Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Automotive
 [Register]
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.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 02-19-2016, 10:24 AM
 
14,376 posts, read 18,261,753 times
Reputation: 43042

Advertisements

A lease has to fit your lifestyle. It would make sense for me since I work from home. It takes me forever to put 10K miles on a car. HOWEVER, I do dog sports and am perpetually getting muddy pawprints all over my car and eating in my car - my "pre-owned" car came to me fairly pristine and that lasted about a week. I don't want to be bothered worrying about keeping it in good shape cosmetically.

It's a Subaru Forester. I will likely be driving it for the next 10 years.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-19-2016, 10:46 AM
 
Location: Shady Drifter
2,444 posts, read 2,734,895 times
Reputation: 4118
People are, as usual, mistakenly construing "more expensive" (which leasing is not, by the way) to mean that it should never be done. Leasing is not more expensive, nor is using it for a business "THE ONLY" reason to lease a car.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-19-2016, 11:10 AM
 
124 posts, read 171,122 times
Reputation: 104
People that are against leasing usually don't care about cars and are happy with driving a 15 year old vehicle with 200k miles on it. Here is how I look at it. You have three options basically when it comes to acquiring a vehicle. You can pay cash, finance or lease.

If you pay cash for a new vehicle you just eliminated a portion of your cash flow. People will boast that they paid cash and do not have a monthly payment. Big deal. I would rather make a monthly payment and keep the cash in my account to use and make money with it. I can make a lot more with $70k or $80k than what my monthly payment amounts to.

If you finance your vehicle you will have a higher monthly payment vs leasing. It will take several years of payments before you reach a point where your payoff is equal or less than what your car is worth. In that time you have been making a higher payment. You're growing bored of your car. You have potentially been involved in an accident so that makes your vehicle worth even less. Depending on the region you live in your vehicle has been exposed to the harsh chemicals that are applied to the roads during the winters and now you have corrosion and issues with a vehicle that you still owe money on. Now you want a new vehicle so you sell it, trade it and get a new car. Guess what? You're still going to be making a payment. Same as a lease, except your payment is quite a bit higher and I've enjoyed two different leased vehicles in the same time frame.

Now if you lease, your monthly payment is typically lower. You don't have to worry about depreciation from an accident or the winter corrosion. You drive it for 24 months and enjoy it. When your lease is up you turn it in and get something new. I would never lease a vehicle any longer than 36 months and never put money down other than the first months payment.

People assume because someone leases they cannot afford the vehicle. I both own and lease. I prefer to lease, not because I cannot afford to purchase the vehicle, but because I enjoy driving something new every couple of years without the worries of depreciation. I'm addicted to the new car smell and feel.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-19-2016, 11:16 AM
 
8,005 posts, read 3,569,082 times
Reputation: 2672
So after many many pages we discovered that getting a new car every three years is more expensive than keeping a comparable car for say 10 years (unless there are big repairs). Wow, who could have guessed.

The only thing is, the above fact has nothing to do with buying vs. leasing cost.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-19-2016, 11:16 AM
 
124 posts, read 171,122 times
Reputation: 104
Quote:
Originally Posted by JrzDefector View Post
A lease has to fit your lifestyle. It would make sense for me since I work from home. It takes me forever to put 10K miles on a car. HOWEVER, I do dog sports and am perpetually getting muddy pawprints all over my car and eating in my car - my "pre-owned" car came to me fairly pristine and that lasted about a week. I don't want to be bothered worrying about keeping it in good shape cosmetically.

It's a Subaru Forester. I will likely be driving it for the next 10 years.
This is where we differ. My purchased vehicle is absolutely pristine and I would never consider allowing my muddy dog in my vehicle. It looks as good as it did they day I purchased it new. Now my leased vehicle I'm not as worried about. I still keep it in good condition, but I don't baby it and worry about it like I do with the vehicle that I own. I would rather have my muddy dog in my leased vehicle and keep it out of my owned vehicle.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-19-2016, 11:57 AM
 
Location: Pikesville, MD
2,983 posts, read 3,046,155 times
Reputation: 4552
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted Bear View Post
...or more expensive!




