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So, considering getting a new car, and considering leasing it. I financed by first car in 1994 and since then I've replaced my car every 2-3 years, never really went without a car payment since then. I pay it off early, have maybe a month off then all the sudden I buy a new one. I just get bored with whatever I drive and need something new. So I'm thinking of leasing. Anyone else lease? would you rather do a loan? just starting to get old, getting a new loan every 2-3 years and paying all that interest, when I could have a car payment that's like $100 cheaper with a lease, and then trade it in for the next big thing in 2-3 years. Or am I missing the bigger picture?

Why not just steal one?

Wow.....never thought about leasing.....I've a jeep wrangler 2 door soft top....a jeep Yeti 4 door, and a Mistibishi Spyder....and planning on getting a truck next....

Leasing is a great option, but only if you have a good grasp on your average yearly miles and you take good care of the car. I know specifically Honda (where I work) will allow up to $1500 in damage upon return, but you better stick to the alloted mileage and keep it clean and maintained or youll be penalized. Then if you you really like the car when your lease period is up you can simply buy it out, or trade it in and it will be appraised as any other used vehicle would and be applied to your next vehicle.

I for one plan on paying off my Cobra, keeping around for the weekend warrior, and leasing a new Edge Sport.

Ive done auto sales for years. Ask away bro.

If you are getting a new car every 2-3 years leasing is probably for you. I will mention as an aside that niether buying a new car ever few years or leasing is particularly cost effective. But I'm guessing you were aware of that.

I'm looking at either a Chrysler 300 or Jeep grand cherokee.. ford explorer as a 3rd option. Lease is the only way to get the payment I want for those so that's also why I was considering it. I was going to go with a 3 year lease and 15k mile allowance. I do about 12k per year but I want the extra since now I'm going to be driving out to GenCon every year, among other cons.

I also know that if you own a business you can write off the lease paments as a business expense? I won't be using it only for the biz, still have a day job an will for a while, but I guess it would count just when I'm going to cons.

I wanted the option to be able to buy it after the lease is up, but I heard that it's usually not a good deal then, like it would have cost way less to just buy it in the first place. but I guess I would see how it goes.

So I have a 2010 Ford escape right now, KBB says it's worth around 15k, I owe about 4k, so that should still give me a good trade in value. When my lease is up, and I want to swap it out for a new car, will the old one count as any kind of trade in even though it's not mine anymore? Or will my next lease end up being full price with no kind of trade in to apply to it? Or do they generally give any kind of returning customer bonus kinda thing?




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AustonT wrote:
If you are getting a new car every 2-3 years leasing is probably for you. I will mention as an aside that niether buying a new car ever few years or leasing is particularly cost effective. But I'm guessing you were aware of that.

Yeah I'm just not the keep it forever type :( I wish I was, I like the idea, but I just get distracted by new and shiny things. That's the same reason I have a closet full of unpainted minis.

If you trade in your current car now you won't get credit for it later. That car goes to the dealerships bottom line right then and there. You may get some bonuses like customer loyalty(or the opposite I think Chevy offers a bonus to Ford and Dodge owners) but that trade won't follow you.

thats what I figured. Well this one would have cheaper payments with my trade in, and at least the next one down the line would have a loyalty bonus. Was just talking to a dealership and they had a $2000 bonus if you're a current leaser.

Gonna do some test drives later

Leasing is not for me???

I could totally see myself going over the mileage allotment simply because of my 60 mile commute to work. But it would be nice to drive something new and shiny

I'd rather have a car for 2 to 3 years AFTER I pay it off at least, so my current car I'm hoping to get 7 to 8 years out of it, but if you're changing every 3 years... I'd go with leasing...

I drive my car into the ground after they are paid off, I'm a fan of not having a payment.

 d-usa wrote:
I drive my car into the ground after they are paid off, I'm a fan of not having a payment.

I've had 3 cars in my life time...

1989 Ford Tempo that my dad owed like 700 on, but it was such a PoS, ford motor company didn't want it, and wouldn't pay a tow company to repo it. So my dad talked them down to 200 bucks for the title, and I paid for that. I drove it for about a year and a half before my parents traded it in for a new car.

1994 Nissan 2WD Truck bought and paid for at a grand. Drove it for 2 and a half years before my local mechanic asked why I was alive, because apparently it had several cracks in the frame, drove it to a local dealership and they gave me a grand for it, they were going to scrap it, and it got them a sale (suckers!).

2010 Nissan Versa, this I bought and pay for it monthly. I love this car, I just wish it was a little bit more... fuel efficient with my new work commute. I will probably drive this thing into the ground and then some. Student Loans suck yo...

