I have a 2013 Toyota Camry that I have been driving the past 4 years. Currently have 125k on the odometer. Car is paid off. Last year total business miles driven were 12,453 and commuting miles were 11,234, which has been a pretty common number year to year. All in all, it is a great car but as I get older and my 2 boys get older, I feel I need a bit bigger of a car. I’d love to get a wagon or small SUV in the range of $300 month.
With my current mileage I feel leasing is a bit out of the question. I could lease under my business and use the car solely for that although that doesn’t help getting my boys around. Another option is taking advantage of bigger depreciation allowance for businesses (up to $18k first year) although I’d have to figure it out what qualifies with my accountant. In that scenario, I’d sell the Camry.
Does anyone here have any suggestions for the best thing to do in my scenerio?
Considering Camry could easily go 300k miles, I would do nothing. Tell your boys to loose some weight. Rear seat of a Camry is not the worst place to be.
I’ll pile on with the others too. Anything over 15k/yr on a lease is going to make 300/mo unattainable. 300/mo would be pretty basic without any options On something comparable in size to a Camry with normal lease mileage as well.
Except 2018’s are not leasable anymore. So yes, sometimes you do know. And $.23 per mile plus maintenance costs after 36k miles is going to add up real quick.
Ah, going much past 20K really muddies the waters. A CPO car with unlimited mileage warranty becomes a better option in that case. (Or two 12K leases at moderate insurance cost)
Could always look at a brand with cheap miles, Nissan comes to mind, but cvt’s crapping out could be an issue. Anyway you slice it 24k miles a year is expensive. Need two cheap leases, do the math you still might be better off than putting 60k ish miles on one car in three years
I do 25-30k. From personal experience speaking purely in a financial sense you’re better off with something that doesn’t depreciate much per mile - Honda/Acura and Toyota/Lexus. Either an expensive one that’s already had its initial depreciation hit or a <30k new one.
My 2 cents is keep the camry. If you really want to get an suv, you might want to look into the Infiniti QX60. There have been many posts where the Pure trim has been going for sub $300 per month with 10 to 12k miles per year. The last time I checked, Infiniti Financial allows you to pay using your credit card. So if the car was signed under your business, you can use a business credit card like Chase Ink Preferred or American Express Business Platinum to pay your bills and rake in a lot of points. You could use the points to score a sweet vacation for you and your boys. But you have to keep the camry for this to work.
