No, not always, despite what you hear or read and are now parroting. You can sometimes even have “equity” in a leased car if the leasing company messed up it’s residual value estimate. Once, I got $2500 applied to my next car. |
Dealership doesn’t have the car, dunce. The leasing company does. |
+1 the fact that so many people talk about the dealership owning the car every single time a discussion on leases pops up on this site only goes to show that most of the people on this site getting a lease don't understand the lease. One truism about this site is that every person taking a lease has the very best deal with a $100 a month payment for a BMW when in fact, they're all getting a much worse deal than they claim online. |
That’s because buying a new car every 3 years is a poor financial decision, which is what leasing is forcing you to do. The math works out in favor of buying when you hold cars for longer. |
I think it’s important to note that you can keep most modern for 15-18 years if you’re driving the 12k/yr average. During that time, you’d have 5-6 leased cars and pay for a couple full cars and own no cars. |
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It’s more complicated than always this or always that.
Suppose you had a choice to buy a 40k car in 2010 or lease (no money down; good mo eu factor and residual). 300 a month. So at lease inception you had 39700 that you invested in an index fund. You pay the lease out of cash flow (salary) and release every 4 or 5 years. 3600 for 9 years is 32000 and change. Less than what you put in the index fund. And if the fund returned 5%, you’d have 65,000. The 300 a month invested only yields 47000. Plus, if you own you maintain. |
Except most cars would last 15-18 years. Paying 40k one time allows you to save a lot more than paying 100k on leases over 18 years. |
| I think both sides are correct. They’re just looking at it different ways. |
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This thread makes me laugh. Of course leasing is not always a poor financial decision. Neither is buying. As they say, YMMV.
Signed, a CPA |
| We leased for the first time when I said I never would. I usually keep my cars for 10-12 years. I wasn’t sold on the minivan but have a bad back and just had second child. The doors are great yes, but that’s about it. I’m glad I leased it and didn’t buy. It’s bulky, doesn’t have great pickup, and I wouldn’t want to own this for the next 15 years. It’s a 2019 Honda Odyssey. My son will be three when lease is up. |
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If you like to get a new car every few years, leasing makes sense.
If you like to keep cars until they die, buying makes sense. Simple. |
| Actually, if you want to drive a car until it dies, buying a used car and driving that to the ground makes the most sense financially. But most people prefer to start with a new car so they can at least start off with the newest safety features and technology and have the reassurance of knowing the car’s history. But that’s not the most economical thing to do. |
| As someone mentioned usually the people i know lease because they want to drive something more expensive than they can afford to buy. I’m not sure how old your kids are but consider, do you want an extra car when your oldest starts driving? Or does it make sense to keep leasing until your kids are old enough that you could buy the less family friendly car? You want to time the purchase so you aren’t year 7 of driving a Minivan/huge car when your kids are already out the house if that’s not the car you want to be driving. |
| <a href=https://14cars.com/car-rental/usa-baltimore-airport-bwi-md-luxury>https://14cars.com/car-rental/usa-baltimore-airport-bwi-md-luxury</a> |
The scamp 19 is pretty ugly. Have you seen the Taxa line? |