Brand new to the forum! Questions about my possible first leased car!

Damn. Well I’m going to look at a used 2009 Audi A4 tomorrow. It’s going for $6,999. It would be nice to get the out the door price anywhere between $6,500-6,800.

My insurance on my last car was $170 a month on a BMW so hopefully the 09 Audi would be in that range

Smart move. (20 chars)

@Quentin your last insurance wasn’t in FL though , was it? Why don’t you try to get an insurance quote first?

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Get insurance quotes before making any decisions. The cost of insurance anywhere in Florida will be substantially higher than central Illinois.

You can get the VIN number of a car you’re looking at from the dealer’s website and use that for an accurate insurance quote.

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Right, ours doubled when moving to Florida… Hurricanes.

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The harsh reality of your situation is you simply don’t make enough to buy or lease an Audi A4 (or any new car). Making (close to) minimum wage you should get the idea of “dying to get a nicer car” out of your head ASAP. A car for you should be seen only as a tool (necessary evil), not as a status symbol or anything like that. Even if you can get a cosigner you cannot afford this car! Like others have stated buy a cheap used Civic or Corolla and use it to get to/from work.

I suggest you check out Reddit /r/personalfinance and /r/frugal and focus on saving and increasing wealth - not leasing expensive cars.

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Kids today!!! :grinning:

But seriously someone making $20K a year and leasing a new car, let alone an Audi just isn’t realistic. Using the $750/mo mentioned above, add another $100 for gas and maintenance and that’s $10K a year. In other words you will spend 50% of your gross income on a car.

Think of it like this…every $10,000 you spend on a car could potentially be worth $215,000 in 40 years, if you invest it in an index mutual fund that has returned 8% a year historically.

$215K in 40 years vs 1 year of driving an A4? I know which I would choose.

That’s not to say nobody should ever drive a nice car. But only do so when you’ve taken care of everything else first.

6 month after opening the first credit card you should try getting a loan on your own used car from a credit union. You will pay that off in a year so not much to worry about interest rate. This way you will have an installment loan on your history and a payoff which really helps you for the first lease.

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You have to look at this honestly from the outside, you’re male, 19yrs old, and already totaled a car (fault doesn’t matter) at 16yrs old. I doubt you can even get car insurance, and if you can, have you factored in the $5k or more that insurance will cost in FL. My son, is 23, perfect driving record, graduated w/ high honors from a great engineering school,just started a well paying job at an Aerospace company and he wanted to buy his own insurance in FL, and it was $4800/yr for a 2007 Corolla, so he is staying on our insurance until he turns 25.

If you owned a $40k vehicle, would you lease it to someone like yourself? Probably not, since there’s a good chance something will happen to that investment even if its not your fault.

You have no credit history to speak of, as others have recommended, you need to work on that first. 2nd, get a good reliable 2nd hand car and after 2yrs of good credit history, apply for a lease. But until you’re over 25yrs old, you’re a risk in the Insurance and Car companies eyes.

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that is prob not unrealistic depending on what county. I remember paying $4k/yr when i was in my early 20s. I don’t remember what i paid at 19, i think i was on my family’s plan.

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My son priced it out for Palm Beach area just 2mos ago, best he could get for a 10yr old Corolla was $4800/yr w a 7yr clean driver record, no accidents or tickets.

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I didn’t want to make a new post just wanted to ask a quick question. Well the same question different car. What if I went to a cheaper car like a 2017 Mazda3…?

when i was 19yo, i took 24k my parent gave me and brought a brand new isuzu rodeo, if i can go back in time i will beat myself and took those money and buy some apple stock.
tons of good advise up there, read it again. get a credit card to build credit, u gonna need it in the future not just for car but for house and everything else. get a civic or corolla, its just a thing that get u from point a to point b.
best of luck

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Go find a 2017 Mazda3 online you think you want, grab the VIN number. Call your insurance, tell them it’s a lease, miles you drive a year, etc. and let us know how much it is. I think that alone may change your decision.

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Even though it’s not what I wanted to hear thanks guys. Once again love this community and on the bright side I just got hired at Aldi’s

General advise for you have not changed but specifically about the Mazda you asked, they do not lease well and it is through chase bank which is very strict on credit history.