Leasing vs. Buying. What is your side?

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Per the title, which do you prefer? My personal view is as follows:
Leasing :
- New car every 3-4 years
- Like the car enough, buy it at the end and have the history of service
- Keep up with the newest tech
- Always (at least hopefully) have a reliable car
- If you wreck and it is fixed, then you can throw the keys back at the dealer and walk away at the end of the lease. Don't have to deal with the possible long-term side effects from the wreck
- Don't have to get a loan out (BIG PLUS)
- Every 3-4 years, usually have to replace at least tires, sometimes even brakes so that is at the end of the lease, and you would not need to replace that since your lease of the vehicle is up
- If you do wreck, your lease payments are no longer due and no negative credit (Payment cancellation, GAP insurance)
- Life-time oil changes/tire rotations BIG plus

Buying
- Service record from day one
- Sometimes can get life-time oil changes/tire rotations

The way I see it, say your payment is $300 a month, so over 36 months that is $10,800. Which is.. $3,600 a year. Compared to buying and getting a loan, in the long run, if the vehicle is $30,000, and is financed for 72 months, say a low interest rate, that's about $36,000. Sometimes you can get the 0% APR financing which is great however.
 
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Originally Posted By: lawman1909
- Every 3-4 years, usually have to replace at least tires, sometimes even brakes so that is at the end of the lease, and you would not need to replace that since your lease of the vehicle is up

Pretty sure they'll charge you a penalty if you return a lease with bald tires.

Quote:
- Don't have to get a loan out (BIG PLUS)

You don't have to get a loan out to buy a car either.
 
Depends on how many miles you turn. 12k miles is not a lot.

We put a lot on our purchased toyota matrix, and try to keep it off the leased RAV4.

My lease is 24 months @ $224 per month, with $2400 total out of pocket including tax, plates, first payment, out the door.

The lease was advertised as $999 down, $199 per month.

Car has toyota care for the full period, and roadside assistance. The car will get 4 total service appointments in 2 years per toyota policy.

I mean, at lease termination I will probably buy a used Toyota, but may bite if they throw another $199 or $179 deal out there.

I mean a low mileage used corolla can be had for 10-12 grand, and if I throw 5-6 grand at it down, the payment will be nothing and I own the thing outright.

Maintenance on a toyota is nothing, just keep up on the basics.
 
Nope, they do not. At least every lease I have had. Always turned it in with 2/32 or 1/32 left. And you're absolutely right, you do not have to get a loan, however from what I see and hear, most people do.
 
Leasing is for Suckers! Yes, you get a shiny new car every few years, but you also always have a payment.

Friend of mine Leased a New Civic back in 11, 36 mo/36k mi, paid approx $150/mo.
last spring her lease was up, but she liked the car, so she bought it instead of turning it back in.
now, She has another 5 years of Approx $150/mo. after putting about $3,000 down on the Purchase, not sure what she had to put down on the lease.
after which she'll have an 8 year old civic, with nearly 100k mi, that she's been making payments on the whole 8 years.(nearly $19-20k in payments)

but by her thinking, at the time, The lease was the only way to get a good car in her budget.(Divorced single Mom, working part time(earned maybe $6 grand the year before), Going to School Full Time)
 
Leasing makes sense for high end cars, but I don't see the economy with regular vehicles.

It also makes sense for business's since they can use pre tax dollars and individuals who can write the vehicle off.

Having said that its often abused by people just shopping monthly payments.
 
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Leasing is double financing.

You're paying interest on the value of the vehicle on the day you drive it off the lot, plus paying interest on the expected depreciation.
 
Leasing is a great deal for the auto makers. It increases sales by keeping people on a 3 or 4 year buying cycle by appealing to desire. They seduce you with no money down and lower payments. The problem is, you;re perpetually in paper, it's a constant financial drain.

The average car lasts much longer than the typical lease, if you buy the same car, you're done with payments (and the financial drain) long before the car's life is used up.
 
Originally Posted By: Noey
Leasing is a great deal for the auto makers. It increases sales by keeping people on a 3 or 4 year buying cycle by appealing to desire. They seduce you with no money down and lower payments. The problem is, you;re perpetually in paper, it's a constant financial drain.

The average car lasts much longer than the typical lease, if you buy the same car, you're done with payments (and the financial drain) long before the car's life is used up.


And when the lease is up in 3 years, they stick a 3 tear old car on the used car lot for new prices
 
Leasing is the highest form of vehicle debt.
frown.gif
I understand some may have no other option but a pattern of leasing is not likely getting the most for your money.

The OP's original post left out some huge expenses, at least for here, I didn't see mention of anything other than payments. Most of the "deals" I see here require substantial money down, and you still have to pay sales taxes, huge on a new vehicle.

JMO.
 
