Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Not a mistake. Leasing is the right decision for me and my family right now. Trying to pay 650 bucks a month would be the mistake. Its all about dollars and cents my friend. And there are a bunch of flaws in that article you posted. No one leases unless they know they can handle the mileage count. And the lease is under warranty for wear and tear, etc. But you really don't have any in 3 years anyway! If saving money in the short term is your goal, leasing is the way to go. Pure fact. Good night!
Not a mistake. Leasing is the right decision for me and my family right now. Trying to pay 650 bucks a month would be the mistake. Its all about dollars and cents my friend. And there are a bunch of flaws in that article you posted. No one leases unless they know they can handle the mileage count. And the lease is under warranty for wear and tear, etc. But you really don't have any in 3 years anyway! If saving money in the short term is your goal, leasing is the way to go. Pure fact. Good night!
Yes, of course, the article is flawed because it does not agree with what you want to do. And you are willing to blind yourself to reality and fact, because you want what you want. Instead of renting something you cannot afford to buy, I have another secret option that hasn't been discussed. Maybe buy something you can afford.
The decision you are making is correct for stroking your ego, but for your family? No way. You are actually hurting your family's future by making this costly and illogical decision. The correct decision is to buy a solid used car like a Toyota with 60,000 miles on it. A car you can afford. They easily make it to 200,000 miles nowadays without any major repairs provided you are diligent with the periodic oil changes and maintenance.
The correct decision for your family is to devote the least resources to something discretionary like transportation, and devote the savings from a good decision to other more important things like the kids education, emergency fund, buying a house, family vacations, etc. You are choosing the opposite. You are choosing the most expensive option that sends the most money to the banks and auto companies, and leaves you eternally broke.
Just admit it. You can't afford the Odyssey. But you want to look like someone who can afford the Odyssey. And you are willing to rent the Odyssey to make that statement. Even if it means that vital family dollars are wasted on making that statement. A statement, by the way, that nobody is going to really hear because nobody really gives a rat's arse what you drive, even though you think that they do.
I'd tell you to do more research, but you are not interested in facts or reality. You want the shiny new wheels that you cannot afford, and if anyone at all says it's a good idea, they are your best friend and mentor. In this, your mentors are a car salesmen and a leasing company. With friends like these, who needs reality?
A statement with a minivan? You are a moron. I got the Odyssey for the convenience and safety for the family. And leasing made it fit nicely in the budget. Go back to bed. You've officially sounded stupid way too many times in this post! I am saving over 300% by leasing vs buying! if you look at this from a 3 to 5 year view.
Last edited by mikieguns; 07-03-2013 at 08:32 AM..
Dude I can't afford 650 per month. Does not seem to be sinking in! Lots of people I know are deciding to lower their monthly payments while also upgrading the quality of the vehicle they drive, and get a brand new one every 3 years. Nothing wrong with it! Let's just agree to disagree. : )
i dont think leasing is always a bad decision. however, i do think leasing is a bad decision if its because you cant afford the payment to buy.
btw, i know you are getting that odyssey to impress the babes!!! dont lie!
Marc I agree with 99% of what I've read from you on here but this is an area where I completely disagree. The lease vs. buy decision is based solely on the deal you get for both. The numbers don't lie. The net loss on leasing vs. buying is maybe $250 over a 3 year period. So for $7 extra a month you can have a lower monthly payment, drive a new car, have no worries about it EVER breaking down, and know that in 3 years you'll be driving another new car, not the same stale car you've been driving. Now I understand you are comparing apples and oranges( buying a 3-4 year old car with 60K miles vs leasing a new one) but that comparison really isn't fair and allows for a lot of speculation that the used car will never have any major problems. Here is an apples to apples comparison of leasing vs buying new and clearly shows that the difference between the 2 is nominal at best. Certainly not big enough to call someone foolish for choosing to lease instead of buy.
Here is how it breaks down 2013 Honda Odessy LX(Cost Source US News, Bottom of the line Honda Odessy LX)
Lease:
0 down
$334/month(inc tax $310 without tax) X 35 Months $11,690 ...this is a good deal, I could do better but want to be realistic
Total Cost for 3 Years: $11,690
Buy:
$26,230
5 Year loan at 2.57%
$466.32 x 36 Months = $16,787.52
Estimated Value of Car after 3 years with 36,000 miles: $16,233
Remaining balance of Loan: $10,897
NET Cash Value of car after 36 months: $5336
$16,787.52
Less accumulated value: $5,336
Cost for same 3 years of driving when you buy vs lease: $11,451
NET Difference: $239
If you take it 5 years, here is what we have:
Total paid with interest: $27,979
Value of car: $12,000 (the trade in value is about $2K less so I'm being generous here)
Total cost for 5 years of owning car: $15,979
Total cost of leasing car for same period: $19,946
Difference: $3,967 or $66/month over 5 years(roughly what one spends on Starbucks). If you traded it in for your next car at 5 years the savings would be half that.
Again not a super fair comparison since the person leasing will be driving a 2 year old car and the person buying will be driving a 5 year old car but at least it allows us to see the full benefit of buying. Which I still contend is not enough to make me drive an older car around and deal with the higher monthly payment. That is just me. Further the liberal $800/$400 conservative a year net loss is not going to keep my kids out of college or Disneyland.
Last edited by Goldendoodle1969; 07-03-2013 at 09:21 AM..
What the OP is forgetting is that after 3 years he will have to pony up another $7K to get a deal like this. Where does he plan on getting that?
Or is he going to opt for the buy option and then pay another $200-300 a month (may be more) for 5years? So end up paying for 8years instead of the original 5?
