Saw all those Bolt one pay lease deals and it made me look into it but I don’t have a current lease and I’m from so Cal, so leasing didn’t look that attractive to me. Started thinking about maybe buying one instead and was offered $19,000 off MSRP. Would probably be looking to replace it in 3 years and debating if it’s a good deal or not.
What do you believe is the cost to finance it for 3 years versus the cost to lease it?
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Not sure about the financing part of it, could get a rate of 1.99 to purchase the car.
Ok, so do the math of how much it will cost to finance over 3 years versus your expected resale value, compare it to the cost of leasing, and decide based on that. 
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Expected resale value is the tricky part, seems like these cars lose a lot of value.
Wonder if someone recently sold a Bolt to Carvana/Vroom and how much they got?
The resale value of a Bolt right now is almost totally irrelevant to what it will be in 2024. The Bolt is a unique vehicle and the used market right now is completely abnormal. This isn’t a Civic or RAV4 with decades of historically stable residual values to look at.
Do the simple part first and let us know what the numbers look like.
So how should I get the expected resale value in 3 years? From the residual?
Ask yourself: would you buy a used Chevy Bolt that is three years old?
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You can certainly start there. What’s the delta on total cost assuming you can sell it for the lease rv at the end? You can then make some comparisons if the selling price is lower and see how it compares.
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Basic question, RV is from MSRP?
Meaning if MSRP is $40k and RV 50%, so expected resale value is 20k?
Yes… you may want to start at Leasing 101 
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But in that case it must make sense cause we’re talking about a 40k car which I can get for 19k off MSRP. I might be missing something basic.
What is your total cost of ownership in both situations?
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There’s a thread in shared deals of someone who bought a Bolt, IIRC his OTD cost was below the lease residual value.
IMO it’s fairly common for buying/financing to make more sense financially than leasing.
I wish… My OTD comes out to 26.5k
It’s not a $40K car. GM has sold several hundred thousands Bolts, do you think a single one sold for $40K?
Besides, the RV that GM assumes has no bearing on the resale value you’ll be able to achieve. Do not use lease RV for ownership resale assumptions
So what’s the way to assume resale value? KBB?
Short answer is don’t buy an EV. All the cheap 2020-21 leases will be returned to flood the market in 3 years and/or cheap leases will continue to demotivate anyone from buying used.
Lease a Bolt, Leaf, etc whatever is the best deal for your personal situation given what rebates you qualify for.
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Makes sense, appreciate your reply. The OTD price isn’t that amazing, I’ll pass on it.