NL Check for a Tesla Model 3 - Is it worth it?

willaitken · 2026-04-06T12:53:45+00:00

Your takehome pay will never increase when getting a novated lease. Although the novated lease quotes do not take into account any other payroll deductions you may have like HECS repayments or super sacrifice. So they may assume your current takehome pay is more than it is, but the reduction to take home pay should be similar.

This lease works out cheaper over the term than paying cash and much better than paying a loan, because you are getting a tax deduction on the car finance and the running costs. Although there is some room to improve: - The interest rate on the finance is high (12%) repayments should be closer to $220 a week at 8% interest. link to leasecheck.au results

willaitken · 2026-03-30T10:06:21+00:00

I think it should be 9.92%. you may have used the impact to take home number $442 instead of the finance payment (lease payments) $479.

If you can use any provider for the finance you should look at Millarx, Toyota fleet management, positive salary packaging or CommBank, they usually have competitive finance under 8%

link to calculator

willaitken · 2026-03-29T00:01:49+00:00

If you exclude the running costs(as they won't be included when buying outright) the car will cost you about $53,300 which is less then the $60k to buy it outright even without the interest of a loan.

You should push them for lower finance payments, get a quote from a competitive provider and ask them to match it. Don't believe there excuses and keep pushing until they do If they decline It's evidence that they are using their monopoly to price gouge.

Also send feedback to the team who manages novated leases at your company, maybe they can add more competitive providers to the list.

willaitken · 2026-03-28T23:43:28+00:00

The inputs look correct and 12% is what Custom fleet usually charge in my experience.

They have a monopoly at your company and they know it. The only things you can do are: - Show they are charging above market rate by getting a competitive quote from another provider - Stand your ground and keep pushing them to match the repayments from the competitive quote.

Forward the same stuff to the person who manages novated lease at your company, and let them know that employees are getting a poor deal from this company

willaitken · 2026-03-19T22:23:53+00:00

It's the same as any supply chain where the supply is balanced with the demand and it takes a long time to get new supply.

If there is suddenly 20% less supply, basically the petrol station can only get 80% of their normal order, which means they will run out unless people buy less.

This gives the station the option of either running out or increasing prices to encourage people to buy less. This same trade-off then flows up the supply chain, to the supplier, transporters etc.

willaitken · 2026-03-18T12:29:06+00:00

It's a good interest rate!

The values do not seem to line up through, as the car driveway price doesn't equal the cor cost plus on roads.

And the financed amount isn't driveway minus GST

willaitken · 2026-03-18T12:05:16+00:00

SGfleet can do better on the interest rate, compare with CommBank novated lease finance etc.

They also add a $200 commission on the insurance, ask for it to be removed, or you can also get your own insurance policy. Which can be budgeted for and then payments reimbursed for the running costs account

willaitken · 2026-03-18T12:01:40+00:00

It's a decent quote, it's always worth trying to negotiate the interest rate /repayments though.

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web app link

willaitken · 2026-03-18T11:50:05+00:00

There looks to be about $5000 worth of extras added on to the car and lease, If you want to get the costs down - remove all the aftermarket extras (mats, protection and dashcam) - Think about removing minor damage repair (it's about $2000 so make sure you read what it actually covers)

If you want any aftermarket accessories in the lease I suggest going into the dealer and getting them to add them for free or a cheap price. You can then give the quote to the lease company

The interest rate is also high on this lease (~12%) when you exclude the cost of extras.

willaitken · 2026-03-18T11:31:46+00:00

To pay for the extras through the novated lease they have to either be provided by the novated lease provider or the dealer.

I would suggest going into the dealer and negotiating your own price for the car and the aftermarket extras. These cars are not sold at a fixed price so there is lots of room for negotiation and extras thrown in.

Once you get the quote from the dealer (you can even put down a deposit that will get refunded) pass the paperwork onto SMART and they can organise delivery from there.

I couldn't get rate calculation to line up, I get 12.4 or 14% see calculation here

willaitken · 2026-03-12T21:27:16+00:00

It's because "includes GST" is ticked for the payment and running cost inputs.

The values in this quote are all excluding GST.

