New to the forums and to leasing in general. Have been trying to learn as much as I can. I am graduating medical school this week and will be starting residency next month; unfortunately, my 2006 car died several months ago. I need a car for residency, but I also will be in a pretty different financial outlook finishing residency than I am now. I generally would not lease a car, but minimizing upfront costs now and having a new car that I won’t have to worry too much on maintenance while in residency is pretty attractive.
My situation: I was lucky enough to be able to keep a remote part-time job through medical school w/ annual income of ~25k, and used part of that to pay off my wife’s (also in med school) 2023 mazda cx-5, which we finished payment on several months ago. So decent credit history, credit score is ~740.
As for my needs, since we have the CX-5, I don’t need another SUV necessarily, or have any specific space or passenger needs. I would prioritize comfortable/quiet highway driving as I am going to train about an hour away from where we live now so will be making that drive 2/3 times per month. But biggest reality is that I still would like to minimize my payments as much as possible, even though I am compromising my tendencies by going after a new car instead of an older used.
So while I know many target luxury vehicles that make good lease options, I am on the other end of the spectrum looking for more basic cars with inflated RVs, big incentives, and easier-to-obtain dealer discounts. I am starting to look through the marketplace as I need to have a car by middle of June at the latest. Some possibilities that seem like they might make good targets are Nissan Sentra, Nissan Altima, Hyundai Elantra, Nissan Rogue, Mazda3 from my searches, but may be missing some good options. I would likely be looking to spend a bit extra to get a higher trim to get a more comfortable/premium interior feel.
So I figured I would ask those of you that know better than me, if you were in my situation, are there any models you would be targeting this month? I have to imagine I may end up using a broker since I doubt my own negotiating ability, but I am really trying to work through the steps of putting a lease proposal together so that I understand the inputs correctly just for my own education.
Sorry for the long post! Appreciate any suggestions!
Paging Drs @jsingh5292 and @JMMZKDTH. Please make sure the patient doesn’t die during autopsy.
And before the good doctors get back to you, start considering buying a Toyota or a Honda as they maintain their values the best. If EV is an option (meaning you have easy access to charging), consider a lightly used CPO Lexus RZ for under 30K.
Congratulations! This is definitely an exicting time, knowing your previous hard work has paid off and you are beginning the next chapter of your medical journey! How you kept a remote job during medical school?-Shady, jk, but in all seriousness, that is very impressive!
Since you tagged the state of MN, you need something that is winter capable–aka has 4WD/AWD capabilities
--Could you explain this? Your commuting to your residency training 2/3 times per month?
Whats your budget–absolute hard stop that you won’t spend an extra dollar over? That will answer the question for models to target for–
As others have mentioned–look at the marketplace to see what deals/models you are interested in/in the budget, you can use those as a guideline for your deal. You can also look at the Signed Deals & Tips section to see what deals have recently been done by others. Furthermore, you can look at the Pre-negotiated deals page to see if anything on there interest you.
Quick breakdown for leasing guidelines (generalizaiton)
MSRP: xxx
Pre-incentive selling price: xx (what dealer is discounting)
Incentives/rebates you qualify for (region depedent): get this information from becoming a supporter of the website/edmunds forum
New selling price: xxx
MF (APR): set by the bank and often bumped up by dealers --you can know what the base/standard rate is by becoming a member here/edmunds forum
RV: value of the car when the deal ends: non-negotiable/untouchable–set by the bank–so not something you negotiate.
MSD: aka security deposits: offered by some manufactures–bascially put down x amount of payments as a security deposit and lowers the MF further–get money back at end of deal as long as no damages/etc to the car. Really good way to further save money.
There are certain users here @holeydonut@djrabbi@GOAT@LAK1ngs@mani_is_kool@carrot56 and etc (I am definitely forgetting a lot), that often share deals that dreams are made of, however, those require a lot more time and bandwidth-
-If all else fails and you don’t want to play this mental game right now, get a broker and save yourself the headache.
-Congrats again on residency and wishing you nothing but the best from IA
Since you are concerned about payments, I will throw out that you could also go a different direction and finance a Toyota (or maybe Honda) sedan/small SUV. They are more basic vehicles but those cars hold their value so as long as you get a decent purchase price they have a low total cost of ownership plus the flexibility to get out of the car whenever you want.
