My wife and I are considering a Lexus RX450h. It looks like brokers are offering around 3 to 5 percent off on RX in the Marketplace in CA - not stellar but not bad, either. However, the LFS lease rates are pretty poor - looking at MFs of 4.74% for 36 mos based on Edmunds forums.
Right now, I’m thinking that financing for 84 months at around 3% interest rate (from local CU) is a better deal than leasing right now. Seems like this is becoming a more popular option on this site. Given that Lexus holds its value relatively well, there doesn’t seem to be too much risk there. Plus, my wife likes the car, so the worst case scenario of keeping it long-term isn’t that big of a deal.
I’d like to hear others thoughts on this scenario and whether there is anything I’m missing here.
Finance it, trade it in later or drive the piss out of it. It’s a Lexus hybrid, decent maintenance cost, reliability, and you’ll be fine depreciation wise.
As others have said, the RX is a good candidate for purchase. I test drove one recently, it felt a bit outdated. Keep in mind a refreshed model is on its way with newer tech.
