How well did you do on your current lease? Was it a good deal — or not? Use the Lease Inspector to find out.

Use this Lease Inspector after you’ve already signed a lease — or after you have a lease contract in hand. It requires that you input the figures directly from your contract. If you want to size up a lease deal before you actually lease, use the Lease Evaluator calculator instead. Trying to use the Lease Inspector prior to seeing your actual lease contract usually results in confusion since you may not be able to anticipate exactly how figures in the contract will look.

Get MSRP (sticker price) from the vehicle window sticker or from car manufacturer web sites, or from Edmunds.com, Cars.com, or KBB.com.

Vehicle Price, which may not be shown in your contract, is the vehicle price you and the dealer negotiate. It’s the price that the lease will be based on. Get free discounted prices from local dealers using our LeaseGuide Car Deal Finder.

Gross Cap Cost is the Vehicle Price plus any prior loan balances, acquisition fee (bank fee), service contract fee, extended warranty charge, dealer fees, or insurance fee that may have been added to the price of your vehicle. Gross Cap Cost is the financed part of the lease, not including any up-front fees or charges.

Cap Cost Reduction includes any down payment, trade-in credit, or rebates that reduce the amount to be financed with your lease. Cap Cost Reduction is only part of the total amount paid in cash at the beginning of a lease. Other up-front charges such as first month’s payment,  sales tax, or official tag/registration fees do not affect the lease monthly payment and do not affect whether or not the lease is a good deal.

Adjusted Cap Cost is Gross Cap Cost minus Cap Cost Reduction.

Term is the length of the lease in months. It must be specified as a standard lease term (24, 27, 30, 36, 39,42, 48, 54, 60, or 66 months). If your lease is a non-standard number of months, use the closest standard value.

Residual, Term, and Lease/Rent Charge come straight from your lease contract.

Mileage Limit is the allowed annual mileage. If your lease has a non-standard mileage limit, use the closest standard value.

Lease/Rent Charge is the total of all monthly finance charges, as shown specifically in your lease contract. (it’s calculated as Adjusted Cap Cost plus Residual multiplied by Money Factor multiplied by Term). This figure is in all lease contracts and is required by Federal disclosure law in the absence of disclosure of finance rate (Money Factor).

Note: Lease/Rent Charge is NOT your monthly payment amount, or money factor rate, or interest rate. Again, it’s the total of all your monthly finance charges over your entire lease term. In your contract it might be called “Lease Charge”, “Rent Charge”, “Total Finance Charges”, or possibly some other term, depending on the lease finance company.

Note that Money Factor (interest rate) is NOT required to be disclosed in lease contracts, but the Lease Inspector will determine it for you.

The Lease Inspector will rate your deal as EXCELLENT, GOOD, AVERAGE, or POOR based on appropriate weighting of all factors. It will also calculate your monthly payment figure, to match against your contract. If your contract payment amount does not match the payment calculated by the Lease Inspector, you should immediately see your dealer to correct the mistake.