I need a new car

I bought a Ford Focus for gas mileage - but it was so small I was going insane and 10 months later I switched.

Cost myself a couple of grand but my new Altima is much more spacious and comfortable. Also, the 2013 Altimas get great gas mileage 28/38.

By the way, I bought my Focus but am leasing the Altima. I put zero down for the lease (zero taxes, zero signing fees, zero tags fees). And my monthly payment is $269 and I got a bump to 15K miles a year. In other words, leasing does allow you to get a really cheap payment with a little negotiation. My buyoff quote is a little much (14K), but by then I expect to be a lot richer than I am now and will likely to upgrade (unless of course the inevidible economic collapse takes place :)

BTW I assume you got a 3 year lease am I right?

So you'll be spending 9684 dollars for something you won't even own. Or if it's a 4 year 12,912

That's beyond insane to me. Sure if it's BS like taxes you deal with it. But that's an insane amount of money to pay for something that's not actually yours.

I'd also advise you all as someoen who used to do car sales, there's a reason that dealers love leases. They don't do it cause it's charity, they do it cause it makes them money. Lots of it.
 
BTW I assume you got a 3 year lease am I right?

So you'll be spending 9684 dollars for something you won't even own. Or if it's a 4 year 12,912

That's beyond insane to me. Sure if it's BS like taxes you deal with it. But that's an insane amount of money to pay for something that's not actually yours.

I'd also advise you all as someoen who used to do car sales, there's a reason that dealers love leases. They don't do it cause it's charity, they do it cause it makes them money. Lots of it.

3 years.

But if I choose to buy it, I'm paying about $23,700 for it. MSRP is about $23,200. So, yes I'm overpaying if I buy it, but not by a crazy amount.

However, if I hated the car (like I ended up hating the Focus), then I'm out without any negative equity. Also, if I'm making double what I make now in 3 years, I'd want an upgrade anyway. And in the meantime, I'm driving a nice car for a very low monthly payment,which allows me to save money now. So leasing has it's ups and downs. It's definitely not as good financially as buying, but it allows options and better cars at cheaper rates - and in the end, I can still put that $9,600 into the car if I choose to buy it. So it's ultimately up to me.,
 
You also likely get to save on maintenance costs, etc.

I may lease my next vehicle after I drive this one for 15 years.
 
You also likely get to save on maintenance costs, etc.



I may lease my next vehicle after I drive this one for 15 years.

That's the thing. If you buy and keep a car until it dies, that is a great investment. But if you buy it just to get a new car in 6 years - you basically just leased it minus a few grand in trade-in value - but that trade in value probably doesn't equal the extra money per month you spent in your car paymenets that you would have saved by leasing.
 
I know Zito is wrong about 99% of things, but he is right about this. Leases are usually a bad long term investment. Not saying they never make sense, but they are not the best return for the money.
 
I know Zito is wrong about 99% of things, but he is right about this. Leases are usually a bad long term investment. Not saying they never make sense, but they are not the best return for the money.

Without a doubt it's a lesser investment. But, it's for people that want to have a nice, new car for cheap and to be able to not have to worry about maintenance costs. And some one that wants to always drive a nice, reliable car.
 
3 years.

But if I choose to buy it, I'm paying about $23,700 for it. MSRP is about $23,200. So, yes I'm overpaying if I buy it, but not by a crazy amount.

However, if I hated the car (like I ended up hating the Focus), then I'm out without any negative equity. Also, if I'm making double what I make now in 3 years, I'd want an upgrade anyway. And in the meantime, I'm driving a nice car for a very low monthly payment,which allows me to save money now. So leasing has it's ups and downs. It's definitely not as good financially as buying, but it allows options and better cars at cheaper rates - and in the end, I can still put that $9,600 into the car if I choose to buy it. So it's ultimately up to me.,

No one should ever pay MSRP for a car on a lot, if you do you're a sucker. So in reality you'd be paying about 2-3 grand more. In general buying a new car is dumb. Since they loase about 10% of their value when you drive thme off the lot. I can buy a used 2012 Prius with 10K miles for less than a new one with lesser features.

As far as leasing, you're either paying more for the car than it's worth or stuck in a perpetual car deal Sure you're paying less than you do buying the car, but if you have to buy a new car every 4 or 5 years, you're a crazy person. I bought my care in 2008, for like 9K or so. Paid it off and have driven it for like 60K miles or so (not a heavy driver when I don't have to be) and still have my car. I could sell it for at least half th evalue of it's original purchase and I'd have spent way less money than you have on your new one. Not to mention my car's original MSRP buy was about 6 or 7K higher than your Altima so when I bought my car it was a nicer car (imagine buying a 2010luxury car vs a 2013 midsized sedan)

It's always the best investment when buying a car to 1. Buy used, and 2 pay cash.

Dealers offer you all kinds of incentives to buy or lease new cars for a reason, because they know they're getting you to spend several thousands of extra dollars in not real value.
 
Without a doubt it's a lesser investment. But, it's for people that want to have a nice, new car for cheap and to be able to not have to worry about maintenance costs. And some one that wants to always drive a nice, reliable car.

Aka leasing is pretty much worthless.

BTW I can't speak for all car dealerships and companies, but gneerally, you're paying for those maintenance fees in some way or another. Either they're already built into the sticker price, or you have to pay an extra monthly fee. Just my general knowledge of it.

If you need a new car every 3 years then fine, but honestly if you need a new car every 3 years you have money to burn that most people don't, or you have ****ty priorities.
 
I know several smart businessman that drive lexus/mercedes/whatever for 1-3 years and trade in for a new lease. The dealers here offer free maintenance for 5 years on any new car or lease. They aren't going to keep a car for 10 years anyways, so they just trade up every year or so and keep costs down.
 