GL impressing chicks with a 7yr old minivan that you will still be paying for...
DP1 - I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Right now I am busy saving a boatload of cash!
I've done the math to possibly buy the car at that time, its not bad.
0 down
$334/month(inc tax $310 without tax) X 35 Months $11,690 ...this is a good deal, I could do better but want to be realistic
Total Cost for 3 Years: $11,690
This says 0 down. He's not putting zero down. He's putting down about $7,000. Actually throwing $7,000 down the drain since he's basically lowering the rent of his rent-a-car. And by the way, when 3 short years is up, he will have to dig up another $7,000 of cap cost reduction to keep the game going.
But no worries, he'll "cross that bridge when he comes to it"...
What usually happens in this hustle is the eternally broke fool has no CCR when it's time to re-up. So the fool buys the car at the end of the year lease at unfavorable terms. Why? Because people who do this nonsense are forever broke and usually have no choice but to stay with "the monthly payment". And end up overpaying for the damned thing for anywhere from 6-9 years.
And by the way, since the damned thing is financed forever it has to have overpriced insurance on it for the entire financing term. Collision and comprehensive for the life of the rental. Followed by the life of the loan.
No, this whole thing is so dumb I can't even describe it. Very bad decision. But hey, it's all about the "monthly payment". I feel sorry for this guy. He really doesn't know what he's doing, but is so ready to let his emotions overrun his brain. And to the detriment of his family. It's sad.
Yet one day he or some other clone will post on City-Data complaining about the high cost of living in New Jersey and how it's impossible to get ahead. Yes. When you make bonehead financial decisions centered on "the monthly payment", you're always broke and living paycheck to paycheck. Car leasing and running up debt are two of the dumbest things people can do, yet it's so common in our society because of a lack of discipline and a lack of character.
And I am not exempting myself. I've done it all. I've run up tens of thousands of debt and leased a shiny new Corvette. However, I now know how stupid it was. Mikeyguns needs to be an idiot for a decade, and one day he will be here telling "Tonyguns" how stupid he was and not to repeat his mistake. But Tonyguns won't care. He'll be stupidly fixated on the "monthly payment", and the auto dealer will fleece the crap out of him, just like the current dealer is doing to MikeyMike.
It's the Circle of Life!
Last edited by Marc Paolella; 07-03-2013 at 10:55 AM..
The decision of leasing vs. buying is very situational and is not a universally "good" or "bad" thing to do. However, there are a couple of hard and fast leasing rules that should be followed for a regular, non-business, consumer lease...
1. NEVER NEVER NEVER put money down. Whether it is a trade-in, cash, whatever, when you put money down you are sinking irrecoverable cash into the vehicle. If the van happens to be totalled the second you drive out of the dealership, your insurance will only be paying the leasing company, not you.
2. Ensure that you are comfortably within the mileage allowance and never purposefully take a lower allowance in order to get a lower payment.
3. Leasing "family" vehicles is a bad choice unless you have older, responsible children. Basic wear and tear that younger kids put on vehicles will result in hefty charges at the end of the lease.
In this situation the OP is breaking rule one big time. They are mistakenly believing their payment is $199 when it is really $350, they are just pre-paying $160 a month with their trade-in. If you really want to go ahead with the lease, have them cut you a check for the $5,500 for the trade-in and make your payments $350. At least then you won't be driving around with $5,500 on your hood that is gone if anything happens to the car.
Rule three will cause real problems down the line. Kids destroy cars, especially minivans. Stains, scuffs, broken latches, etc. are all common even on the best made minivans with the most careful parents. I have seen minivan lease returns wrack up an easy $2k-$3k in damages that would have been considered "typical" wear and tear on a 3 year old minivan with the same mileage. Look at used minivans, none of them are perfect...except for the off-lease ones where the previous owner paid to repair them.
Frankly, you cannot afford this car. You are simply pre-paying a large amount to pretend you can and that is exceedingly risky on a lease.
The decision of leasing vs. buying is very situational and is not a universally "good" or "bad" thing to do. However, there are a couple of hard and fast leasing rules that should be followed for a regular, non-business, consumer lease...
1. NEVER NEVER NEVER put money down. Whether it is a trade-in, cash, whatever, when you put money down you are sinking irrecoverable cash into the vehicle. If the van happens to be totalled the second you drive out of the dealership, your insurance will only be paying the leasing company, not you.
2. Ensure that you are comfortably within the mileage allowance and never purposefully take a lower allowance in order to get a lower payment.
3. Leasing "family" vehicles is a bad choice unless you have older, responsible children. Basic wear and tear that younger kids put on vehicles will result in hefty charges at the end of the lease.
I agree with rule 1 and 2 but rule 3 seems a little overly cautionary. I've leased 4 vehicles over the past 10 years, I have 2 unruly, poorly behaved, PITA kids that I love to death...we are hard on our vehicles(one of the reasons I choose to lease in the first place). I have never paid a dime for wear and tear on a lease return. As long as you are going to lease another car from the dealership and are a good negotiator all is forgiven. At least that has been my experience. I also must apologize since for my analysis I didn't use the ops actual deal. Just a general lease versus buy with publicly available verifiable numbers( In my opinion if an example can't be fact checked it shouldn't be printed). That said, the OP is not getting a bottom of the line vehicle like I used in my comparison. So he/she, assuming he, is essentially buying all of the options with half his trade-in and the other half is going to buying down the monthly payment. Is it a good deal is more a philosophic question that can only really be answered by the purchaser.
Last edited by Goldendoodle1969; 07-03-2013 at 11:34 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
but want to be realistic
