Leasing a vehicle

[NinersSBChamps]

I have never really thought about it in the past, but right now I am throwing the idea around. If I do get a new vehicle it wont be for a little bit. Anyone have experience leasing vehicles at all? I know you get charged through the roof if you exceed your miles limit. I assume getting a lease would require pretty good credit scores?

 

[Tapate50]

I have never really thought about it in the past, but right now I am throwing the idea around. If I do get a new vehicle it wont be for a little bit. Anyone have experience leasing vehicles at all? I know you get charged through the roof if you exceed your miles limit. I assume getting a lease would require pretty good credit scores?

Probably not on credit score. If you never intend to pay one off, then I could see it. If you intend to own a vehicle out right, then its a no win situation (most do have a purchase option I think?)

 

[zitothebrave]

Leasing a vehicle or buying a new vehicle are about the 2 worst things you can do when buying a car. People I know who lease vehicles do it because they love having new cars as a status symbol or couldn't afford payments another way. The latter is a horrible reason to do it.

Buy a used car that has a good ownership record. My car I bought in 08 for about 9000 including taxes and tags. Put about 6000 in all maintenance to it (including oil here) For the 6 and a half years I've owned it works out to being under 200 a month. Which for a full sized sedan that MSRP of around 28,000.

Having worked in dealerships, cars are ****ing terrible investments. If you want to worry less, then go leasing cause they factor in that cost. If you go over your mileage or have heavy wear and tear you'll get ****ed on the other end.

 

[Oklahomahawk]

Doesn't it usually take a pretty good sized down payment? My biggest "watch out for" would probably be the mileage limitations. I realize everybody doesn't have to drive so far to get ANYWHERE like I do, but be careful if you go over your allotted miles they will hunt you down and kill you like a dog, or something like that.

 

[zitothebrave]

Doesn't it usually take a pretty good sized down payment? My biggest "watch out for" would probably be the mileage limitations. I realize everybody doesn't have to drive so far to get ANYWHERE like I do, but be careful if you go over your allotted miles they will hunt you down and kill you like a dog, or something like that.

Leasing doesn't usually require a big down payment.

 

[sturg33]

I'm currently leasing. I refused to pay a down payment, and negotiated a 15K miles per year contract. I just kept threatening to walk out and they kept buckling.

Anyways, I got a 2013 Altima standard model. $269 a month with no down payment (no taxes, fees, nothing) and 15k miles per year.

It's also nice because I don't have to worry about any repairs if something goes wrong. And I generally don't care about driving the car in rough terrain because it's not something I own.

Not too bad.

Having said that, I'll probably not lease again. Simply because I think spending money on a car is a bad investment and thus will probably buy a used car next go around

 

[BRule]

I have never really thought about it in the past, but right now I am throwing the idea around. If I do get a new vehicle it wont be for a little bit. Anyone have experience leasing vehicles at all? I know you get charged through the roof if you exceed your miles limit. I assume getting a lease would require pretty good credit scores?

Depends on your situation......my best friend owns a huge dealership and I know a decent amount about it.....depends on your situation. Leasing is great for a low payment, no maintenance cost (depending on brand), little to no down payment. Leasing nowadays is pretty cheap and you can buy it out at the end and own it anyway.

Whatever you do, don't listen to Zito.

 

[zitothebrave]

Depends on your situation......my best friend owns a huge dealership and I know a decent amount about it.....depends on your situation. Leasing is great for a low payment, no maintenance cost (depending on brand), little to no down payment. Leasing nowadays is pretty cheap and you can buy it out at the end and own it anyway.

Whatever you do, don't listen to Zito.

Yeah don't listen to the guy who worked at a dealership and obsesses over the cost of things.

If you want to save money, don't buy a new car. Period. Leasing or otherwise. When you're leasing a vehicle for say 15K miles a year for 3 years, what you're basically paying for is the estimated loss of value. So to K.I.S.S. when you lease a vehicle you're basically negotiating the cost of the vehicle then they estimate what they're gonna lose on it when you bring it back. I forget the exact number but I believe the estimate is about 10% of a new car's value disappears when it leaves the lot. So do the math, you're basically pissing away about 10% of the money you bought a car for, when you take it off the lot. In a used car that number if much much lower. THere are different risks with a used car and sometimes you hit the lemon farm with it (my girlfriend bought one that lasted her about 2 years before she sold it and it had like 3 different brake failures, power steering and something else major) or you get a gold mine like my car which is now over 8 years old and has only had maybe 3 non-standard maintenance replacements, my brake calipers last go around, swaybar, and oil pan. Which isn't too bad. Of course I had expensive regular maintenance fixes too like shocks and struts, but really not bad overall. If I didn't live where I had to care abotu how a car handles in bad weather, my car method would be buy a car for cheap used and run it into the ground.

 

[BRule]

Yeah don't listen to the guy who worked at a dealership and obsesses over the cost of things.

