My old Nissan is just about up and I’ve been able to secure equity of $5-6k in the vehicle. I’ve also located a new Sentra that’s a few bucks below MSRP. I’ve been leasing with Nissan for a good few years due to the deals I usually get but as we all know there aren’t really very many deals now.
I know that many here view the equity from the old vehicle as separate from the new, but I’ve been basically viewing this as a way to continue what I’ve been doing at about the same price as previously. If I were financing I’d want a Honda or Toyota etc. And those seem to be more expensive than their competition currently.
Would you lease a new Sentra in the low 3s considering my situation? If not, what would you do? Would love to hear your take on how you’d navigate my current predicament.
Numbers to be aware of:
There’s currently a $1200 incentive on these vehicles. MF works out to over 4 percent regardless of term.
A 2 year lease seems to be about $20-25 more a month than a 3 year. (Perhaps worth biting bullet on a shorter term lease as things should loosen up eventually?)
What’s the RV / Buyout on the current Nissan? It’s a Nissan that is known for being reliable - what about just buying it out and while you’ll pay taxes and potentially some transaction costs it may be far less than an acquisition fee, taxes, and transaction costs on a new one.
The interest rate on a used car loan will be less than the MF on a new one. I’d probably buy your current one and drive it for another year or two at minimum if it were me.
$11k or so. $300 buyout fee, title fee $50, sales tax is 8.5 or so percent, and then the opaque unknown dealership inspection fee.
I would lose the value of the purchase (for sales tax deduction purposes) if I sell it in a year or 2 and then lease again. Only way I can leverage the amount I pay now is by trading in and purchasing a new vehicle.
Best rate I found is about 2.5 percent on a buyout.
Question is what I’ll be able to fetch for a 5 year old Nissan Sentra with 20k miles. The mileage is low but it won’t be exactly young. Let’s say 10k for arguments sake.
If so it cost me $2.5k to drive the car for 2 years (not including the 2.5 percent interest).
Selling my car for $6k now and then leasing for 2 years would cost me $2k (8k-6k equity).
Youve done your homework nicely on the lease specifics…so I suspect its just a matter of deciding if you feel the car is worth the total cost over the term. As youve seen, options out there arent the greatest currently, but Id agree with the above that if the lease cost ends up being 60%+ of the vehicle cost for a 2 year period, it would be a tough pill for me (personally) to swallow.
Thanks. 2 year cost ($8k) comes out to 36% (8000/22000). 3 year cost (11.5k) comes out to 52%.
I’ve been viewing this as a joint deal. Leveraging the equity towards a new lease which will actually make my effective payments less than they were last time around. That’s surely a win but not the best decision.
The alternative isn’t buying out my old car, rather it’s taking that $6k of equity and buying another car that I’ll be happy with long term. I’m not very particular but I would want a reliable brand (we have good experiences with Honda thus far).
However the “market adjusted” over MSRP pricing on these cars is outlandish and I don’t believe that I’d come out very much ahead by plowing this money into a new finance.
So I guess the question is, is anyone familiar with a smaller compact/midsize from a reliable brand that can be financed currently at MSRP or thereabout? At msrp it’ll still suck up some of that equity but I’ll still have a decent chunk leftover. And the payments would be less because of it.
From your OP it sounds like you are getting to a payment of low 300s using your 6k equity (at least that’s how I read it). That would be total cost of $14k. Reading the rest of your posts it’s seems like you’re pocketing the $6k and keeping the lease separate.
It sounds like it’s all kind of wash (possibly $500 over 2-3 yrs).
I would just say to make a decision b/f Nissan changes the RV! Those are kind of insanely high RVs, no? I’d probably take the 2-yr lease and cross my fingers that the inventory issues work themselves out by then.
Wonder if this is the person who wasted a ton of my time getting an appraisal on a sentra with a bad carfax, then haggled me for $300 on it, agreed to a deal, asked where my buyer was, then said he would drop off himself (followed up with a “is there a hertz, not enterprise nearby?”), only to then ghost. If so, that offer is gone, and may whomever you sell to give you the ultimate run-around.