Originally Posted By: earlyre
Leasing is for Suckers! Yes, you get a shiny new car every few years, but you also always have a payment.

Friend of mine Leased a New Civic back in 11, 36 mo/36k mi, paid approx $150/mo.
last spring her lease was up, but she liked the car, so she bought it instead of turning it back in.
now, She has another 5 years of Approx $150/mo. after putting about $3,000 down on the Purchase, not sure what she had to put down on the lease.
after which she'll have an 8 year old civic, with nearly 100k mi, that she's been making payments on the whole 8 years.(nearly $19-20k in payments)

but by her thinking, at the time, The lease was the only way to get a good car in her budget.(Divorced single Mom, working part time(earned maybe $6 grand the year before), Going to School Full Time)



Sucker!!, Really? A lot of missing info, but if she were to have purchased a new 2011 Civic it would have been $17-20k with a loan payment of over $300/month (depending on down payment, interest rate, actual purchase price w/sales tax, etc etc.) So, if her net out of pocket after 8 years is $19-20k, she actually got the Civic financed for close to 0% interest. Plus, an 8 yr old Civic with 100k miles would be worth at least $5000 and still have plenty of reliable miles to go.

Leasing isn't for everybody, but if you are going to lease get something with historically high resale and reliability (Civic). Also, don't talk yourself into upgrading to an Accord, for example, when a Civic will suit you needs.
 
I ignore all the financial talk one way or the other. When I buy a car I want it to be mine. I want to own it. Most of my life I've paid cash for a car. I used to buy cars, fix them up drive them around for a while and then sell them. I liked the cars and I liked working on them and being able to drive them around. Having a car on a lease would make me feel like someone is looking over my shoulder. I think there might be others out there that feel the same way.
 
I like to modify/upgrade my cars, therefore leasing is not what I like. I can whatever I like to my cars, you can't do that to leased cars.
 
The bum thing about leasing is you don't own the car... Sure, you're paying on it, but it's not yours. As others have said, you can buy it after the fact, but if you take a loan out it, you're stuck in the payment cycle again- for YEARS!

Instead of planning a revolving door of payments, do your darndest to break the cycle! Even if that means driving a rust bucket for a few more years. Heck, that's all we drive! The would be car payments instead get spent on shoveling ourselves out of debt. Once out, then buy cash, or finance at stupidly low interest if possible. Sure rust buckets can cost money for repairs but the sum total of the repairs shouldn't equal the price of a new car and they don't happen every month- unless you're really unlucky.

The only time a lease makes sense is if you have no resources or knowledge to do any service work, you need a car for transport, but don't drive above average miles and can find one for LOW interest.
 
Leasing is a way to drive a car you really can't afford by only paying the depreciation during the term. However it has the highest cost in terms of fees and interest. I can't imagine it is ever a smart financial decision to lease.
 
It really depends on the person...everyone is going to be different. You do have have those who do it for whatever reasons...

-have a neighbor who takes a long commute to downtown detriot every day, and sometimes does not get out till late. Often works late hours, and does not want to get caught with any issues...can't blame him.

-have an aunt with health issues...does not want to deal with car issues, and knows the dealership will take care of issues with it....

Also depends on the car/model as well. Some offer some pretty nice deals


I plan to run my current fleet into the ground...but we will need a newer car for a few different reasons. I can buy or lease. Thinking about what I want to do...might consider a lease here. I can get pretty good deals on GM products, and quite often the Cruze comes up. Car right now would be perfect for us. But there is the chance in the future that our family will grow...which will require and upgrade. Nice thing here is that I would not be stuck on the car, as I could walk away from it without loss (could even turn it in early).

Could go either way, but the bottom line is that you have to do what is best for you.....
 
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Leasing: you are buying a car at 100% interest.

I will not get very much back on my "investment" in my Mazda. I might get $3000 out of it if I traded it in now.

You get zilch out of a lease.

A lot of people get trapped in a cycle of leasing. They always have a newish car, but they always have a car payment. Plus all the fees of the previous lease tacked on.

It's like a drug for the status-concious who feel like they have to have the newest/best car all the time

I might lease for fleet use. Like for company cars. You know....if I actually owned a company that had company cars. I'm not sure what the tax write off is (if any) but it takes having a maintenance pool out of the equation.
 
Iv never purchased a new car in my life (not that I don't want one) but for a year or to older with 15k-20k miles the savings are normally a great deal.

Ultimately tho I think the buy or lease comes down to the brand. If the cars have lower resale value buy used if higher buy new.

No point in doing out and buying a 12-14 year old Tacoma with 150k miles for 9k.
 
Leasing or buying, you still have to pay money out.

When you buy, you own the car and don't have to pay any more

When you lease, there is a constant expense coming out of every wage, and you do t even own the car! It's an expensive way for poor people to try and look rich.
 
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