You don’t have anything to show for it when you buy either. If you made comparable payments in a purchase you’d probably still have no equity.
Agree with this 100%. Rent the cheapest car, slip the guy a $20 for a nice upgrade and use the amex premium insurance that costs $15 (varies by state) for the whole rental and enjoy yourself. Worry free long distance driving without putting a lot of miles/wear and tear/damaging your own car.
A car is a depreciating asset. It’s a liability and has tremendous risk once you are out of warranty. Do some calculations on cost per mile rather than thinking about it as a block of money over 3 years. You have nothing to show for it?? You have miles to show for it.
I always laugh when I hear people say… I put too many miles on a car to lease. Really? That’s exactly why I want to lease. By leasing… I’ve pre-sold the car and the leaser HAS to take the car back.
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I leased my first car in 2016. i’m a cheap guy, so I was of the “pay cash and drive the car into the ground” mindset.
But there can be cases where it works out. My card was a Chevy Spark EV on fire sale. After emissions rebates, the cost over three years has ended up being teeny tiny. it helps that i was looking to buy time until having to get a family hauler like a minivan.
My old car depreciated at around $1500 a year (just depreciation, not other costs), so I figured if I could beat that I was doing really good.
EV’s depreciate so quickly I’m anticipating I’ll be paying the disposal fee when the lease is done, and then I can buy my real car (or maybe lease again!)
Absolutely – we did this for the longest time before finally leasing (and of course leased 15k miles/yr). FYI the CSR and a few other premium cards actually have primary insurance as a free benefit. So ideally you shouldn’t have to worry about paying for additional insurance