You, sir, will be ripped off no matter what you do.

You should NOT be doing this.  You have at least 6 months of research to
do in how the finance world works, with the leasing addendum at the end.

This sounds harsh, but you need it.  You need to be slapped into
reality.  You are asking how to fly a 747 by posting a single note on
the Usenet.  You will crash and burn, and no amount of info from here,
in this format, will help you.

Some things to consider:

* You are not buying a car, you are buying a car AND you are buying
money.  Those are two completely independent transactions.  You need not
buy the money from or via the same guy you buy the car from.  In fact,
if you do you WILL be ripped off.

* A lease is nothing more than a finance contract with a balloon
payment.  There's no magic.  It isn't rocket surgery.

* The dealership doesn't lease you the car.  The dealership SELLS the
car and takes the money.  They can sell the car to YOU, or they can sell
the car to a finance company who will lease it back to you.

* If the salesman brings the buyer and the leasing company together, the
salesman makes a commission.  See my first point above.  This commission
is unrelated to the commission he makes for selling the car.  Not only
does he now have every incentive to make this deal as profitable as he
can for himself and his dealership, he now has every incentive to make
it as profitable as he can to the leasing company.  He also has the
*ability* to do it because you're not paying attention, you're
emotionally involved and not treating it like a business deal, and he
owns all the cards.

* Anyone--ANYONE--who focuses on the monthly payment WILL be ripped off.  
The salesman owns all the cards, and he can manipulate that and squeeze
you for ten bucks here and thirty bucks there until you have paid off
his boat AND his trip to Hawaii.

* The salesman does this for a living, several times a day.  You do it
once every few years at best.  Yes, he owns all the cards.  And the more
you ask him to do for you, the better his hand gets--until the best you
can do is walk away without signing your name, because that's the ONLY
way you won't be ripped off big time.

How do you avoid being ripped off?

* Ask for the out the door price of the car.  Period.  Not a monthly
payment.  He is selling the car.  Get that to be as low as you can.

* Buy the money from someone who sells money for a living, not from
someone who sells cars for a living.  It's real simple.  This is valid
whether you're financing to own the car at the end, or whether you're
financing to turn the car in at the end as the balloon payment.

* When you buy the money, buy it like you'd buy anything else--you want
it as cheap as you can get it.  Don't talk monthly payment.  Talk
interest rates.  For leases, talk lease factors--but do the research on
what that means.

* Don't lease a car if you're going to drive it 30K miles/year,
especially not a Lexus.  You're far, far better off buying it and simply
selling it whenever you're finished with it.

I could go on and on with both lists, but I know I'm talking to a brick
wall here.

I am in the market to lease a 2007 Lexus RX400h. As configured on the
Lexus website the car has an MSRP of $49,866. That includes the base
MSRP of $42,580, the delivery, processing, and handling fee ofr $715,
and the selected package of $6,571.

This will be a 24 month lease with 30,000 miles a year built-in. In
other words I put 30K a year on the car. I know that will cost me more
than the usual allowed miles of 15,000. I also know that a 24 month
lease is not the most economical, but that is what my employer wants.

I'm hoping that among those Lexus owners/drivers out there in this
group there will be one or more who have this leasing thing down pat
and can advise me what would be a reasonable amount to pay monthly. I
expect to pay $5,000 as the drive-off or up front amount. So, can any
kind smart soul inform me what monthly amount I should hold out for as
I consider as many as four dealer proposals?

Thanks very, very much.