Does leasing a car make sense in this scenario?

[Anonymous]

We own a 2004 Honda and a 2005 Toyota (Prius) and they both have over 100K and going strong. We should get at least 150K out of them. We got nearly 200K on a Corolla.

Don't lease. Buy new and go the distance or buy used and go distance. This is the most economical way to go. Unless you have to have a "status car".

[Anonymous]

leasing never makes sense

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:leasing never makes sense

Leasing makes sense if the following factors come into play:

- You like to change your car every three years of so in which case you just turn in the car and not have to worry about selling or trading it in
- the money factor on the lease (same as the interest rate) is favorable
- the residual value is attractive which in this case means that it is higher than what the value of the car is likely to be when you turn it in. Auto companies sometimes inflate the residual to make the monthly lease payments lower.

We have leased and bought outright over the past 25 years and I don't agree with those who just come out and say that leasing never makes sense.

One thing I would say is that you should not put any money down - or at least keep it down to an absolute minimum - when you lease a car. Most car leases include gap coverage as standard and if the car gets totaled if the car is worth more than the market value that your insurance will pay, the gap coverage will take care of the difference. If, OTOH, you put money down, that money will not be recovered if you total the car early into the lease. When we have leased we literally pay just the first month's lease payment and drive away the car - everything else is financed as part of the lease. Obviously it also depends on your credit.

In OP's case, the main argument against leasing is the high mileage she does annually which make it like that she will go over the allotted mileage over the term of the lease and that overage costs a lot of money.

[Anonymous]

You can get a brand new car, like a Nissan Versa, for 12-14k.

[Anonymous]

If wind up keeping the job and getting assignments that have you driving high mileage, and if you have an option to purchase, you can use that to cap your cost of the excess miles.

The lease--purchase sequence will cost more than a straight purchase, but you can calculate that amount.