp (402hp), leather seats, pano sunroof, 20″ wheels… and all the bell & whistles. Here’s the lease deal for the PLUS model:
The customer brings $6789 due at signing, for a 24-month lease at $699 per month. Aside from those higher numbers for the higher trim-model, all the fine print stays the same. So it’s still a 10,000-mile/year lease, and it still doesn’t include tax/tag/title. And, it’s still 25¢ for every mile over 20,000 at the end of the lease.
So your cost to lease the VF8 PLUS City Edition for 2 years, comes to $23,565. Again – that does not count tax/tag/title fees. And again for reference, a 40-mile daily average will end up exceeding your 20,000-mile allowance by 9,200 miles. At 25¢ per mile that would add $2,300 at the end of your lease. Bringing your total cost to $25,865… to drive a mediocre crossover for 2 years. And at the end of it… own absolutely nothing.
Man – talk about enslaving yourself to a car payment. To help get a grip on it, if you absorb that $6789 downpayment into the monthly payments, it’s costing you $1000/month to lease this car. And you’re caged with your range; and you’re caged with your mileage limits. I’m not telling you what to do, I’m just giving you the information. The tech industry is grooming a next-generation/next-level of consumer who is enslaved to payments, owns nothing, and has limitations. Now is when it would be a really good time to learn some basic maintenance on a basic internal combustion vehicle.
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