As the nature of car financing has changed — and as cars get more advanced — the classic “Is it better to lease or buy?” conversation has a lot more nuance.

Buying a car means the driver assumes high monthly payments, long-term repair costs, and all of the association depreciation of value. That said, it also allows one to actually own their car, with no mileage restrictions or limits on ownership.

Leasing a car, in contrast, allows one to keep up-to-date with ever-changing car technology while also having cheaper monthly payments. It may also make more sense to lease if one is considering switching to an electric car and wants to make sure the experience is right for them.

Regardless of whether you’re leasing or buying, you’re always going to want to get the best deal possible. Now, a user on TikTok has sparked discussion after claiming that he managed to lease a car for just $168 per month.

Wait… How is this possible?

How Did This Man Get Such A Cheap Cadillac Payment?

In a video with more than 313,000 views, TikTok user Adriel Hsu (@adrielhsu) says that he’s driving a 2026 Cadillac Optiq for just $168 per month. Normally, he says, one would have to pay “almost $1,000 a month” to drive this car, which has a sticker price of over $57,000.

How is he managing to do this? According to him, it meant taking advantage of a few incentives, making a handful of crucial decisions, and utilizing rebates.

“Last month, Cadillac had a lot of incentives for this specific model, the Optiq,” Hsu starts. “They also raised the residual value of the car, just how much it cost to buy out the car at the end of the lease. Normally, the residual value is between 60 and 70%, but for this car, they raised it all the way up to 80%.”

“Now, you might think that’s a bad thing. Why would I still pay 80% of the car’s value after two years of leasing instead of 60%?” he continued. “If it was a house, of course I would want a lower payoff. But since a car is a depreciating asset, I don’t wanna pay the depreciation.”

Hsu says that he also paid all 24 months of his lease at the beginning. This, he says, allows him to get a better deal.

The Incentives Come Into The Picture

From here, Hsu details all of the various incentives and rebates he got which, in turn, reduced the car’s overall cost.

“The dealer knocked off $5,270 off the sales price to bring it down to $52,530. The residual value is at $46,538. And my interest rate on the lease is 2.5%, because I did a one-pay. If I had done monthly payments, the interest rate would have been 3.5%. So, my total due at signing was $11,284.”

From here, Hsu said he got a total of $5,590 in rebates. As the car was a loaner, he got a rebate of $3,090. He also owns a non-GM car, which allowed him to receive a $2,000 “Conquest” incentive. This is when manufacturers offer incentives to car owners to try to convince them to switch brands. Finally, he opened a GM credit card, which he says allowed him to knock off an additional $500.

“After all the rebates and incentives, my total out of pocket was just $5,700,” he shares. “Now, if you divide that by 24 months, it effectively comes out to $238 a month.”

Adding in a final, Texas-specific incentive for switching to clean-energy vehicles, Hsu says he received a rebate of $1,666. Overall, this means he “paid just over $4,000 for the 24 month lease, and that comes out to just $168 a month.”

“So, whoever said leasing is just throwing away money has never done leasing like this before,” he summarizes.

In a comment, he adds, “If I really want the car, I still return it at the end of the lease so dealership eats the depreciation then turn around and buy it right back at true market value. But I will just do another lease.”

Why Is This Possible?

Hsu is employing what some on the internet call “lease hacking.”

This is when car customers pair things like inflated residual values with incentives and rebates to pay as little for their lease as possible.

While the benefits of doing this are obvious, what’s less clear at first glance is the amount of work that can go into actually making this happen. Experienced lease hackers do many calculations and look at multiple vehicles across dealerships to get the best deal possible — all doable for the average person, but certainly more difficult than just choosing the car you want off the lot.

Deals like the one shown in Hsu’s video are certainly possible, especially for EVs. In fact, other creators have shown off the many EV lease deals that are currently available to drivers. Many of these cars have monthly payments that rival Hsu’s.

Commenters Are Divided

In the comments section, some users thought that this was an incredible deal. Others, however, weren’t quite sure, or thought that such deals were so rare that the advice wasn’t as useful as it seems on the surface.

“So instead of throwing away 15k, you’re throwing away 4k. Still you get nothing for that money,” said a user.

“Found a unicorn. Most people can’t,” added another.

“Terrible idea with the 1 pay. Total it and your money is gone, time to lease or buy again,” shared a third. “I never put down more than $1k on a lease.”

Still, some claimed that such moves are possible if one plays their cards right.

“This is all true, I did the same thing on Chevy Blazer EV. GM has a lot of rebates that are stackable like military, first responders, costco members, etc.,” detailed a TikToker.

We’ve reached out to Hsu via email.

@adrielhsu How I pay $168/month for a new Cadillac. These lease deals are broken in favor of consumers. This is a $58,000 car that i’m paying $168 a month for. #carleasing #cadillac #carhacks #lifehack ♬ Perfect Time – Instrumental – Beats by Talent