Cost data

Does the Same Car Lease Cost More in Some Cities?

Written by Jared J.Reviewed by Jared J.Last reviewed 2026-10-15

Figures reviewed 2026-10-15. Rate data is sourced per table and each table states its own reporting period.

Does the same car lease cost more in some cities?

Often, yes. Complete Car Lease reads the lease offers that manufacturers publish on their own websites, separately for one ZIP code in each of 16 metro areas. On October 15, 2026, we compared every offer that at least 8 of those metros advertised with the same model, trim, model year, lease length and annual mileage: 297 offers from 12 brands. 137 of them, 46%, cost a different amount depending on the metro. Where the cost differed, the median gap between the cheapest and the most expensive metro was $38.89 a month, or $1,380 over the lease. A quarter of those gaps were above $67.08 a month.

Cost here means everything the manufacturer's example says you pay: the amount due at signing plus the remaining monthly payments. Taxes, registration and dealer fees come on top everywhere, and they differ by state as well.

These are dated observations, not current offers. Every offer on this page was advertised on October 15, 2026, and was scheduled to end on November 2, 2026 or earlier. For the programs available today, see the live lease deals board.

The same lease, different totals: examples we checked

We opened each manufacturer's offer page at two or more of the metro ZIP codes on October 15, 2026. Every figure below matched what the page showed.

Each row is a manufacturer's advertised closed-end lease example for a well-qualified lessee, as published on October 15, 2026. The monthly payment is due for the number of months shown, and the amount due at signing includes the first payment. GM's terms don't say whether it does: if it doesn't, the GMC gaps are $1,692 for the Terrain and $300 for the Sierra. None of these examples required a security deposit. Taxes, title, registration and dealer fees are extra, and charges for excess mileage, excess wear and a disposition fee may apply at lease end. These examples are not offers to lease from Complete Car Lease, which is not a dealer, lessor or broker.

Why would the same lease cost more in one city?

Because manufacturers publish lease programs by region, and the dealer's contribution to the advertised payment differs from region to region. The manufacturers' own pages, read on October 15, 2026, show it in several ways:

• Dealer contributions differ. Genesis's terms for the 2026 G90 3.5T E-SC AWD list a $5,000 retailer contribution in the Houston offer and none in the San Antonio offer. The MSRP ($104,545) and the lease-end purchase price ($51,227) are the same in both. That contribution is the $150-a-month difference in the table above. Genesis, Hyundai, Lexus and Toyota state that dealer contribution may vary and can change the payment. Kia says its offers depend on dealer participation and that actual payments may vary.
• Programs are tied to states or ZIP codes. Toyota's and Lexus's lease terms list the states each program covers, and Toyota files its local offers under regional pages. Genesis, Hyundai, Kia, Jeep and GMC show offers for a ZIP code you enter.
• Some payments apply only to tagged dealer stock. In Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Chicago and Detroit, some Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler payments applied only to vehicles a dealer had tagged with a program sales code; one Dodge offer also required Stellantis financing. We flag those offers in the data, and the Jeep example above compares two general offers.

None of these pages says why a particular region receives a particular program, so this study doesn't guess.

Is the lowest monthly payment the cheapest lease?

Not always. The amount due at signing differed between metros on 54 of the 297 offers, and on 12 of the 137 offers whose cost varied, the city with the lowest advertised payment was not the cheapest overall. The GMC Terrain in the table is the clearest case: Detroit advertised the lowest payment of any metro, but it asked $2,772 more at signing than Dallas, so the Detroit lease cost $1,722 more over 36 months.

The reverse happens too. The GMC Sierra's advertised payment in New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC was $140 a month higher than in Chicago. Those three metros asked $3,060 less at signing, so the lease cost only $160 more over 24 months. Compare the total due at signing and the payments together, never the monthly figure alone.

Which cities came out cheapest and most expensive?

Across the 137 offers whose cost varied, Los Angeles and San Diego were cheapest or tied for cheapest about 80% of the time, and they priced identically on all 286 offers they shared. San Antonio, Atlanta and Dallas were most expensive or tied 82% to 84% of the time.

Ties count for every tied metro, so the shares don't add up to 100%. The ranking leans on two brands: Kia and Genesis supply 80 of the 137 offers that varied. Without them, Los Angeles and San Diego still rank first, and Washington DC ranks last: most expensive or tied on 34 of the 42 varying offers it carried, with a median premium of $25.00 a month.

Which brands price leases by region?

Gaps are per month, after spreading the amount due at signing over the lease. The largest Jeep gap, $164.05, sets a Los Angeles offer limited to tagged dealer stock against general offers elsewhere. Toyota is left out because its regional offers build the amount due at signing differently. Ten brands that we read from a single national page can't be compared across metros: Acura, BMW, Ford, Infiniti, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Volkswagen and Volvo.

How to compare lease offers yourself

1. Add it up. When the amount due at signing includes the first payment, as most manufacturers state it does, the total is the due-at-signing amount plus the monthly payment times one less than the number of months. Divide by the number of months to compare leases of different lengths.
2. Read what the due-at-signing figure includes. It can include a down payment, the first payment, an acquisition fee and a documentation fee. Brands differ, and Toyota's composition differed by region in this snapshot.
3. Check the conditions. Some advertised payments apply only to dealer stock tagged for the program, or require the manufacturer's own financing. Some require loyalty or other eligibility.
4. Check your own ZIP code. The same model can carry a different program in the next region over. The offer that applies to you is the one the manufacturer shows for your location, through a participating dealer.

For how a lease payment is built, see the 1% rule and what it leaves out.

How we did this

Data. Complete Car Lease reads manufacturers' published lease offers every day. Brands whose offers change with location are read separately at one ZIP code in each of 16 metros: Atlanta (30303), Chicago (60601), Dallas (75201), Denver (80202), Detroit (48226), Houston (77002), Las Vegas (89101), Los Angeles (90012), Miami (33131), New York (10001), Philadelphia (19103), Phoenix (85004), San Antonio (78205), San Diego (92101), Seattle (98101) and Washington DC (20001). This study uses the offers read on October 15, 2026, between 09:00 and 10:17 UTC, saved as one file before any analysis: 5,965 offers, 5,845 of them read metro by metro.

Matching. Two offers are the same lease when they match on make, model, trim, model year, lease length and annual mileage, plus the manufacturer's configuration code where it publishes one. We kept leases advertised in at least 8 of the 16 metros: 297 leases from 12 brands, advertised 4,505 times. We excluded 12 leases where a metro showed two different offers under one description, for example a gas and a hybrid version sharing one label, and all Toyota leases.

Cost. For each offer we added the amount due at signing to the remaining monthly payments, and divided by the number of months for an effective monthly cost. Every brand in the comparison except GM states that its due-at-signing amount includes the first payment. GM doesn't say, so we calculated GM offers both ways; no overall result changes.

Checks. We opened the manufacturers' offer pages on October 15, 2026, for 11 of the compared leases at two or three metro ZIP codes each: 32 published offers in all. Every payment, term, due-at-signing amount and mileage matched our data.

Limitations. These are advertised offers, not prices people paid; dealers set the final price. The offers assume top-tier credit. Taxes and fees are excluded and differ by state. Some offers depend on dealer participation or stock. One ZIP code stands in for each metro, and offers can differ within a metro. This is one day's snapshot, and manufacturers change programs monthly. The study covers 12 brands, and Genesis and Kia contribute most of the offers that vary.

Data download. All 297 compared leases, with each metro's monthly payment, due at signing and total (CSV). Free to reuse with credit to Complete Car Lease.