Updated September 2026
Every trim with its payment, due at signing, term, and Hunter Score already set. The money factor and every fee are open right on the page.
Every SUV here is a specific VIN with its payment, drive-off, term and mileage already set, priced with California tax inside the monthly instead of added at the dealer. Compact crossovers through three-row haulers, gas, hybrid and electric, ranked by how strong the deal itself is.
Curated and reviewed by Azat Cutliahmetov, licensed California auto broker #21138The SUV shelf is the deepest one we carry, and it runs across nine brands rather than one showroom. The biggest stacks right now: 360 cars of the Kia Sportage from $334 a month, 297 cars of the Sorento from $399, 248 cars of the Subaru Crosstrek from $286, 127 cars of the Hyundai Palisade from $528, and 166 cars of the Santa Fe from $532.
The same rules run here as everywhere on the site. No live bank program for a term means the deal is not shown at all. The payment already carries California tax, the money factor and every fee sit on the page, and the Hunter Score rates the deal rather than the car. Browsing takes no account and no credit check.
Smallest and cheapest to run: the Hyundai Kona opens the range at $301 a month with 60 cars in stock and a Hunter Score of 81 on its strongest deal, the Nissan Kicks sits alongside it, 83 cars from $309, and the Kia Seltos covers the same slot, 78 cars from $318. The Honda HR-V rounds it out, 52 cars from $344.
The volume middle is where most families land: Sportage, Tucson (121 cars from $351, Hunter Score 89), Nissan Rogue (52 cars from $376, scoring 92), Subaru Forester (169 cars from $349), Honda CR-V (79 cars from $404), Mazda CX-5 (71 cars from $363) and Volkswagen Tiguan (47 cars from $356). If all-wheel drive on every trim matters, the Subaru side of that list is where to start.
Not every third row is a real seat. The full-size pair are the Hyundai Palisade (127 cars from $528, its best deal scoring 87) and the Kia Telluride (191 cars from $516): adults ride in the back on a real trip. The Kia Sorento (297 cars from $399) and Hyundai Santa Fe (166 cars from $532) put a third row in a body that still parks easily, which is the right answer when the extra seats are occasional rather than daily.
Bigger again: the Nissan Pathfinder, 49 cars from $482, the Honda Pilot, 31 cars from $587, and the Subaru Ascent, 25 cars from $482. On electricity three rows exist too: the Kia EV9, 96 cars from $461 with a Hunter Score of 98, and the Hyundai IONIQ 9, 6 cars from $516.
Most of the volume nameplates now come both ways, and on a lease the question is simply whether the hybrid's monthly premium is smaller than the fuel you stop buying. The hybrid shelves: 127 cars of the Palisade Hybrid from $528, 118 cars of the Santa Fe Hybrid from $532, 124 cars of the Sportage Hybrid from $364, 53 cars of the Tucson Hybrid from $397, 135 cars of the Sorento Hybrid from $494 and 137 cars of the Telluride Hybrid from $591.
Open both versions of the same nameplate and compare the monthly side by side rather than trusting a rule of thumb: the gap swings with the bank program, and in some months the hybrid is the cheaper lease outright because its program carries more lease cash. That comparison is the whole reason the numbers are on the page.
Every monthly here carries California sales tax, which on a normal retail lease is charged on the payment rather than on the full price of the car. Each deal also names its term, its annual mileage and the credit tier the payment assumes, because a low number with an unnamed mileage cap is exactly how a teaser is built. Set your own ZIP on a deal and the engine recomputes the tax to where you will register the car.
If the drive-off is what you are optimizing, the whole catalog can be repriced to a true $0 due at signing, which moves the first month and the fees into the monthly instead. That is a cash-flow choice rather than a discount, and both versions are visible when you open a deal.
