What’s the view on longer term leases? Are they a bad idea or bad deal? I am coming off of a 39mo lease and would have been happy to keep my car for a few months as I hate the shopping/signing experience. Been offered a 42mo lease on Q7 with slightly longer monthly than 36mo. Wondering about the downsides aside from the slight delay in swapping to new car which I am ok with, esp since I can always do a pull ahead 3 months early. TIA!
Often puts you out of warranty, maintenance costs potentially go way up as now you’re replacing tires, brakes, etc
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Where did you come up with this?
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Currently available pull ahead programs are absolutely no indicator that such programs will be available 3+ years from now. I would never enter into a lease assuming that these will be available at the end.
If the car is still under manufacturer’s warranty, why not? I mean, if the payment were only a couple bucks different between a 36 and 42 month term, I’d opt for the 36. If there is significant difference, however, there’s nothing wrong with a 42 month program, provided you still have warranty. To be fair though, cars don’t just spontaneously combust once you hit the warranty threshold either. If you need tires on a 36 month lease, you’ll still need them on a 42. At least you can get a little more ROI on those tires with the longer term. Sure, it’s possible you could skate by on a 36 month lease without tires to turn them in with the minimum allowed, and that extra 6 months might take you over the edge to needing them. However, if your tires are that low at 36 months, they should be replaced just from a safety aspect for you and all the others driving around you.
It’s always possible you might need brakes, or an extra oil change. Then again, you might not, and you could save a decent buck depending on the manufacturer programs by doing a 6 month longer lease.
As someone else above said though, I wouldn’t bank on pull aheads being around next month, let alone 3 years from now though. They could be pulled in April, never to return again.
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Thanks. Confirmed will be within warranty both in terms of miles and years and that Audicare will cover issues for extra 6 months. Good point about tires though as my current ones lasted through 39 months but maybe won’t last much longer.
Thanks—very helpful
And registration and/or taxes. Not sure how it works in NY but in CA, you pay for 12 mths… so if you’re at 39 or 42 mths, you still pay for the full year. YMMV 
all these little things add up quick
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Thanks! Our registrations will transfer over from car to car in NY which is nice!
Think of a longer lease as if you were taking a long term loan on a car. Usually its higher %, payment maybe low on paper but the MF and RV can be higher over the term of the lease. You are clearly overpaying just for the sake of a low payment. If its an Audi you want, I’d stick with 36mo. I had a NJ dealer take the our old Audi 6 months early last year when I upgraded into a new Audi. That included the 3 month pull ahead and dealer covered the 3 remaining payments.
They didn’t actually cover anything. It came out of your pocket one way or another.
One more reason why the OP who hates negotiating should not muddy the waters of their next lease thru the ambiguity of a dealer “pull ahead”
Well obviously. Heh but ditched car 6months early and got a new car.
You say that, but what that means is you paid for double car payments for 3 of the 6 months. The dealer didn’t make anything go away, you still paid for it in the form of either an itemized negative equity or reduced discount on the new vehicle.
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I guess each situation is different. I was after a leftover S5 SB, and wanted to get out of a crappy Q3 6 months early. Found a dealer to play along and rest is history. I should have not said “covered” because I knew it was paid by me at the end be it less discount or negative equity.
Fair enough. As long as each person recognizes what they’re paying, it’s a personal decision to go forward or not.
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