I would lease, but that's not an option for me since I drive 22,000-24,000 every year due to my distance from work. So, I'd end up breaking most lease agreements. Leasing in generally cheaper, and has some awesome benefits and imdependent incentives from dealer. If you can, I'd do it.

My first car was an '84 nissan sentra. It cost $1000 and it was my pizza delivery car. The engine just gave out one snowy day in '94 and they wouldn't even take it as a trade in, so my mom's boyfriend that owned a junk yard took it off our hands. Then I got a '94 Dodge Shadow, then used it to trade in for my mom's nissan altima and I took over her Maxima. Traded that away fror a 2000 pathfinder, then a honda element, then a 4 door jeep wrangler that I kinda hated, I shouldn't have gotten the soft top. So I traded that in for my Ford Escape

My day job is 18 miles away, girlfriend is 20 miles away. GenCon is 650 miles away :/ So I need to get the 15k mile limit, even if I end up not using it all I'd rather know I have extra to fall back on.

 Necros wrote:

My day job is 18 miles away, girlfriend is 20 miles away. GenCon is 650 miles away :/ So I need to get the 15k mile limit, even if I end up not using it all I'd rather know I have extra to fall back on.

My office is 32 miles, girlfriend is 24 miles away. Trust me, I feel your pain.

My girlfriend lives in canada....

But seriously, work and gf are 60 minutes from home and each other (it's a triangle of driving D, GenCon is less than 315 miles...

I can't afford a so called lease I'd burn through 15k in about 5 months...

back on topic: Just get a lease...

I guess if you WANT to always have a car payment, then a lease would be better because it guarantees that you will have a car payment for the next 36+ months.

However, if you don't want to have a car payment then do something different.

Looking at it, you say a lease in $100 per month cheaper than buying. At the end, that's $3600 more you would pay on a lease. If you can trade in your car and get more than $3600, you were better off buying it. If you can't get $3600 for your trade then you were probably pretty rough on your vehicle and would have had to pay at the end of the lease, due to excess mileage, wear and tear, or damage. So, it sounds like buying is better. (I speak from experience, I probably had the only good leasing experience ever, family grew and economy bottomed out so handing in my Jeep, that didn't hold the family anymore, at the end of the lease got me out from under a car payment. A better choice for me would have been not get into the car payment in the first place)

Since buying is better, should we have a car payment? Or should we work our way up to the new cars we want. If a new car payment is $475 per month ($30k car) then what happens if you drive your $2000 paid-for-car for 10 more months and see what you get. That's $4750 dollars that you can add to your $2000 car for trade-in. You take that $6750 and buy an okay car, saving $475 per month for another 10 months. In 10 months, your $6750 car probably hasn't lost much value so it's worth $6500 plus the 4750 giving you $11250. Another 10 months and you have $16k. Another 10 months and you have $20k....... Imagine that, driving a new-to-you car every 10 months for 4 years and then you buy a brand new car every year and never have to give another person a dime in interest.

A new car every year seems better than a new one every 3 years, especially at the same monthly cost. Why does it work? No interest payments eating away at your payments. BTW: This demonstration assumes you earn no interest on the money either, you are just putting it in your sock drawer and pulling it out every 10 months. If you are even just putting it in a savings account you should get enough money to buy yourself a nice steak dinner at the same time as buying the new car and feel rich for a while!

Did a test drive.. the 300 was really sweet. Almost pulled the plug but decided to just wait and get my Ford paid off and keep it a while and maybe see what's new for 2014

Have you looked at the charger? Now that they fixed the rear look I'm rather a fan. Same power train and base just a different coach.

We got a 2011 Ford Fusion, it's a pretty nice car.

I picked up a 2012 Mazda 2 back in March, and I'm loving everything about it so far. I drive out the Yaris, Fiesta, Fit. and the 2, and loved the Mazda the best.

The dealer must be pretty desperate. For the lease they started at sticker price and $279 a month. Round 2 I talked em down to $249. Round 3 closer to $200. I left, and they just emailed me today saying they can get the payments down to $169... seems like a pretty good deal considering we started at almost $38,000. But also kinda annoyed me, if they can go that low and still make a profit, why don't they just offer that from the beginning and save the hassle?

Still gonna hold off till next year and just finance something instead. I wish there were no-haggle dealerships where the prices are already as low as they can go and you just go buy it instead of the whole car salesman game. I think when I go to get something later I'm just gonna be like "I don't wanna be here for 5 hours. This is what I want, this is what I'm paying, if ya don't like it I'll go someplace else."

To make more money of course. All those folks that jump right on the second or third deal and full price corporate leases pay for your discounted offer.
Suckers pay for the rest of us.