Well I think that is partly because ownership gives you that option to hold it for 15 years whereas leasing doesn’t (unless buyout), so it naturally becomes the argument against leasing. I tried owning my first few cars and realized that I was wasting money because I ended up just getting rid of them within a few years. Ultimately I could lease cars at a way higher MSRP for the same cost of my short term ownerships. So yes, leasing is definitely not a dumb financial decision unless you are assuming ownership means a long period of time.
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You’re missing the point. You were spending more money because you were getting a new car every few years, not because you chose to purchase or lease.
It’s two different discussions
- Hold car for 3 years and replace or hold car for 10 years
- Purchase or Lease
One can opt to replace a car every 3 years instead of every 10 years and never lease a car. Sometimes, it may even be cost beneficial to do so.
Likewise, one can opt to lease or to purchase a car every three years. Sometimes it’s more cost effective to do one, sometimes the other.
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Also this ^. is leasing better financially often comes down to how flexible you are regarding your vehicle and if you use leasing to get a nicer vehicle than you could afford to finance.
In the normal times, if one hoped from $100 Trax to $140 Elantra to $175 Corolla, there is just no way you are coming out much behind leasing versus buying and holding for nine years. Doubly so if you factor in the time value of money. State tax situation also impacts this.
Oh course it is cheaper to buy and hold a Camry than lease a new 3 series every 3 years. But that is not a useful comparison. The question is whether leasing is more expensive than buying a comparable car.
IMO, the most prudent financial decision (if that is your main concern) up until 8 months ago would be to jump between whatever the non-luxury lower trimmed special of the month was when your lease was up.
Exception - now leasing makes little financial sense for most affordable cars. Without dealer discounts and incentives the math just doesnt work out. But if you were leasing an affordable car that’s not a huge problem. You buy it out and use it until conditions stabilize.
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Maybe the definition of “normal” will change.
The last 9 or so years were definitely not normal vs the preceding history of humans using automobiles.
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I’m not missing the point I’m agreeing with you haha. My first comment was under the assumption that ownership meant 10-15 years which you pointed out conflating two different things.
So in my personal example, yes it could be financially beneficial to lease instead of purchase.
Could be, but doesn’t necessarily mean it would be. Even for short term holding, leasing isn’t always the way to go.
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Nobody ‘needs’ a new car. And the payment just depends on the cost of the car. You may have to dial back the amount of car you get which means older and simpler. And yes there’s repairs and/or extended warranties, but that’s just what it is. Things get more expensive, you have to reset your expectations or reset your budget. Leases were artificially cheap, now much less so.
At least there exists alternatives if the budget is somewhat inflexible.
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Yeah, but to be fair, as all cars get increasingly complex, simpler in the future may still be pretty unaffordable (or just not available at all). I mean, even economy cars have a suite of driver’s assistance. When it malfunctions, how much will it cost to fix (genuine question; I have no idea).
And what you accept for yourself may be different than what you’re willing to accept when you’re putting your kid in it.
Agree. And that’s why I kind of wondered what the initial point of the thread was. Loosely defined terms, so many different situations. But the resulting conversation has actually been interesting. 
Such is the power of leasehackr.
I hear you, but when I say simpler, I mean lower end more ‘base trim’ cars. Just saying, don’t be surprised you can get that used Accord Touring for the price you want, you may need to be looking at LXs, etc. But I agree that cars are complex and may be expensive to repair down the line. That’s just reality right now.
I have 2 little kids, so I get that part. But I also hear people say they have to have a brand new 3-row Volvo XC90 or Audi Q7 the moment they have 1 kid. A recent vintage Elantra or Corolla is plenty safe if that’s what works for your budget. Not all people are being realistic.
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Of course. No one knows what the market will look like once the current short-term issues are resolved. I’d agree we aren’t going back to 2015 market conditions anytime soon though.
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Heck, I think it will be awhile before we even see 2021 Q1 market conditions…
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I thought OP mentioned something about working middle class. To me, middle class are in a higher income bracket than working class and I think that confuse the discussion somewhat.
I can’t imagine it would be cheaper to lease a Camry even in normal times.
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Shell would like a word.
The people that were making $15-20/hr and now make $25/hr were/are not leasing Volvo’s, BMW’s or Tesla’s for the most part.
The people here who lease Volvo’s, BMW’s and Tesla’s are making far north of $100k/yr. People making $100k/yr or more have not seen their compensation increase by 25-30%. I’ll bet you most professionals have not seen an increase of more than 5%. in the past year, and from my experience, you’re lucky to get a 2-3% bump per year.
Also, many people (1000’s in NY/NJ from hi-tech companies like Cisco, HP, Dell etc) like myself lost their good paying Tech jobs here in the NY Metro area, and those jobs have not rebounded, and I can tell you from responding to many job openings, those jobs are not paying 25% more than last year.
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Are you serious, all college kids with those 330s etc definitely don’t make more than 30 an hour
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One way to increase your compensation is to job hop (I am mot encouraging or discouraging that since everyone’s situation is different). Up here in MA, lots of high paying tech jobs. More and more companies are offering work from home options, which helps with commuting costs.
- Unless you are getting a promotion with a substantial pay raise, you are right about that.
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It used to be that way for sure. I guess me lens is quite oriented on the finance industry.
Industry wide pay bumps due to the ongoing talent war. It’s actually like nothing anyone’s seen before.
It is possible that this is just applicable to certain industries, as certain industries have proven to be a bit more covid resilient than others.
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I don’t know what middle class is but in NYC/NJ making $150k a year is considered being poor 
Maybe living somewhere in the middle part of the country or down south but not around here…
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So I’m in a somewhat different situation. I have two cars (well, two everyday cars). A 2020 Audi S4 I leased in August last year (for just under $600/month plus tax) and a 2017 VW sportwagen I financed at 0% for 6 years in March 2018. The wagon i could sell for 2k more than I paid (I paid around 20k on the 26k MSRP). I would love to sell the wagon, pocket the $13k in equity, and lease something cheap as my extra car, but there’s nothing cheap!!!
This is killing my car swapping! (I’ve had the following model years since 2009: (2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2017, 2020). What am I to do?!?!
I’d also add that my salary has increased nowhere near the amount of the lower wage workers and would only do so if I jumped to a new employer, which I’m not ready to do.
Welcome to JeepHackr, may I interest you in a wrangler 4xe?
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