THIS is the only logic to lease a car. Otherwise leasing is virtually always a more expensive option to driving a new car.


No, it's usually not. You're only paying for the depreciation that you're using, and if they calculate that wrong at the beginning of the lease, you can actually come out ahead vs traditional financing (where you eat the entire cost of depreciation, and are often making payments way out of warranty and well past the free maintenance period. And cash for a new car is just throwing away savings on a depreciating asset.


I've paid cash for cars at the bottom of their depreciation curve (my current personal car is an example of that). I've financed cars that are close to the bottom of that curve, if the price is higher than about $7500, just to keep the cash son hand for emergencies (and I tend to pay off those loans much faster than the loan term), and I've leased new cars cheaply, as a much lower cost to stay in new cars than either financing them OR paying cash for them, as we tend to get great returns on the leased cars that are worth more at the end of the term than the residual was calculated at. With the longer terms of traditional loans you can be upside down in the new car for a lot longer when you take out a loan for it. This limits when you can get rid of it to move on to the next car if you don't want to be in a rapidly more unreliable older car that can surprise you with a major malfunction just when you need the car the most, using up thousands in savings unexpectedly. Been there, done that.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-19-2016, 01:01 PM
 
Location: Long Neck , DE
4,903 posts, read 4,181,594 times
Reputation: 8095
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiffer E38 View Post
We use the leased vehicles in the business, and write it off on the taxes. And it keeps my wife in a newer car with the latest safety equipment and a low, fixed monthly expense that's easier to plan for than occasional large repairs that could take the daily driver down for extended periods of time.
That is great unless you need to change a vehicle for business purposes. I once truly needed a much larger truck. We had to payoff every penny of the lease before we could trade it. Never leased again of course.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-19-2016, 01:02 PM
 
Location: Wasilla, AK
7,448 posts, read 7,503,639 times
Reputation: 16456
Quote:
Originally Posted by LloydinMaine View Post
This is where we differ. My purchased vehicle is absolutely pristine and I would never consider allowing my muddy dog in my vehicle. It looks as good as it did they day I purchased it new. Now my leased vehicle I'm not as worried about. I still keep it in good condition, but I don't baby it and worry about it like I do with the vehicle that I own. I would rather have my muddy dog in my leased vehicle and keep it out of my owned vehicle.

My Jeep Wrangler is a year old. It looks more like it's five years old. The sides and top are totally pin striped from all the bushes on the trail. The windshield has a crack in it. The undercarraige is totally scraped up. The inside looks totally thrashed. I bought it to use it, not obsess over how it looks. I've had a blast driving it over all those old trails with my dog and my off road buddies.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-19-2016, 01:07 PM
 
Location: Texas
44,257 posts, read 64,046,055 times
Reputation: 73913
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bummer View Post
My very experienced Tax Man / Accountant told me many years ago . . . "Leasing Is A Scam" that allows the "Financially Challenged" to drive more vehicle than they are able to afford.

Since that wise statement I have never leased a vehicle.
It might have been true many years ago, but its not true anymore.

Anyone who oversimplifies finance to you doesn't think much of your ability to think critically about complicated situations. Which is probably a good idea for most people.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-19-2016, 01:09 PM
 
Location: Texas
44,257 posts, read 64,046,055 times
Reputation: 73913
Quote:
Originally Posted by serger View Post
So after many many pages we discovered that getting a new car every three years is more expensive than keeping a comparable car for say 10 years (unless there are big repairs). Wow, who could have guessed.

The only thing is, the above fact has nothing to do with buying vs. leasing cost.
I did the math on my 10 year old SUV I bought in 2002.
It broke down to $20 a month more to lease a new one every 3 years.
In retrospect, I think I would have rather had the new truck every 3 years.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
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.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Automotive

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top