Also, how many miles are you driving a year? Leasing math starts to get worse once you are above 12K miles a year.
Should not put more than 10000 miles on the car. I use my bike a ton for errands mostly just for my own enjoyment. But I will be making a ~120 mile roundtrip trip twice or so per month, which will be the bulk of my miles.
Definitely looking at financing a Civic or something like that, and certainly understand the value of being able to sell it at the end. The reason I am exploring leasing is that it can alleviate some of the short term cash crunch right now (this year my wife and I will be paying for 2 places), and be able to reassess our car situation in the future as I am finishing residency.
I do tutoring for standardized tests, all the way from SATs to MCATs. I work independently, have been building up for several years, so have a pipeline of students from word of mouth, and have maximum flexibility! So not too shady lol.
Have been weighing AWD vs just going FWD and going winter tires. I am living next to the hospital I will be doing my transitional year at so won’t be commuting to work, so can avoid the worst weather.
Yes sorry that is unclear. We own a condo where we go to medical school. My wife will still live here. I will be doing my transitional year one hour away, and the residency program has resident housing for quite cheap (900 bucks a month). So I will be living there and making the trip back to visit my wife 2-3 times per month. Big part of the reason that I am considering leasing right now, to alleviate the cash crunch this year which will be when things are tighest, even if it results in a little worse situation in a few years, when I will be finishing residency and she will be in residency.
I think if I were to buy, the top end of my budget would be around 30, putting as much as 10k down and financing the rest. This would (depending on APR) put my monthly payment just north of 400, which I could swing. For leasing, I would love to be at or under 400 with first month DAS.
Starting to look around on there.
Thanks so much for all the tips! Very much appreciate your input and any additional insight you have!
What made sense to me at that stage was to own something reliable and ride it out until a few years into being an attending. My wife worked a few years before we were married and bought a new 2004 Camry that got us through 3 years of residency, 4 years of fellowship and 2 years of being an attending. In fact my sister in law still drives this car as she works from home and is a point A to B person.
I was lucky that my parents handed down an MDX, and I drove it through four years of fellowship and then four years into being an attending. After I felt more established, that’s when I started buying what I wanted.
Leasing may make sense so there’s not equity tied up but it’s also nice not to have monthly payments, especially when you are trying to buy a house later and they are looking at debt to income ratio. It helps if you have something reliable and ride that out as long as you can.
As Kanye says “He gon’ make it into a Benz out of that Datsun” — your time will come, just make sure you set up a proper foundation!
Lol, was aboslutely kidding about the shady remark but thats awesome! Kudos to you!
Living next to the hospital definitely makes life easy, with commuting home 2-3x/month-completely your call–FWD is perfectly okay in my honest opinion, I have lived in the midwest for like 7 years and prior to in the north east.
Going to piggy back off of @JMMZKDTH it would be nice to not have a monthly car note to worry about during residency. However, if you choose to have one, I would suggest puchasing a used toyota or something similar that can hold some re-sale value.
Just remember ot pay yoruself first with your attending salary and then splurge, but completely your call
Certainly agree with the sentiments that it would be preferable to avoid a car payment! Trouble is, with the used car market looking like it is, even an older car with a good number of miles hovers around 20k, so avoiding a payment seems unlikely for me. Especially if trying to target more reliable brands which cost a premium. I’ll keep searching!
The people telling young adults to buy used Hondas or Toyotas are living in the past. It makes zero sense in today’s market. You save 5k bucks for a 4 year old car with 50k miles and you get the privilege of paying higher used car rates. Definitely better off getting a new one if you don’t end up leasing.
It’s a long shot, but have you considered just renting for those days you need to drive to your training? If you just want wheels 2-3 times a month, it can be fairly cheap (make a Turo friend), and you won’t have a monthly payment, insurance, gov registration fees, etc.
I did spend a good deal of time trying to research this option. Although I won’t be needing to commute to work mainly, and will use my bike to get around as much as possible, there will still be weekly errands that I need transportation, as the town I will be training in basically mandates a car. Not a lot of miles, but enough to make not having one unrealistic unfortunately. I even made the mistake of asking about it during a kind of onboarding call, and basically got laughed out of the room - that was nice lol. But I appreciate the suggestion!
