Based on our driving needs in the past few years a 7.5k / 36 month lease is enough for my family BUT there is a chance we might need more mileage due to my wife changing jobs and having a longer commute starting next year. Is it better to go with the 7.5k and pay 20 cents per mile (Acura lease) if we go over or go with a 10k lease and try to capture any positive equity at the end (if we didn’t use the miles) by selling the car and paying it off?
Based on the calculator, by going from 7.5k to 10k lease I pay ~$500 more to buy 2500 miles with comes down to 20 cents / mile which is the same as the rate for going over the limit. Am I missing anything?
Like @mllcb42 said, you’re getting 7,500 miles for $500 switching from 7,500 to 10,000 per year. Those 7,500 miles would cost $1,500 as a mileage penalty. So those miles are 1/3 the price if you buy them now.
You have to balance the risk for yourself. If you’re thinking about a big road trip, etc., I wouldn’t want to think about the miles on the car. If I was you, I would get the extra miles at 10k. so that I don’t have to worry about it…there are enough other things to worry about.
When your ready to lease something get actual quotes for both mileage allowances and do the math. It’s usually cheaper than the $.20 or whatever the penalty is for that brand
Depends on car too. On a RDX you could easily have equity. MDX maybe you will (redisign is going to hurt gen 3 values). Sedan you probably don’t.
I think the bigger issue is your financial situation. If paying a few grand in overages due to buy life changes ultimately Isn’t a big deal, the lower mileage lease with hope of staying below or equity is a more viable option. If it would really hurt your families financial situation to have to bring cash to lease end closing, play it safe and get 10k.
We both drive like 5000 miles a year without trips. But then we do a trip to Mammoth couple of times a year, a trip to Yosemite, and a trip to Scottsdale, and we’re easily at 10k miles. I’m way under milage on my car, but I like being able to drive without range anxiety. My wife’s MDX has ACC and LKAS, so it’s much more comfortable driving her car on long trips. I’ve thought about doing some Uber to burn some milage on my car, but I just hate driving, so that’s really not feasible for me. I think paying a little extra to avoid anxiety is worth it.
The Acura Loyalty Advantage program gives you extra perks on miles if you stay with the brand. They forgive half your overage or let you carry over extra miles to your next lease.
Generally no. Acura will carry some miles over to a new lease, and BMW will give you a small token amount if you have a lot of miles left at turn in, but I’ve never seen anyone do anything significant.
