I’m currently in year 3 of a 4 year lease on my SS Camaro (I know not a great lease, was young and wanted the car). I live in NJ but take the train to work in New York City so I basically have a 456 HP grocery getter. I currently have around 11,000 miles 3 years into my 40,000 mile lease. Feeling like I’m not getting a very good bang for my buck mile/dollar wise.
I’m looking at getting a M550 next year when my lease is up. Is it possible to get a 5,000/yr lease as opposed to 10,000/yr? Ive seen those terms for exotics but never BMW. Any input would be appreciated.
One way to view it is that at 5,000 annual miles, a lease is extremely expensive per mile driven.
You may be able to do the math and find that once you take out gas, insurance, maintenance, license, and tax, you could potentially be money ahead using Uber or Lyft for your needs.
Otherwise, I’d start looking at the math of buying a LOT less car than an M550 for the 14 hours you’ll spend in it in a year.
Of course, you can put $9.97 with my thoughts and score a sixer of Stone IPA and figure it out.
I agree
Get an uber or zipcar. Or just rent a car when u need it. I got rid of 2 cars during this crisis and absolutely love not make payments on cars that would have just been sitting
Thanks for the advice, but I’m definitely a big time car guy and the thought of voluntarily not having a nice car in my garage makes me shudder. Guess I’m stuck with 10k leases until I have Ferrari money haha
Check in the transfer section here, swap a lease or lease trader and you might find someone a little high on miles looking to part ways with a nice ride for lower cost.
Figure out total cost rather than cost per month. Sounds like you would be a good candidate for buying something expensive that has already depreciated a bit, e.g. 911. You won’t be putting many miles on it and should be able to sell it for a closer delta than leasing for the same timeframe. You’re in a good position, be creative.
100% this. Or a Corvette. Buy something that has very low time depreciation, but could have high mileage depreciation would be a FAR better option. Corvette, 911, any Porsche, BMW M cars (real M cars) etc. If you’re into Camaros maybe a ZL1? Not sure what they go for used. There are a ton of sports cars out there that hardly depreciate at all or are appreciating. Leasing a new car is just burning money, you can get sooooo much more value.
Suze Orman: did you hack Chris’ LH account again? Just because you don’t say your tagline we still know it’s you.
@650zeke if you arent using all the utility in your lease and you’re as financially sound as it appears: go lease something transferrable you want on your terms for like 3 years and swap out after 18-24 months. $0 DAS roll it all in, drive it like it’s stolen, then see if someone wants it because it has plenty of miles remaining.
I get all the points about a used sports car that doesn’t deprecate: but you are taking that much of your free capital out of circulation (or getting a used car loan), maintenance, and worst if some distracted driver backs into your car door in a parking lot. No thank you. It’s not the cost itself, it’s carrying that risk on something that isn’t sentimental.
Leasing a Camaro for 40k miles and only using it for 11k is 100% burning money.
I get the lease paranoia but something like a Corvette is dead nuts reliable and cheap to maintain. For my money I’d rather have a C7 in my garage, and if you do the math it would cost far less money because they hold their value so well.
I recommend getting a 911. Get a base or an S car. Get a 2017-2018. That car will hold the highest residual value compared to any sports cars in the market. Period! Maintenance cost and insurance may be a bit higher but you are driving a 911.
And @chrishs2000, Corvettes in the past have held their value. I am not sure if the C7 will. Up until now corvettes where always front engine. There is a flood of people going after the rear engine who have never bought a Corvette before. So the market will be flooded with the mid-engines. So people will be willing to spend a few thousand more to get a mid engine in a few years and thus further depreciating the value of the C7s. I could be wrong. This is just my opinion.
All corvettes made up until 2019(C7) were front engine cars. Engine site in front of the driver like a typical sedan or SUV. From model year 2020(C8), all corvettes are made with a Mid engine configuration. Engine sits behind the driver like a sports car like Ferrari, Lambo etc.
There are only very few rear engine cars left. Some that you may know are Porsche 911, VW beetle(no longer produced), & smart fourtwo.
A lot of first time corvette buyers will lease the mid engine Corvette to test out the car as a lot of them are getting it for the hype and have never owned one in the past. Three years from now, that car is not going to be the “new and hot” car anymore. Also few people will want to upgrade to the newer trim levels or go to other brands. Thus we will likely see a lot of mid engine corvettes in the market in the 2.5-3.5 years from now. So would you pay $40k for a 2019 Front engine or $45k for a 2020 Mid engine? Most car enthusiasts will choose to go with the Mid engine. (These are random numbers. I have no idea what they actually cost or what they will be valued at in 3 years)
