Considering my first lease. Any improvements that can be made? Market is Chicago suburbs. Have an identical quote for a Sport Trim at $275/month. 36 month/15,000 miles yr. Leasehackr score of 7.8.
That’s one of those cars I’d just buy if you want it. I had a 16 touring for 3 years and lost $9.5K from new purchase at dealer to trade in. I put 42K miles on it too. With the deal you’d get, you would probably have even lower depreciation. Used car market loves civics.
Purchasing is out of the question. I can’t afford more than a $300/month payment. Nor do I have much money to put down. I’d prefer to buy but I’m not in the best financial situation to do so.
Edit: quick calculation. Even with $2000 down over 60 months, that’s $399/month. Well outside what I can afford.
I like what civic’s have to offer. Not a fan of manual.
Even CPO Civic LX’s are 16-17k. Out of my budget.
I was drawn to a lease because they have monthly payments that I can afford. I want to drive a nice, newer model car and not inherit/finance a potential landmine (high mileage, not CPO, etc). Those cheap cars are all I can afford to finance but too many risks imo.
If you are on a tight budget then picking cars might not be your top priority. There are quite some <$200 cars out there.
Not to discourage you but if you are really into build up some wealth, leasing a car isn’t the best option. Lots of newer $10k used car you can choose, after you finish all the payments you have some equity more or less. And potentially it’s a car can last you till you are financially more capable.
You are going to pay somewhere around $250 min to purchase something.
May be you will be able to find something good.
The problem is at least on average prices on used cars wen’t up significantly. There was an article online saying that average 10 year old car is about 8k. Add taxes, fees, etc and we are talking $250 on a 48 months loan.
For $200 lease you can have a new car but you will need to compromise on something - may be not all bells of top trim, but still good.
I drove basic VW Jetta for 3 years for $190 and it was great. Vs trying to find a good used car for that same payment and we are not even talking the time that would require to do so.
So can we figure your priorities?
budget? newer car? features?
Priorities are budget first and foremost. Absolutely needs to be below $300. I’d be more comfortable around $250/month. Second priority is having features, I’d like something a little more than a stripped down version. Having a nice interior and XM would be preferable. Third priority is newer. I’m fine working on a model year 2019, etc.
What is a nice interior?
Lets say currently I drive Tacoma with Premium and Tech packages for $250. Heated seats, leather, NAV. May be XM - but I don’t listen to it.
This is a car I got after Jetta because at the time basic Jetta was being quoted at $280 for 7,5k miles.
So next question are you willing to look at other cars?
Have you looked at used and what you can afford for $250? With 60 month loan that is $15,000.
May be more with 72 or 84 month loans - but then we are talking you have to stick with the car for very very long period of time.
Now that I think about it, my brother was in simiar situation - needs to be under $300, 15k miles, and nice packages.
Solution back in 2016 was Volvo S60 loaner lease that he unfortunately totaled.
As a replacement we found him 6 month old used 2019 VW Jetta SEL at some Honda dealership for approx $20k. They key about this one was VW had 6 years of bumper to bumper warranty or 72k miles. Covered him for 5 years of owenership even at 15k miles a year. Btw, that warranty was fully transferable which luckly for us guys at Honda didn’t know. Otherwise price would have been higher as they wanted to upsell extended warranty.