Lease or Buy

[Anonymous]

Do you lease or did you buy your car? Why or why not?

[Anonymous]

I bought my car. Yes, the payments were higher than leasing but when I paid it off, it was mine. Since I paid it off 4 years ago I've had no payments, and so far, no problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bought my car. Yes, the payments were higher than leasing but when I paid it off, it was mine. Since I paid it off 4 years ago I've had no payments, and so far, no problems.

This is my mindset as well. We have an 2013 economy sedan that we will drive into the ground as our daily commuter (both DH and I drive to work 1x a week) and then a newer SUV that is the "kid" car that we have a few year of payments left on it. We recently kicked around replacing the sedan (needed about $2,500 worth of work) but even the cheapest/ultra low milage lease was no bargain next to just repairing the old car with no payment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bought my car. Yes, the payments were higher than leasing but when I paid it off, it was mine. Since I paid it off 4 years ago I've had no payments, and so far, no problems.

This is my mindset as well. We have an 2013 economy sedan that we will drive into the ground as our daily commuter (both DH and I drive to work 1x a week) and then a newer SUV that is the "kid" car that we have a few year of payments left on it. We recently kicked around replacing the sedan (needed about $2,500 worth of work) but even the cheapest/ultra low milage lease was no bargain next to just repairing the old car with no payment.

Don’t repairs for old cars add up?

[Anonymous]

We always lease. We don’t like driving cars out of warranty. Yes, we know it costs more. We don’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bought my car. Yes, the payments were higher than leasing but when I paid it off, it was mine. Since I paid it off 4 years ago I've had no payments, and so far, no problems.

This is my mindset as well. We have an 2013 economy sedan that we will drive into the ground as our daily commuter (both DH and I drive to work 1x a week) and then a newer SUV that is the "kid" car that we have a few year of payments left on it. We recently kicked around replacing the sedan (needed about $2,500 worth of work) but even the cheapest/ultra low milage lease was no bargain next to just repairing the old car with no payment.

Don’t repairs for old cars add up?

Yes, but my well maintained econobox is generally still cheaper than a lease, at least in this environment. Back of the napkin math of $2,500 down at lease signing, plus $300 month is $13,300 for a 36 month lease; my old reliable is definitely cheaper over that 3 year period. Everything that needed to be done to the car was routine maintenance on a car with 120k miles. That's not to say that this math checks out for every family but this was our line of thinking. I would love something nicer but also love not having another car payment more!

[Anonymous]

Bought it ofcourse. I had always had old cars and none of them needed such repairs that I would even think about how important warranty is. They were all small Japanese cars though and needed regular checkups and maybe total of $2000 on breaks and tires.
My current one was bought new almost 5 years ago. Time goes fast. I'm so not ready to go through all this dealership thing again. Plus, the car only has 15k on it after almost 5 years. Warranty or not, the car doesn't know it's old. There's barely any wear and tier on it.
Leasing is definitely not for my needs. If any, I should have looked into Ubering since I drive so little.
I don't want a new car every few years. All they do is add a few options I never use and offer new colors. Vow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We always lease. We don’t like driving cars out of warranty. Yes, we know it costs more. We don’t care.

This is the answer. Leasing seems to make sense when finances are not tight.

[Anonymous]

Buy with cash right now because interest rates are so high. Lease rates reflect the current interest rate environment.

[Anonymous]

Right now it's much cheaper to lease.

[Anonymous]

I leased my electric vehicle because the dealer applied the federal/state/local refunds toward my lease (I would not qualified for the federal EV tax credit on a purchase). So if you add up all of the lease payments and the residual at the end of the lease to buy the EV, it is far less than buying the car from the start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buy with cash right now because interest rates are so high. Lease rates reflect the current interest rate environment.

Historically, rates are still low. Folks have been become so spoiled over the last several years.

[Anonymous]

Buy. I like to keep cars a long time and, for my Jeeps, modify them in ways a lease wouldn't allow.

[Anonymous]

I have only ever paid cash for a car. I didn’t buy my first one till I was 35 and we had a second kid on the way. It would never occur to me to take on debt to buy a depreciating asset like a car. Why not just buy it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right now it's much cheaper to lease.

It’s actually a lot more expensive to lease in most cases right now.

Some manufacturers used to offer compelling lease deals, but those went away in 2020 and haven’t come back.