Why not lease?

[teddy037.2]

Hey now!  Don't you go and ruin my Triumph ownership experience!   

thought you were selling that bike?

leasing a car is like renting your living space.

that's kinda how I saw it.

on the one hand, cool... new toy every three years, with payments generally less than buying new.... but I do want to end up owning the car I'm paying for.

[DRKWNG]

thought you were selling that bike?

Planning to, but am going to hold onto it until one of the guys I was in Afghanistan gets his assignment here.  He said he was pretty sure that he would want it, so I figured I would give him first refusal on it.

[Drjones]

Because you'll always lose out down the road by fleasing vehicles.

Case study:

Let's say we have $40k in the bank. We also have a savings budget of $650 per month. Our money market account earns us a 5% apr.  Our car is a BMW 328i with an upgraded package @ a MSRP of $39100.  A standard 3 year flease on such a car is around $350/month.


Option 1 - flease for three years and turn the car in for a new flease; repeat.  Option 2 - buy outright, sell the car three years later and buy a new one; repeat.


Option 1 - We put the whole $40k in the bank, since we're fleasing and there's no required downpayment on the car.  After taking out the flease payment we have $300/mo to put into the money market account.  After 3 years we'll have a hair over $58k in the account.  Continuing to flease we'll have $164.7k after 15 years and $428.4k after 30 years.

Option 2 - We buy the car and have $900 to put in the money market account.  We don't have a monthly flease payment so the whole $650 budget goes in the money market account.  After 3 years we sell the car to a private party for $21740 (on a 325i from KBB) and have $26.2k in our money market account for a total of $47.9k.  Repeating the process, at 15 years we'll have $165.8k and after 30 years will have $499.9k.


A $499.9k bank account is > a $428.4k bank account.


Feasing never makes sense in the long term.

[Cicero]

We leased the Rogue simply because the deal was too good to pass up. Plus, since D's income should go up threefold by the time the lease is up, we felt it was better since she will want a new car at that time.

Think of it as a long term rental. If that doesn't appeal to you, then well, that solves that. 

[rockaduc]

We buy my vehicles b/c i like to drive 'em until they really aren't safe to be driven anymore.  We lease my wife's vehicles b/c she likes to be in a new car/truck every 2-3 years.

To each their own I guess.

[WhiteStripe]

Can't mod a leased car. 

That should end this discussion...

[teddy037.2]

Can't mod a leased car. 

That should end this discussion...

sure you can! you just gotta store all your stock junk and put them back on before you return it, then try and sell all your used bits....

makes sense to me!



knew a guy who did that, too.... crazy 1.8t fanboys...

[DoubleEagle]

leasing a car is like renting your living space. always paying, but never any equity in ownership.
if thats your thing (by choice or necessity) so be it. but its not ideal, and not financially sound.

as others have said, i prefer to own my car/truck/whatever. so when i wanted an f250, i went looking for a used one that i could afford to pay cash. my 99 f250 now has over 210,000 miles, and running strong. i plan to drive it into the ground.

i would guess that i average about 2k worth of repairs a year at this point, but thats a heck of a lot cheaper than 400/500 month payment. even if the worst happens, and i find myself in need of a new engine (unlikely with a powerstroke) or transmission, i am still going to come out ahead.

a much more likely scenario at this point is that the body rusts off around a perfectly good power train in the next 5-10 years. i might even have the typical rust issue areas treated and rhino lined to hold that off for a few more years, and still be way ahead cost wise.

One thing I failed to mention with a 39 month lease.

I tend to lease BMW vehicles.

They have a 4 year bumper to bumper warranty ......and all routine maintenance is free for 4 years.

If you are driving a 6 year old vehicle , you have no manufacturers warranty and you are not driving the latest and greatest of the breed.

Dolph     

[redxblack]

I bought a 1999 Subaru Forester in excellent condition for about $4500 (3 years ago). I've put $700 into it during that time, $400 of that was for a set of Yokohama touring tires. The KBB value for private party trade is $4700. I haven't had to carry much insurance in that time either. Assuming I can't get that price and have to settle for $4000, I'm looking at spending $1400 for (probably at least) 5 years of car that will probably be in good enough condition to be my son's first car. If I leased the car new, that works out to be about 4-6 months worth of payments.

And my commute is 38 miles each way on the easy days and an additional 30 total miles on nights I have class at the university. I love my less than fashionable, federally labeled "clunker."

[herm]

One thing I failed to mention with a 39 month lease.

I tend to lease BMW vehicles.

They have a 4 year bumper to bumper warranty ......and all routine maintenance is free for 4 years.

If you are driving a 6 year old vehicle , you have no manufacturers warranty and you are not driving the latest and greatest of the breed.

Dolph    

i may not have a bumper to bumper warranty, but my annual maintenance costs are still less than anyone's lease payments.

and as far as latest and greatest........my 10 year old truck is arguably better than the same model in 2010, if only because of the 7.3 powerstroke

[csp808]

None of the new diesels can touch the 7.3l for reliability some have downloads giving near 25 to 27 mpg per cust estimates. The average combined mileage for 6.4l is about 12 mpg plus numerous base engine failures. i apologize if this is classified as a thread jack just babbling

[GAAN]

we run those damn 6.4's at work

they are in the shop every 6 weeks

that is no exageration

the 6.0's in our older spare rigs pull a shit ton harder but they were pretty prone to broken turbo's

we have a couple 7.3's left, they no longer like to be started and ran right away cold

in fact

they down right refuse 

[Monsterlover]

Im contemplating leasing now as well.

I work in outside sales and drive 20-25k miles per year.

I used to drive 18k or so, but things have picked up + I moved.

I have 4 years on my current loan (im buying) and since the economy tanked a year ago Im now 5k underwater on it.  If i kept it, that wouldn't matter.  But in 4 years I'll probably have 125,000 miles on an 07.

I can't see it being worth much on the resale market.

Im considering trading in to lease (possibly the new equinox) as I can get better fuel economy in it (I ave 21 now if im lucky, and should ave at least 25 with the new equinox) and I can get out of my negative equity car.

Another benefit is that I'd have a lower payment.  Though it is unlikely, I want to be prepared in case I end up not having a job.

[derby]

they're just going to roll that negative equity into your next lease/loan...

how do your future payments look when you take that into consideration?

[cyrus buelton]

Im contemplating leasing now as well.

I work in outside sales and drive 20-25k miles per year.

Don't most leases only give you 15k mi a year?


You are going to get royally ass make the beast with two backsed going over your mileage that much.