I’ll disagree on that one, take in account maintenance and wear tear and I’m not so sure. I don’t even have to buy brakes on a lease, 4 oil changes and a set of tires on a 45k mile lease for me. $150/mo x 36mo = $5400, that’s cheap, I could do 4 leases or buy one and have a clapped out crap can once it’s paid off.
If u can write leases car off as business expense it’s cheaper than owning
Well played you @bastarf! the only thing better than a nice leasehackr deal is getting paid to drive it 
1 Like
Argue with the financial advisors, not me. It’s pretty rare to find a financials guy to recommend a lease over a buy in the long run.
I don’t disagree with you, personally. But I didn’t major in finance either.
1 Like
You can write off any car purchase, not just leases. Depending on the structure of your business and whether you’re using a personal car for business use or buying a car strictly for business use you can either:
- Depreciate the car according to the IRS depreciation schedule
- Claim standard IRS mileage deductions
- Claim lease payments
I hear this argument a lot. Most people confuse different financing options as the actual purchase (eg - buying vs leasing). In the end, you purchase the use of a car with either cash or traditional finance or leasing as the method in which you pay for the use of the car.
No different than if you purchase a home utilizing a mortgage product, through seller financing, with cash, or even rent to own. Like with car financing options, each has it’s own pros and cons when it comes to total cost of ownership, flexibility, and tax benefits.
Thanks @vhooloo! Wouldn’t have been possible without the community!
In the meantime I’m back to driving our Fiat 500e on more regular basis until I can replace the RX 350. The lease on our 500e is up in 3 months and I’m gonna be really sad to turn in that $100/month all in lease. Lease programs this year are no where near as good as they’ve been the past few years 
That’s very true not seeing any good deals on the Lexus RX in New York they jerk u around but one your number one in the segment u don’t have to
There’s no way a good advisor will recommend buying a car with cash. No way. Maybe if you look at buying vs. leasing in a vacuum and ignore opportunity cost of capital. It’s just a simple math and a half decent advisor will know better. I’ll give you an example. My current lease is about to end and I could buy my 3 year old car for 31K plus 3K tax or 34K total. If I pay cash my opportunity cost is 8% or about 3K per year. On the other hand if I find a lease at 400/mo I could use my 34K to earn 3K per year or 250 per month so my effective cost is 400 minus 250 or 150 per month which is way less than the depreciation. I’m sure you will agree that paying 150 per month for a decent new car is better than driving an old car and paying for maintenance and absorbing depreciation. Now, if you told me that you could finance a used car with a low rate and still invest your capital we would be having a different conversation.
Anyway, I don’t mean to distract the conversation from the main topic which is the Lexus golden opportunity sales event. Hopefully there will be some good deals on the RX between now and December.
3 Likes
Agreed with this comment, cash is king and you want your money to flow not tie up in the down payment. Just to add one more point the car is a depreciate commodity and financial advisor would recommend you treat them as an expense.
A financial advisor wouldn’t suggest buying a 34k used car either when there are used cars 2-3 years old worth half that 
Can anyone recommend a good Lexus dealer or at least one that is willing to work with you in Socal?
Beverly Hills Lexus, Glendale Lexus and Thousand Oaks are ok to work with.
Awesome thank you, I will get in touch with them around Nov.
I received a Golden Opportunity email from a dealer a few days ago (presumably a bit early) - here’s what’s in it:
*Lease offers do not include fees, license, title, dealer prep, or applicable taxes and is for 7,500 mile per year and for 36 month. Leases includes Lease Cash. Discount off MSRP is Model Specific and includes lease and Lexus cash. $10,000 off LX is valid for finance only. $6,000 off NX models is for 2018 models only.
Have you considered something like fair.com, which essentially leases used cars in the form of a “subscription” (some at pretty decent values), and you can exit the car any time if something better comes along?
To me, that is probably the future of leasing, since the car has already depreciated a bunch, and payments are in a position to be lowered pretty substantially on a 1-3 year old car.
Volvo’s subscription program seems like a pretty good idea also, in terms of flexibility.
Paul Vallis of Thousand Oak is a straight foward guy… dont know if he still there or not. Not the cheapest but the deal can go seemlessly as it can go…
1 Like
350 per month for a used Kia or Hyundai, thanks but no thanks. I pay less for my GS 350.
There are a number of Lexus on there in the ~400 range. Not a bad option IMO if you just need something for a few months until you find a great deal somewhere.
+Tax for a base model with 40k miles on the meter. +1200+tax inception fees. You can get much better lease transfers if you invest just a little bit of time.
For hassle free, inexpensive commuting, this is the only way to go. 3 years of payments, a set of tires, a handful of oil changes and you are done.
I am another in the “too old for that shit”, category.
4 Likes