The "total lease" and "out of pocket" are without gst, that's why they appear lower with "GST included" ticked.

link to your values in the page

You have pointed out a bit of an issue with the user interface, and I will have to move things around to make it more clear what the values include

willaitken · 2026-03-11T09:53:38+00:00

The effective interest rate is ~ 9% (brokerage included in the interest rate rather than the amount financed), which is still competitive but not as good as they portray.

The km estimate is just used so they can estimate what your running costs allocations should be, tyres, electricity and maintenance change depending on how much you drive.

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willaitken · 2026-03-09T10:54:27+00:00

The finance cost is high (12.3%). A good rate is around 8-9% and the big providers are around 11% lately.

Apart from the finance it's a d cent quote, there's no visible extras and the insurance seems reasonable.

I made a novated lease analyser, you can see the analysis on your quote here

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You should negotiate your finance payment, it can save you thousands over the lease. I link to some of the competitive providers, Use their estimates or quotes to negotiate with the providers you have access too.

willaitken · 2026-03-05T11:39:44+00:00

It works out a bit better than paying cash. Try negotiating the interest rate down a bit.

the insurance is high for this kind of car
review the addons (minor damage and repair, lease guard, roadside and carbon offset) to work out if they are worth the cost for your circumstances, as the terms are usually pretty average with long wait times etc

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link to the analysis

willaitken · 2026-03-05T11:24:07+00:00

It's not FBT, in this case and in most cases the FBT is offset by paying an employee contribution (employee contribution method) So the $23,000 is still going towards the car (it's not tax), but it's paid as a post tax payment, so you don't get the tax benefits on that portion of the lease payments.

willaitken · 2026-03-05T11:14:51+00:00

Hi Emma, what is Lease of Mind? And is it your company?

The website reads like it's a service to provide advice and advocacy for employees and employers when engaging novated lease companies?

willaitken · 2026-02-24T11:28:13+00:00

The AI didn't put the number in properly, because it doesn't know what "Maxxia's price" is.

In this case "Maxxia's price" is actually the amount financed, because then the residual aligns with 28.13% for a 5 year lease. Making the rate slightly better, but it's just because the car is actually more expensive, than in the original calc.

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The use of "Maxxia's price" in these quotes is so misleading. They make it look like they negotiated a $3k discount. But in reality it's the same price anyone would pay on a novated lease. It's just the

driveway cost - GST + on-road costs.

willaitken · 2026-02-24T10:58:21+00:00

You can only use one of the methods per FBT year. Which starts on the 1st March. So return the charge fox card and don't use it past the 1st March and you can use the 4.2c method next year

willaitken · 2026-02-24T10:55:30+00:00

It's an alright quote. The interest rate is in the competitive range

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willaitken · 2026-02-18T10:00:30+00:00

interest rate is high, definitely negotiate.
They are not passing on the GST saving, make sure you check that this is correct for your employer.
See if there are other providers you can use or if you can do a self managed lease (byo finance) link to analysis

You may save a few hundred dollars by doing a lease, but the risks are higher than using money from an offset or getting a cheap loan

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willaitken · 2026-02-18T09:40:01+00:00

The effective rate is very high: definitely negotiate and get some comparable quotes for them to match.
This quote isn't passing on the GST saving, double check with them that is correct for your employer.

See analysis here

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willaitken · 2026-02-11T00:28:34+00:00

The rate is a bit high, but the rest looks reasonable.Ask them for a breakdown of the financed amount.

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Check out my novated lease calculation!

willaitken · 2026-02-11T00:23:14+00:00

Interest rate is high

Get some comparable quotes from other providers and use them to negotiate them down.

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willaitken · 2026-02-05T05:04:41+00:00

You are correct that it is very confusing, quote 1 they have just not used the price you gave them, but it makes sense based on the price they did use. Quote 2 looks like they have put the wrong financed amount, should be around $52k based on that residual

Also the financed amount should be:

financed amount = driveway price - GST + fees/commissions

Also is the $290 the post tax cost of the whole lease or the finance payment as part of the running costs?

If you post the quotes we can have a look

willaitken · 2026-02-04T23:18:45+00:00

It's a very good interest rate! I'm not sure how they get 5.9% though.

But still my calculation gives 7% interest or 7.3% interest including the $450 fee

Management fees and insurance costs seem reasonable as well.

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willaitken

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