In 2017 I leased a Honda Accord for my new job (moved out of NYC), but after a year I moved back to NYC. I currently have another year and a half on my lease and of my 30,000 mileage allowance I’ve only used 11,000. I currently only drive on the weekends and I put about 4,000 miles a year.
Given how little I drive, I was wondering if it made sense for me to lease another car after my term is up or buy a used car? In terms of my finances, I am willing to spend about $300 a month on just my car payment alone, or about $600 a month total. In terms of a vehicle I want, I definitely want something fun to drive (at least mid 200 hp and torque) with Apple CarPlay and a HUD (after market is okay too if I buy a used car).
Again, since this a leasing forum, I apologize if this topic offends anyone!
It didn’t make sense for me to lease in the similar situation so I bought my lease out, but since this is a leasing forum, you’re definitely going to offend most people.
For $300 a month you can lease many popular cars or you could finance a used car.
A 10 year old Honda would work just fine for you. Pay $6k or so cash or finance it. But if you can’t stand the thought of a used car that then leasing would work.
Check trade-in value from local Honda dealers, carvana, vroom, etc. Since you’ve driven so few miles, you may have positive equity in your lease and be able to get rid of it right now for “profit”. FYI you cannot transfer a Honda lease to anyone else.
You have many options on your next vehicle;
2a) Lease a demo vehicle with relatively high miles to take advantage of how little you drive
or
2b) Buy a used car
or
2c) Buy a relatively inexpensive new car that has everything you want and will hold its value decently, like a Civic or base Accord.
or
2d) Do short term lease transfers where relatively few miles are remaining (<500 mi/mo) and the seller’s incentives or original down payment in the form of a very low monthly make up for his overzealous usage of the miles.
Many options but IMO it’s financially idiotic to lease a NEW car and pay for depreciation (residual value) that is based on 10k or 12k miles/mi then only use 4k of them.
All great points, I appreciate your input! I definitely agree that buying new is probably the worst thing I could do. I’m definitely leaning towards leasing loaner vehicles, but I’ve been having trouble finding one that may be viable for me since timing has been difficult.
If I could get out of my lease now with some positive equity then I’d 100% do it. I’ve seen some good posts from nyclife but unfortunately I’m tied up for another year and a half…
NYC car rental pricing is the opposite of everywhere else. Everywhere else weekday prices are highest and weekends are lowest. In NYC many want to escape the city on weekends so rentals go for a premium there.
Still Uber and Turo may be an option. Especially when you consider the all-in costs of operating a car in NYC.
Forget about a car with Car Play or HUD. If you have a decent size phone, you can get the Car Play or Android Auto on it, which works much better than on any car stereo, plus you won’t have to connect your phone all the time.
This is not necessarily true. I’ve rarely seen anyone get a good deal on a 1-2 yr old Honda relative to what a new one would go for…
For very low mileage drivers, it may make sense to buy new and keep the car when the OEM warranty is long and/or can be extended for cheap (Honda, Toyota, Hyundai/Kia, VW, Subaru, etc.)
Agreed. I bought my Accord new because they drop in value very little used and almost linearly. It makes almost no sense to buy them used. My local dealer actually has the same car I have listed CPO with 15k miles for $1200 more than I paid for mine new. Civics, Accords, Imprezas, Corollas, Wranglers, etc…these types of cars don’t have a steep initial depreciation curve.
FWIW, a 6yr/120k HondaCare bumper to bumper warranty on my Accord would have been $960 online when my car was new. I didn’t bite then but might as I get close to my warranty ending; I believe they’re $1200-1300 at that point. Not super trusting on the infinite reliability of these like I used to be
I grew up in NYC…are you factoring in garage payments? I would not want to park a new car on the street.
Also, how do you plan to drive it? I pretty much only used it to leave the city, and fortunately our apartment building had a garage for $50/month! (NYU housing)
You certainly don’t need 200hp in the city…I’d be more concerned with potholes than anything!
Do Fords or Lincolns have HUD? The tech you want might make finding a car in your price range a bit difficult (or finding a car that’s likely to be reliable and relatively cheap to maintain and has the tech you want problematic…) b/c you’ve essentially limited virtually all affordable Japanese cars.
A lightly used German car + an extended warranty (if such a thing can be purchased)?
