Why not lease?

[cyrus buelton]

jedi mind trick

*waves hand  " these are the payments you are looking for"

[Grampa]

when I was selling BMWs, we had some douchebag sales dude come in to teach us how to hook customers. They want you to use a special sheet of paper called a four square. It's a simple trick where the salesman gets the customer to cough up where he/she wants their monthly payment to be. Then once he has that info, the salesperson does nothing but hammer on that payment. In the mean time, the finance  guy jacks with the interest rate, the overall price of the car, and any trade in you may have, just to keep you the customer at that monthly payment. Hey.... you said you  would buy if I could get you into that new 7series for 2fiddy a month.  (never mind the fact you'll be pay'n for it for the next 25 years, at 25%, and, yer trade in is only worth 25 bucks)

[rgramjet]

I leased a brand new 1999 Ford Expedition.  I put $3k down and had a 39 month lease for $349 per month with 20k per year.  Payment total came out to $13,611 + the initial $3k=$16,311.  Leased it through my business and wrote off 90 something percent of the mileage each year. 

Sticker on the truck was $38k.  Probably would have had to put down the total amount for the lease just to get the payments to where I needed them to be. 

Do you really think you "own" your car until its paid off?  Try missing that last payment.... 

Leasing may not make as much sense for a business nowadays with the Schedule 179 plan that lets one depreciate 100% of the vehicle value in the first year up to $100k as long as its over, I think, 6800lbs GVW.

[the_Journeyman]

Get a <$1000 car and drive it into its grave.  My commuter car has lasted me nearly three years.  It was $700.  I got it for less than two common lease payments, and well, have spent about $300 in maintenance, so there's three lease payments roughly.  However, that is spread over three years.  I'll likely do the same thing when if finally dies.

JM