Looking for recommendations - newbie here

Ask the Hackrs Buy/Finance
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Hi,

looking to buy or lease whichever makes the most sense.

Main thing is I want MAXIMUM value as most likely will buy the car out 2-3 years down the road even if i lease it.

Was looking into a sport 2nd car 2020-2021 lotus evora GT,or new lotus emira, mazda mx-5 miata manual, gr supra manual, lexus lc500, porsche 981 cayman/boxter.

Open to your other recommendations; again maximum value as i don’t want to get destroyed if/when i decide to buy the car back. Probably will put ~7-8k miles a year. Payment is flexible but probably ideally under 1200/month

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Those are all pretty horrible leases. Write a check or finance.

Before doing anything tho learn how to use the below to put together educated lease target payment/DAS which you can use to make offers.

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Lotus = Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious

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Genuine question: how do you define this? The car that has the best lease relative to MSRP might be the one that is most unappealing as a buy out target.

Are you looking at real world resale value or total cost of ownership (incl maintenance beyond the warranty period)?

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low enough depreciation to not be terrible to keep ~4-5 years post lease end. low to medium at most maintenance costs, not shit reliability.

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I’m not sure what you consider “low to medium,” but, if you want that and reliability, I think that would pretty much limit you to the Mazda (I’m sure the Lexus would be reliable, the Porsche possibly so, but I doubt either would be relatively inexpensive to maintain).

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in your opinion , what do you say are absolute best buys for my criteria ? meaning hold value extremely well while having decent to very good reliability ? Budget is up to 60k usd , new or used, lease or financing. Probably planning on keeping the car for AT LEAST 120k miles in other words 9-10 years. Again doesn’t have to be leased, just extreme good value. low to medium as in up to 2-3k in repairs (extra) per year.

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I don’t know much about that class(es) of cars, but perhaps others here who have more knowledge might chime in.

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  1. these requirements might be contradictory: even with an incentive stack and decent MF your goal in a lease is to take on as little depreciation as possible and stick the bank with the negative. If it has a favorable buy-out it was unlikely a lease with good value. Plus you also paid acquisition and disposition with the intention of eventually financing, which doesn’t make sense unless you live in a state with more favorable tax treatment for leases over finance, of which MA is not

  2. in MA, because of PPT, the best value is probably a low milage CPO 2023 or older where the property tax is <= 40% and any risk is still on the warranty, not yours. The worst value to lease or buy with the intention of keeping is a new 2027 in 2026 (40/90/40 …). Excluding Porsche CPOs, leasing a new 2025 mitigates the worst part of the PPT curve but if you plan to buy you have to do the math (finance rate vs lease MF) and factor-in acq/disposition. Without a lease-only incentive or a big swing in rent/finance charges I don’t expect leasing to make more sense.

Becoming a Super Supporter to access Rate Finder is going to make susing all that out much faster on your short-list of target vehicles. Sometimes one of them has better lease incentives, even if the residual means it will be upside-down at disposition the lease may be attractive enough to enjoy it and throw the keys back at the end.

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thanks for your answer, I can register the vehicle in Texas or MA based on whatever makes the most sense. Assuming you took note of all the potential cars I was considering, do you see as buying as the most likely ‘‘better’’ value ? i’m open to it not just leasing and now that you explained it i’m thinking financing the vehicle might actually be just BETTER.

How would you compare GR supra, mx5-miata, porsche cayman/boxter, 2020/21 lotus evora GT, civic type R? value wise, somewhat max value, overall much better package

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Please stop.

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If you’re looking for something like this, have you considered just buying a gently used Fiat 124 Spider, preferably an Abarth? Abarths are out there for less than $25k with less that 10k miles on them. If you want value, that may be the play. Manuals are available too for less.

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Texas taxes the full msrp when you lease and again when you buy-out the lease. Not many scenarios where lease-to-buy make sense there either.

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Have not seen any even half-decent leases on used cars except the occasional Porsche

But even the best used Porsche leases have high RV and high MF which makes them terrible candidates for lease-to-own.

What are you hoping to achieve via lease-to-own that would be superior to buying smart on day one?

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I initially came to it with open mindset, now it seems like buying SMART is the best way especially for the cars I’m looking at. Other contenders are C8 Z51. What’s the best deal if i’m buying a NEW car ? my only thought here is if it can be bought way below msrp ? MX-5 miata can be bought now probably 4k under MSRP ( ~10% off ) ; curious about your thoughts. Please dm if you’d like to chat and help with your service.