I'll go with lived it on this one.
The Accord is a pretty high end vehicle here in Canada, probably $35,000 all in.
Those advertised leasing rates often exclude a lot of extras....like say a downpayment.
If you have an advertised rate at $299 a month for 24 months, and a $2,400 downpayment, you are paying $500 a month plus tax.
Usually those advertised rates dont include taxes, air, automatic and a ton of other stuff....
Sorry but this is the USA and I pay exactly $253.89 per month on a new Honda Accord. That is a 3 year lease, I did put some money down but it was the same as the last few cars. That is $420 per month less than what I paid on the BMW lease. These are the facts. I just made my lease payment a few nights ago.
One thing you get with BMW that you don't with Honda is a bumper to bumper 50,000 mile warranty which covers everything except gas and tires. Honda is 36,000 miles and does not cover or pay for routine maintainance and oil changes, whereas BMW pays for your oil and filter changes while you are in warranty. But you have to take your BMW to their facility or else it is considered an "unauthorized service." While I was in warranty, BMW at no cost replaced my radiator which was causing the "check engine" light to go off due to a faulty sensor. It was in the shop 8 days but they put me in another BMW loaner vehicle, which was a 5 series vehicle.
I wait until my vehicle gets close to warranty expiration and then look to trade it in before lease end. Honda will pay off the remainder of the lease and I have done 2 lease deals with them now where they did so, one with the BMW traded in and the other with a Honda traded in. Each time Honda agreed to pay off the lease remainder which was 4 plus months in both cases. Competition to get your lease business is extreme. However I shopped Honda's last lease offer on my current vehicle and Subaru refused to match it, which confirmed to me that the deal Honda offered was almost too good to be true. I actually had no intention of doing business with Subaru but just wanted to see if they would match what Honda was offering me as a free agent seeking a new lease. As I mentioned earlier Honda treats their own free agents very well.
I think you guys need to do a better job negotiating your leases and know what the bargaining points are.