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Thank you for your excellent post Sayantsi! Now if we decide to lease are we responsible for regular maintenance? Oil changes I'm sure, but what about other things? Tires? Brakes?
Thank you for your excellent post Sayantsi! Now if we decide to lease are we responsible for regular maintenance? Oil changes I'm sure, but what about other things? Tires? Brakes?
Yes, as part of the lease you must adhere to the manufacturer maint schedule, oil, brakes, visual inspections - some you can do yourself if you know a thing or two, but you have to get the work done. One reason off-lease cars are such good buys is because the previous owners are forced to take good care of their cars or pay penalties for maint, miles, damage, etc.
Why not buy a factory certified used car and save some money? The lower purchase price will provide a lower monthly payment or perhaps, allow purchasing without monthly finance charges. The factory certified used car has an extended factory warranty to take the fear out of buying used. Also, why trade every 2-3 years? It's a depreciateing asset. Do a cost analysis and you may find it is overall, less $ to keep your car longer even with the repair bills for brakes, tires etc.
Why not buy a factory certified used car and save some money? The lower purchase price will provide a lower monthly payment or perhaps, allow purchasing without monthly finance charges. The factory certified used car has an extended factory warranty to take the fear out of buying used. Also, why trade every 2-3 years? It's a depreciateing asset. Do a cost analysis and you may find it is overall, less $ to keep your car longer even with the repair bills for brakes, tires etc.
Great advice, Cubssoxfan . . . makes perfect sense to me.
If you get yourself a new car every 2-3 years and are not worried about the miles I say lease.
My good experience with leasing: Get more car for the money. If you change the oil, and don't drive it like it's stolen, you will have little, if any, maintenance. My last lease (36 months), other than oil changes, did not require me anything other than a monthly payment. Not even the brakes changed or new tires were bad. I have never had any required maintenance. Don't forget you can negotiate the lease price too. Have options added etc. My current lease I got the dealer to pay off my old lease. The old dealer did not want the car before the lease was up. OK fine Guess I park it for the 3 months.
Bad xp: Watch the fine print. Most leases require you to pay ~$300 to turn in a lease at the end if you do not buy/lease another car from the same company. Miles...If you are over it could get costly. But for someone who gets a new car every two to three years this, to me, is the only downside. Oh, watch out for the 39 month lease. I haven't had any trouble with this yet but I am sure, considering most warranties are 36 months, that they make new leases 39 months so the manufacturer will not have to cover any warranty costs upon turning in the vehicle.
You do take a risk with a lease. Job loss, transfer, or moving, could up your commute. You might end up taking quite a loss. Stay away from those 4-5 year leases too.
You're losing money if you do anything other than buying what you can afford with cash.
If you're only driving 11,000 miles a year and buying a new car every 2-3 years, you're really wasting your money. You could easily drive any of those cars for 10 years without any major problems.
I occasionally drive it like it's stolen! ha We live on a mountain so it is pretty hard on our cars, I would think that we may have to replace tires or brakes but I'd have to do that with my car anyway...
This is all good advice, it really gives me a lot to think about. I'd love to hear more from others too before we make our decision.
Take a good long look at the value of the car new versus the value of the car off-lease - given current lease terms, it's very common to be upside down at the end of the lease. Also, continually leasing a vehicle means you never have any equity in the car you drive and you'll always be making those lease payments. Do you really want to have $500 payments (or the equivalent) forever?
The "drive it like I stole it" thing is why I'd never buy a car from Hertz or the rental companies. People abuse them and then just pass them along.
Take a good long look at the value of the car new versus the value of the car off-lease - given current lease terms, it's very common to be upside down at the end of the lease. Also, continually leasing a vehicle means you never have any equity in the car you drive and you'll always be making those lease payments. Do you really want to have $500 payments (or the equivalent) forever?
The "drive it like I stole it" thing is why I'd never buy a car from Hertz or the rental companies. People abuse them and then just pass them along.
Great point, PNW . . . however, in many cases $500 is roughly half for some drivers out there.
Thank you, Bummer. Yes, I am at times conflicted and confused.
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Guess I park it for the 3 months.
