yeah autocross isn’t as bad for your tires as drag racing, autocross and road courses will kill your brakes tho, and typically comes with recommended full fluid flush i.e tranny, oil, coolant, etc. etc.
You lost 10 tires to poorly maintained roads tho, that has to be some kind of record lol.
I was also a 25 year old white guy driving a Japanese cartoon rocket before Fast and Furious was even a thing. “Shitty driver” was implied.
Knock on wood, no at fault accidents in 12 years and I think just one blow-out since the WRX went back to the great lease return depot in the sky.
I think most car guys start with jdm, my first was an eclipse gsx, I only had 300 something horsepower but man did that thing fkn go and I used to spank on my fellow classmates v6 mustangs, fun times, Now 500 hp is almost overkill aside from the few times a year I hit the drag strip I don’t even get to use a fraction of the horsepower unless it’s a hard pull merging onto the highway. Now thinking of it I probably would have gotten myself killed or arrested with 850hp back in high school. I Can’t believe some of the things I got away with it. The wrx and sti tho truly one of the type of cars I would have enjoyed when I was a teenager.
Is no one else pretty lax about their maintenance? Why do you care that 20,000 mile service is done on a car you are going to turn in anyway?
Same. Unless I’m getting something like Audi Care or have free maintanence, I’m doing the bare min. Which is effectively oil changes and tire rotations.
After hearing about people have ludicrous maintence costs on those Alfa Romeo deals from last year, I definitely started looking into required maintenance on certain cars I’m interested in.
I have a friend who’s only maintenance on his leased cars has been one oil change at around 15k. He literally does nothing else during the 3 year lease. I told him he’s playing with fire but since he’s on his fourth lease with no issues his strategy appears to be working.
So you were surprised by the maint. costs of luxury vehicles?
I think this is a YMMV example. I’ve been leasing BMWs for years, can’t remember the last time I paid for any maintenance, tires, brakes, etc. I do have personal property tax but would also be paying that if I owned the car and not materially higher. You do need to be mindful of total cost though if you don’t have a maintenance plan or if you live in high-tax state.
But you had to seen driving a G wagon 
I think depreciation of cars that are being built and sold now is being grossly underestimated.
Why? Unlike the past 40 years, car technology nowadays is changing rapidly.
We know that cars in 5 years will probably be able to drive themselves if you want. Right now the drivers aids are primitive.
Most people right now are ambivalent about self-driving cars. I think once this is perfected and people see how much effort it saves them, they’ll never want to go back to a car that doesn’t drive itself. It’s my opinion that cars sold now will be worth a lot less than what current RVs are being set at.
depends on what car he’s leasing but sounds like an idiot. You rotate tires so you don’t have to buy new ones if one or some of them wear unevenly. Oil change and filter change are no more than $40-$50 for most brands and keep your vehicle running healthy and absolve you of any issues with warranty work if the dealer questions you.
He is currently leasing a Volvo and the three before that were; Infiniti, Volvo, and Acura. I told him if there’s ever a major issue his strategy could void the warranty and potentially cost big bucks. He just laughs it off. Lazy attorney that he is.
That’s probably an exception (hopefully), but the norm for rentals. That’s why I tell people buying used to avoid former rentals. I looked at the car fax and there’s one maintenance entry in like 32,000 miles
I’ve got a different question: is it cheaper to rent than lease/own? I mean logically that can’t be right, but Budget has the car I’m leasing, Toyota Tacoma TRD Off Road, for like $400 / month. Plus if you log in with an amazon account they give you a gift card (if was $13 for a week’s rental, not sure if that’s x4.3 for a month)… When you factor in disposition fee and taxes/drive off, I think it’s actually cheaper to rent!!!
You completely misunderstood the post. OP was revealing the actual/true costs to consider for a lease. It’s informational.
I was agreeing with the original post that without a budget it is easy to “underestimate” a lease, especially on a loaner as he/she mentioned. It does not mean you HAVE to over spend. But I can see how someone with say a $400 a month car budget can make a quick decision and lease a $450 a month Mercedes in this example. They can justify the extra $50 a month and cut back in other areas but completely forget about tires, brakes, maintenance, insurance, gas ETC. Add in a move to a tax heavy state and the $450 a month lease can balloon quickly. If you want a “luxury” car be prepared. If you are cutting it close, maybe keep shopping. So I back up my statement, if you want the big boy Mercedes just be prepared to pay for ALL of it. Budget accordingly!
It is extremely difficult for the bank to prove the failure is due to lack of maintenance within the first few years of the ownership. Stuff done within first three years are relatively light. Most fluids are designed to last much longer than recommended schedule and will do just fine beyond the scheduled service. Even if the car breaks down, i doubt any leasing company will come after the customer as it will have a cost to pursue as well, especially if the customer fights back. That said, oil and filter are cheap so there is no reason not to and the next owner will thank you.
Why would you pay to change your rear diff fluid or cabin air filter on a 3 year lease? That’s just throwing money away
As a former long term owner of a TL SH-AWD, the rear diff fluid change is absolutely required at 30k intervals IIRC and I really appreciate that he was responsible for proper maintenance instead of being an a-hole and deferring everything.
Cabin air filters get dirty fast in city driving and they’re cheap and easy. I change my cabin air filters on all the cars every 6 months. I’m baller like that. Also amazon has frequent deals on them so I have a massive hoard of $4 cabin air filters.
I appreciate the point OP was making. It also makes sense to shop around for maintenance. Our local dealers are just under $300/hr labor rate.
One advantage of leasing that other posts imply; a lease has limited downside. If you don’t do the maintenance and the car survives, you turn it in and walk away. The actual residual value is lower if the next owner demands full service records. But that is the beauty of leasing. If the OP leased a lemon he would still walk away at lease end. In theory, he paid extra for risk mitigation.