I am super new to leases as I thought buying was always preferable.
So, who should lease?
-If you want to own a car for only three years? As it transfers the risk of residual value to the lease company?
-If you are someone who buys every 5-6 years will it GENERALLY make sense to buy? (I know it depends on septic cars and lease deals.) Or, might I possibly spend as much money owning a car for 6 years as leasing the same car for three years and then the new model for another three years? In which case it would make more sense to lease.
-If you’re someone would buy a car and own it for nine years, is it possible that depreciation, repairs, and maintenance over 9 years costs as much as doing three 3-year leases?
I know it depends on the car, but I’m just interested in why the members here choose leasing over buying. And are there more lease proponents in states in which you only pay taxes on the lease amount rather than on the amount of the whole car.
I lease because how else are you going to have a $52k BMW wagon for a total cost of ownership over 2 years of just over $5500 with taxes?
Or a $36k Mini Cooper S for $1500 for a year.
Granted, I lease because it’s fun and a hackr challenge. But it started because I was realizing how much I was losing on total cost of ownership of the “only buy CPO!” route on a 2013 Ford Escape SEL that I had gotten for my wife for $22k, a 2 year old, 20k mile car. Original MSRP of like $32k or something. Thought I got a great deal (i mean… kinda did). Anyways, she drove it for 45k miles over 3 years and then she wanted something bigger. Went to try and sell it and KBB trade in, carmax, and the dealer all would barely give anything over $9k. So… what that means is my total cost of ownership for the 3 years we had this Escape was:
$22k purchase price
$1500 in sales taxes
$1000 in new tires all around at around the 45-50k mark
$9k selling price (ended up selling it to her parents)
So a total cost of ownership of $16,500 over 3 years, or an effective payment of $458 a month on what was a $32k MSRP Escape.
So fuck that noise with buying used on mainstream cars. (my Lotus elise is an entirely different story)
I’m an expat so only have 3 year visa, I want a nicer vehicle so that kind of forces a lease. Can’t get a loan for beyond the visa length so loan financing is prohibitive.
@MConte05 When and where did you get Mini Cooper for $1500 a year? Was it a 24/10K lease? I’m currently looking for a 2019 Mini Cooper S 2-door hardtop with a good lease deal. Thank you.
It was a crazy 12 month lease that was thrown out by a sales guy that’s long gone now. One-time only deal that I jumped on immediately. Bright ass yellow manual loaded cooper S for $115 a month, was an absolute blast for the year I had it.
All about monthly cash flow for me. A $40K car is around $300 - 400 /mo to lease for 36 months, whereas financing a buy would be more in the $600/mo+ range or more for 60 months.
Buying really only makes sense if you keep it till your wheels fall off. If you are going to buy right after you paid it off you may as well just lease.
Maintenance? Included (my car it is) + loaner provided
Getting rid of car? Drop the keys off and not have to deal with shady craigslist characters coming to meet up and trying to low ball you
Guessing how much car is worth 3 years from now and if I’ll end up taking a hit? Not my problem, leaving companies problem
Got an accident and now car worth less? Not my problem
Like driving luxury vehicles for price of what others pay for a civic? Leasing is for you unless you drive too many miles/year when it becomes cost prohibitive.
I’m cheap and don’t like dealing with POS used cars, by the time you buy anything decent the payment is $300 to $400 a month, and that’s not even anything that nice. I’d rather lease something cheap, right now I’ve got two Jetta’s for $300/mo, most people pay that for one car. Of course you’ll have the people on here that say save your cash and you can buy something reliable for under $10k, good luck with that.
Wifes last car was an Infiniti G37. We had it for 4 years, traded it with 40k miles on it. Payment was $515 a month. Because we don’t keep cars that long and how little she drives we went with a lease. Instead of a $38k MSRP car at $515 a month we went a $53k car for $515 a month and will hand it back in 39 months. If I’m going to be making a payment anyway might as well get something nicer.
Every car I’ve returned has been worth much less than the residual value, I’d rather have the bank deal with the hit
Get to drive a 55k car for the same payment as financing a 30k car for 72mo’s
By the time I get so bored with a car I can’t wait to get out of it, my lease is nearing its’ end and I get can something else *Mainly this, get bored with cars pretty quickly
I have done both lease and purchase for personal use and from experience in the past 15 years with bmw and Audi, I started with establishing monthly budget for car expense than:
Lease at 1% or better when I want to drive new car every 2-3 yr and not worry about big maintenance or warranty.
Finance 3-4 yr max on 1-2yr old car w/ low mileage/certified that already depreciate over 25% and sell the car when warranty end/before 60k miles. I was able to do this few times and gain some equity.
Sell the car and assume lease when could not get best deal on 1 or 2 (bmw lease assumption is relatively easy)
I learned over the years that most of us don’t have control over Feds raising and lowering interest rate that affects lease/purchase cost up/down but doing #2 yield to the most gain.
