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Have you ever heard of the One-Percent Rule in car leasing? If you’re like me, you probably haven’t but in recent days I’ve learned about it and done quite a bit of research on it. Today, I want to talk about it with you and share information to make sure you get the best value on Rivian leasing.
What’s the One-Percent Rule?
The concept is pretty simple, you take the vehicle’s monthly lease payment and divide it by the vehicle MSPR (before taxes and fees). The closer the result is to one percent (1.00%), the better the lease offer. The method is optimized to be used on a 36-month lease with a yearly allowance of 10,000-12,000 miles.
FORMULA:
MONTHLY LEASE PAYMENT ÷ VEHICLE MSRP
OUTSTANDING lease deals are below 0.99%
BEST lease deals are anything between 1.00% and 1.09%
GOOD lease deals are anything between 1.10% – 1.19%
OKAY lease deals are anything between 1.20% and 1.29%
POOR lease deals are anything above 1.30%
I searched the Rivian R1 Shop and found a few examples to show you. Let’s take a look at the table below and then I’ll talk about it a bit more afterward.
| Model | Price | Lease | 1% Lease Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 R1S Dual Standard | $75,900 | $919 | 1.21% |
| 2025 R1S Performance Dual Max | $103,350 | $1,411 | 1.37% |
| 2025 R1S Performance Dual Max | $96,900 | $1,310 | 1.35% |
| 2024 R1T Dual Standard | $70,400 | $738 | 1.05% |
| 2024 R1T Dual Large | $75,500 | $756 | 1.00% |
| 2024 R1T Dual Standard+ | $73,500 | $779 | 1.06% |
Are Rivian Lease Deals Good?
Looking at the chart above a few things become pretty obvious instantly: 2024 R1T lease deals are the best right now and if you want an R1T, there is no better time to jump on one. On the flip side, 2025 R1S lease deals are okay. I tried to locate some 2024 R1S in the shop but there doesn’t seem to be anymore so I took 3 random R1T and 3 random R1S vehicles to compare.
Additional Details
As a reminder, the one-percent lease rules doesn’t take into account sales tax or fees and just looks at the base principal payment per month. The rule works best with a 36-month lease and 10,000 miles but you can try it out with a 24-month lease and more miles but it will be much more difficult to get to that one percent mark.
All numbers you see above are with no down payment, if you want to provide a down payment (although personally I would strongly recommend against putting a down payment on a lease) you will have to adjust your monthly payment. You can do this by dividing the down payment by 36 and then adding it to your monthly payment.
And there you have it, the One-Percent Leasing Rule! I’d like to remind you that I am not here to provide any financial advice and you should always do what is best for you and your financial situation. Let me know your thoughts below, have you ever used this rule for leasing? Do you put a down payment on your lease? Look forward to the conversation below!
The Fine Print
The MSRP numbers I used from Rivian are from the day I wrote this article, all of these numbers are subject to change. As I mentioned before, all the numbers I am showing you include NO down payment, NO sales tax, and NO fees. If you want an even more accurate representation, you’ll want to include all of these.
Shoutout to David from Emerald City Rivian Club for the idea on this!