If you want to save money, don't buy a new car. Period. Leasing or otherwise. When you're leasing a vehicle for say 15K miles a year for 3 years, what you're basically paying for is the estimated loss of value. So to K.I.S.S. when you lease a vehicle you're basically negotiating the cost of the vehicle then they estimate what they're gonna lose on it when you bring it back. I forget the exact number but I believe the estimate is about 10% of a new car's value disappears when it leaves the lot. So do the math, you're basically pissing away about 10% of the money you bought a car for, when you take it off the lot. In a used car that number if much much lower. THere are different risks with a used car and sometimes you hit the lemon farm with it (my girlfriend bought one that lasted her about 2 years before she sold it and it had like 3 different brake failures, power steering and something else major) or you get a gold mine like my car which is now over 8 years old and has only had maybe 3 non-standard maintenance replacements, my brake calipers last go around, swaybar, and oil pan. Which isn't too bad. Of course I had expensive regular maintenance fixes too like shocks and struts, but really not bad overall. If I didn't live where I had to care abotu how a car handles in bad weather, my car method would be buy a car for cheap used and run it into the ground.

Not everyone wants to drive a beater their whole life, some people enjoy all the comfort and tech in new vehicles (assuming you can afford the payment) and unless you're someone who keeps your car for 10 years then you're going to be having a car payment for a decent portion of your driving life. Why would you "prefer" to buy a 8k car and put 8k worth of work into it? That makes no sense.....

Owning a dealership > working at a dealership

 

[zitothebrave]

Not everyone wants to drive a beater their whole life, some people enjoy all the comfort and tech in new vehicles (assuming you can afford the payment) and unless you're someone who keeps your car for 10 years then you're going to be having a car payment for a decent portion of your driving life. Why would you "prefer" to buy a 8k car and put 8k worth of work into it? That makes no sense.....

Owning a dealership > working at a dealership

That's fine, I pointed out a scenario where leasing a car can make sense. I agree with you that buying a new car is pretty dumb. I wouldn't ever buy a new car, I wouldn't lease a new car either. Unless I really didn't give a **** about money and could care less about essentially pissing 3K or so away.

And the reason I prefer it is cause of the original value of my car. I have over about 8 years and put about 16K total into it, which if I was to do it on a month to month basis would equal like 167 bucks a month. Using a highly simple lease estimate, the residual payment for a lease on a similar value car would be something like 330 bucks with no money down. Not factoring in interest or special offers as I effectively figure thme to be close to a wash. Lets say I get a fantastic deal, and with interest it comes to about 300 a month.

My old car with the 2009 stereo update my car's features are AWD, 18 inch chrome rims, 6 way power heated driver and passenger seats, dual climate control, automatic dimming rear view mirror, backup sensors (forget the real name for those) stereo with aux cable, and over stuffed leather seats.

Having sit in various new and newer cars, there's 2 features I'd want that I dont 'have now, a fully integrated BT system, and an EV. The former I can add to my car for under 200 bucks. The latter would be the only reason to buy a car, but with my current living situation an EV doesn't make sense.

 

[BRule]

That's fine, I pointed out a scenario where leasing a car can make sense. I agree with you that buying a new car is pretty dumb. I wouldn't ever buy a new car, I wouldn't lease a new car either. Unless I really didn't give a **** about money and could care less about essentially pissing 3K or so away.

And the reason I prefer it is cause of the original value of my car. I have over about 8 years and put about 16K total into it, which if I was to do it on a month to month basis would equal like 167 bucks a month. Using a highly simple lease estimate, the residual payment for a lease on a similar value car would be something like 330 bucks with no money down. Not factoring in interest or special offers as I effectively figure thme to be close to a wash. Lets say I get a fantastic deal, and with interest it comes to about 300 a month.

My old car with the 2009 stereo update my car's features are AWD, 18 inch chrome rims, 6 way power heated driver and passenger seats, dual climate control, automatic dimming rear view mirror, backup sensors (forget the real name for those) stereo with aux cable, and over stuffed leather seats.

Having sit in various new and newer cars, there's 2 features I'd want that I dont 'have now, a fully integrated BT system, and an EV. The former I can add to my car for under 200 bucks. The latter would be the only reason to buy a car, but with my current living situation an EV doesn't make sense.

I wouldn't say it's pissing it away, assuming you lease again and you keep your car in decent shape you'll have equity in it and get a couple hundred to a little over a thousand back for the next lease. Also if you do Toyota or Honda or maybe VW I forget what other brands do it but you have 0 maintenance cost, so you're saving a ton of money there....assuming the car buyer isn't a mechanic and does their own crap.

 

[zitothebrave]

Maintenance costs under 50K miles is pretty damned cheap. Brakes is about the only big thing that would need to be replaced by then. So your free maintenance is what like 1000 bucks or so? Maybe a little more. I mean there could be good value in it, but I don't think on average it does. There is a reason why the dealers and manufacturers want you to lease. They stopped leasing for the time when they weren't making money on it.

 

[BRule]

Maintenance costs under 50K miles is pretty damned cheap. Brakes is about the only big thing that would need to be replaced by then. So your free maintenance is what like 1000 bucks or so? Maybe a little more. I mean there could be good value in it, but I don't think on average it does. There is a reason why the dealers and manufacturers want you to lease. They stopped leasing for the time when they weren't making money on it.

They want you to lease because its another unit every 2 or 3 years.......obviously. Dealerships make way more money on a pre-owned vehicle than a lease vehicle.

 

[zitothebrave]

They want you to lease because its another unit every 2 or 3 years.......obviously. Dealerships make way more money on a pre-owned vehicle than a lease vehicle.

They usually make more money on pre-owned because they usually get a deal on the tradeins. Cause most poeple would much rather trade in and take less money than sell on their own. The dealership then makes it look nicer and sells it for profit.

They like leases because they're getting people to buy new cars in perpetuity.