A California SUV lease is taxed on the monthly payment, not on the full price of the car, so a $55,000 three-row does not hand you a four-thousand-dollar tax bill on day one. This holds even for the biggest three-row models: the rules that tax a vehicle differently reach pickup trucks and vehicles built to carry more than ten people, and an SUV is a passenger vehicle registered with the DMV as a multipurpose vehicle. Two details worth knowing before you sign: money you put down as a capitalized cost reduction IS taxed at signing, while DMV title and registration fees are not.
Source: CDTFA, Publication 34Seven three-row SUVs hold the 2026 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+, the institute's highest award: Hyundai Palisade, Hyundai IONIQ 9, Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia EV9, Kia Sorento, Nissan Pathfinder and Subaru Ascent. Two carry a build-date condition worth checking on the door jamb: the Palisade award covers cars built after September 2026, the Sorento award cars built after September 2026. The 2026 list is stricter than earlier years because front crash prevention now has to be standard equipment rather than an option.
Source: IIHS, 2026 Top Safety PicksThe hybrid question has an arithmetic answer. EPA rates the 2026 Kia Sorento at 26 mpg combined against 37 for the Sorento Hybrid, and the Hyundai Tucson at 28 against 36 for the Tucson Hybrid. Over a 10,000-mile lease year that is 114 fewer gallons for the Sorento and 79 for the Tucson. At California's average regular price of $5.45 a gallon in late September 2026 that works out to roughly $620 and $430 a year. Compare that against the monthly difference between the two versions on this page: whichever number is larger wins.
Source: EPA fueleconomy.gov + EIA California pricesA 24 or 36-month lease never leaves the 5-year, 60,000-mile new-vehicle warranty at Hyundai and Kia, and that warranty covers the powertrain too, so the entire lease term is covered whichever version you take. The famous 10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain coverage is an original-owner benefit rather than a lease one, with one exception Hyundai puts in writing: if you lease the car and then buy it at the end of the lease, that 10-year coverage stays in effect for you. Buy the same car used from someone else and you get 5 years and 60,000 miles instead.
Source: Hyundai 2026 Owner's Handbook, Section 7Checked September 2026. These programs change in weeks, not years, so every figure sits next to the document you can re-check it against.
It moves with the bank programs, so instead of freezing a number in the text we sort the live list by payment: the cheapest SUV on the page today opens at $301 a month for a Hyundai Kona, with the Nissan Kicks from $309 and the Subaru Crosstrek from $286 close behind. Those figures already include California tax.
There is no single right number, but there is a way to judge one. Compare the payment against the car's MSRP and against what the same trim leases for elsewhere: that ratio is what our Hunter Score measures, so a high score means the deal is strong for that specific car rather than that the car is cheap. A $600 lease on a big three-row can be a better deal than a $350 lease on a compact.
The full-size pair are the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride, where adults fit in the back on a real trip. The Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe put a third row in a mid-size body. Larger again are the Nissan Pathfinder, Honda Pilot and Subaru Ascent, and on electricity the Kia EV9 and Hyundai IONIQ 9 carry three rows. Every one of them shows its own live payment and drive-off.
It fits if you drive a predictable number of miles and want the resale risk to sit with the bank rather than with you, and it fits badly if you cover far more miles than the contract allows or keep cars for a decade. We show lease and finance side by side on the same car, so the comparison is arithmetic rather than a sales pitch.
Sometimes, and the page lets you check rather than guess. On a lease you only pay for the years you drive, so the question is whether the hybrid's monthly premium is smaller than the fuel you stop buying. In some program months the hybrid is actually the cheaper lease because its program carries more lease cash, which is why both versions of each nameplate are listed.
Yes. California tax on a lease is charged on the monthly payment, and it is already inside the number you see. Each deal names its term, its annual mileage and the credit tier assumed. A payment quoted without its mileage cap is not comparable to one that names it, which is why ours always does.
You pick a specific VIN, not a configurator wish. A refundable $95 service fee locks your discount and the exact numbers of that deal, you submit the credit application (SSN required, the bank decides), and after approval you sign and collect the car from the winning dealer in the LA metro. Every step happens on the site.