I know several smart businessman that drive lexus/mercedes/whatever for 1-3 years and trade in for a new lease. The dealers here offer free maintenance for 5 years on any new car or lease. They aren't going to keep a car for 10 years anyways, so they just trade up every year or so and keep costs down.

With cars like that, they're usually built into the base cost in something that the average consumer doesn't notice, sometimes by the manufacturer, sometimes at the dealership. For example, when I looked at my car there was some oddly worded charge of about 500 bucks. And they said it was for general maintenance or something like that for 3 years. Now I've had my car for about 60K miles, meaning I've done like 11 oil changes in 5 years. They've all cost me about 30 bucks a pop and I use full synthetic. Dealership was inflating the cost of general maintenance to make a few extra bucks. That's what they do. Nature of the business.
 
No one should ever pay MSRP for a car on a lot, if you do you're a sucker. So in reality you'd be paying about 2-3 grand more. In general buying a new car is dumb. Since they loase about 10% of their value when you drive thme off the lot. I can buy a used 2012 Prius with 10K miles for less than a new one with lesser features.

As far as leasing, you're either paying more for the car than it's worth or stuck in a perpetual car deal Sure you're paying less than you do buying the car, but if you have to buy a new car every 4 or 5 years, you're a crazy person. I bought my care in 2008, for like 9K or so. Paid it off and have driven it for like 60K miles or so (not a heavy driver when I don't have to be) and still have my car. I could sell it for at least half th evalue of it's original purchase and I'd have spent way less money than you have on your new one. Not to mention my car's original MSRP buy was about 6 or 7K higher than your Altima so when I bought my car it was a nicer car (imagine buying a 2010luxury car vs a 2013 midsized sedan)

It's always the best investment when buying a car to 1. Buy used, and 2 pay cash.

Dealers offer you all kinds of incentives to buy or lease new cars for a reason, because they know they're getting you to spend several thousands of extra dollars in not real value.

I'm not even disagreeing with you... Just merely pointing out that there are benefits to leasing.

My first car I bought was a 98 Maxima when I was 16. Paid $5,200 for it. Drove it for 7 years, but probably put another 3-4K in it for maintence as it was breaking down.

I don't expect to pay a dime for maintentce on this lease. In fact, I already blew a tire and they repaired it for free. I didn't pay a dime in upfront costs. So, let's assume I wanted to buy it new and didn't want to pay upfront.

The car is 23K MSRP, so say we agree to pay 21K with 0% APR for 60 months. OK. That means I'm paying $350 a month - or about $1K a year MORE than I am paying on my lease.

So in 5 years, it's paid for and has 80K miles on it. I can probably sell it for 7-8K. So if I want a new car after 5 years, I basically saved myself 2K buy buying instead of leasing. And that is assuming I don't have any maintence issues during the 5 years. It's only a great investment if I keep the car for several more years - but then you have to factor in major maintenence and repair costs - and the unsatisfaction of driving an older car while new technology is making you really want a newewr model (you figure that 6-10 years from now, even more fuel efficient tech will be out there).

But if I lease, I am only obligated to that 9k, and then have to option of buying that, or upgrading to the new model. So I can be driving a 2016 altima and still having that lower car payment. And after 6 years, we're basically even on our investment. If you choose to keep your car, you come out ahead. But I know me and 6 years from now something amazing will be out there that doesn't even exist, and I know I'm going to want it.
 
No one should ever pay MSRP for a car on a lot, if you do you're a sucker. So in reality you'd be paying about 2-3 grand more. In general buying a new car is dumb. Since they loase about 10% of their value when you drive thme off the lot. I can buy a used 2012 Prius with 10K miles for less than a new one with lesser features.

As far as leasing, you're either paying more for the car than it's worth or stuck in a perpetual car deal Sure you're paying less than you do buying the car, but if you have to buy a new car every 4 or 5 years, you're a crazy person. I bought my care in 2008, for like 9K or so. Paid it off and have driven it for like 60K miles or so (not a heavy driver when I don't have to be) and still have my car. I could sell it for at least half th evalue of it's original purchase and I'd have spent way less money than you have on your new one. Not to mention my car's original MSRP buy was about 6 or 7K higher than your Altima so when I bought my car it was a nicer car (imagine buying a 2010luxury car vs a 2013 midsized sedan)

It's always the best investment when buying a car to 1. Buy used, and 2 pay cash.

Dealers offer you all kinds of incentives to buy or lease new cars for a reason, because they know they're getting you to spend several thousands of extra dollars in not real value.

Show of hands, who couldn't see that one coming? Anyone?

I buy em about a year into their use or freshly broken in.
 
I know several smart businessman that drive lexus/mercedes/whatever for 1-3 years and trade in for a new lease. The dealers here offer free maintenance for 5 years on any new car or lease. They aren't going to keep a car for 10 years anyways, so they just trade up every year or so and keep costs down.

Just because they're smart businessmen doesn't mean they're making a smart financial decision. They probably make enough money as it is so they can justify spending the extra cash to always have a newer vehicle. It's the guys that are closer to paycheck to paycheck that are screwing themselves.

No one in this society wants to save their money and buy their own things anymore. A new car should only be for people that make a lot of money and can afford it. They have it set up so anyone can buy a new car and sure enough pretty much everyone owns a new car these days. The only problem is that it straps you financially for 5-6 years so most people are paycheck to paycheck because of it. Then once they get close to paying it off or get it paid off, they immediately trade it in for something new and repeat the cycle of stupidity over again. Unless you're well off financially, buying a new car is a suckers move.
 
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