I drive about 22k miles a year (SoCal what can I say). Wife drives around 5k miles/year puttering about town. I currently own outright a 2014 Camaro with 60k miles on it. Wife is 13 months into a Buick Encore lease. Her lease with tax runs $130.42 a month and the car has ~5k miles.
I’m not eligible for the Asian lease incentive but my GM credit card just sent me an Email where they are bumping my rebate dollars from ~$330 to $1830 through May 1. Plus I’ll get the GM $500 lease loyalty incentive.
If a lease makes sense, I could sell my current car and get a new leased car (or two) that satisfy mileage requirements for both of us. I would be willing to drive the wife’s leased car and get her another or just lease one on my own if the mileage thing works.
As far as cars go, another Buick Encore would work. Are the numbers for an Encore as good as for the Chevy Trax ? My wife wouldn’t drive a cruise or an Equinox (she has her own opinion !). A Trax may work but the LS Trax might be a bit too stripped down. I do like the numbers I’m seeing in some of the posts.
How can we drive new leased cars and not pay too much ?
Usually for someone driving so much, it’s not advisable to lease. However, if you can split the miles between 2 cars, it might work for you. How many miles is your wife’s Encore allowed per year? If it’s 12k and you get a lease for 15k, that would work out pretty well.
22k miles a year is insane as we all are in SoCal. I didn’t plan it this way ! It just worked out that I live in Orange county and work over by LAX. So everyday me and everyone else spend hours in our cars. Besides those oil companies are hurtin’ and need my support !
But since we drive so much and spend so much time in the car it makes sense to minimize driving costs. It also helps to have a newer reliable car that you don’t have to think about too much or to worry about too much. Who has time for car problems !
My Camaro is a great car that I purchased on sale for $20300 (out the door). I could trade it in today for around $9k or sell myself for maybe $10.5k.
The trade-in price at $9k works out right now to a little over 18 cents a mile or if I sell it myself I would get a little over 16 cents a mile.
That is comparable on a for-mile basis to many leases.
Still I think that if the wife and I swapped cars mid-lease that a dual lease arrangement could work.
I don’t get the impression driving is a joy for you, it’s more to get you to and from work slogging away in the 405. so I don’t see why you wouldn’t just keep the Camaro unless the gas mileage is getting expensive or it’s breaking down a lot? The camaro is a nicer car IMO than anything you are looking at.
Do a cost of ownership vs cost of leasing and all the associated costs with both. I think your camaro would still come out ahead. These low lease costs on this forum are enticing and the grass is greener etc.
Also, I tried to share cars for mileage reasons with my wife and it was actually a bit of a PITA - maybe it would work out for you!
I enjoy driving when everyone else can get out of the way ! Would you send out a memo to the other drivers (please) !
Maybe you are right about keeping the Camaro. I going to have to spend some (more) money on it next year for tires and brakes.
The Camaro is depreciating around $300/month. The Buick lease costs me (all in) around $166 a month. So my total vehicle costs are around $466.
But I can lease a base Encore at 15k/24 months for around $112/month with my incentive. The monthly cost for driving would then drop by almost $200 a month.
Wow the Encore might be the key to it all - is that your effective monthly lease including tax, or is that exclusive of tax and after you put money down, tax title and license? If those aren’t in that number I’d guess you might be closer to $140ish/ month. I don’t think you are factoring for replacing potentially 4 tires, repairing dings and paint damage/ alloy damage, set of pads at least, etc at the end of the lease- only you can decide what this likely costs and amortize that too) you could be “up” at the end - I just don’t think it’s as much as $200/mth better off
This deal is getting better. I just spoke to the salesman who leased us the 2016 Buick Encore last year. They have a special this weekend for a 2017 Encore sign and drive lease ($0 drive off) for $129.
(24 month 10k/year)
With tax the deal is nothing down $139/month.
Then I apply my $1800+ GM credit card rebate credits and get the lease to just over $60/month.
My “Grand Plan” is to drive the new (2017) Buick Encore for 6 months put 11k miles on it then turn it over to the wife for the remaining 18 months. Shell then put another 7.5k miles on it before we turn it in with around 18.5k miles in March of 2019.
The other car (2016 Buick Encore) should have ~ 7.5k miles on it of my wife’s driving in 6 months. I’ll then drive that one for the remaining 6 months before turning it in next March (2018) with also around $18.5 k miles.
In a year (March 2018) when the 2016 lease ends, I’ll (hopefully) lease another Encore but with a 15k/year mileage limit. Then Every march we’ll turn in a model and lease another.
10k a year is not enough for you since you drive 22k and your wife drives 5 k. So you need 2 leases with at least 15k a year, and with those, you have to add at least 60 a month to the 24/10 lease payment. Don’t just look at the monthly, look at the mileage lol!
On an Encore, going from 10k to 12k is about $11 per month and going from 12k to 15k is about another $11 per month.
If it was me, I would probably keep the Camaro until about 90,000 miles, it is not going to depreciate nearly as quickly now as it has already. You have a powertrain warranty until 100,000 miles, correct? Sell it with a little of that warranty remaining then look at your situation.
Also, you need to drive her Encore some so you don’t waste the miles you are paying for. Turn it in right at the limit.
I haven’t decided but I just may keep the Camaro for a weekend car. Or I could sell it and buy something else in a year when the 2016 Encore lease ends. I like the way the Camaro handles - much better than the encore. I don’t like the poor visibility out of the car. I have had a couple of too-close calls. I like sitting up higher in the Encore.
The other thing is that the car (BumbleBee Special - Canary Yellow with fat Black Stripes) is a bit too flashy for me. It does look great and I have had quite a few compliments on the car.
But to answer your question - yes it does have a 5 yr/ 100k powertrain warrenty.
I just can’t pass up that $57 Encore lease deal - too tempting. As I see it I’ll be able to drive my 22k yearly miles for around 3 cents a mile.
I agree on not selling the Camaro if you can get the Encore now for less than $100 per month. Also you can save on insurance on the Camaro by saying it is for pleasure and less than 5,000 miles per year. That should pretty help alot, assuming you are paying a decent amount for the insurance on it now.
I’ve done the extra car thing before. Full coverage on an extra “pleasure” vehicle runs about $300/year. The state registration runs about $200. Lets call it $40 a month insurance and registration. But I’ll get about half of that back in lower fuel costs for the Encore.
