Am I a sucker for leasing all of our family cars?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lease.. I don't mind not owning a car. It's less money per month that I put towards other things.

That's what the buy buy buy buy crowd doesn't get. A car isn't an asset. It depreciates in value. Let someone else be liable for it while you use up the best part of its life.

I don't understand this. I have a paid-for 2008 minivan. It is an asset. I own it, its worth something, and I drive it around every day.

An asset stores or generates value. Your minivan is worth less and less every day and every mile you drive. A sunk cost. With leasing you could have kept that money free for proper assets.

It takes 9 years of leasing to have spent the same amount of money as you would have spent buying it outright.

+1

and people don't 'trade" their cars after 3 years either


- used to work at a dealership

[Anonymous]

If it was such a great deal, more people would be doing it
There are benefits to owning a car, like knowing that if you become unemployed you could sell the car if the payments are too much. You do not have that option with a lease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it was such a great deal, more people would be doing it
There are benefits to owning a car, like knowing that if you become unemployed you could sell the car if the payments are too much. You do not have that option with a lease.

If you leased you wouldn't have so much money tied up in a car. And you can walk away from a lease if you really need to.

[Anonymous]

I like owning things especially things like a house and car. I don’t like paying rent on a house or leasing a car. Yeah, owning a house and owning a car are sunk costs but if you can’t afford those kinds of sunk costs, you probably should have a lower cost house and/or car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lease.. I don't mind not owning a car. It's less money per month that I put towards other things.

That's what the buy buy buy buy crowd doesn't get. A car isn't an asset. It depreciates in value. Let someone else be liable for it while you use up the best part of its life.

I don't understand this. I have a paid-for 2008 minivan. It is an asset. I own it, its worth something, and I drive it around every day.

An asset stores or generates value. Your minivan is worth less and less every day and every mile you drive. A sunk cost. With leasing you could have kept that money free for proper assets.

It takes 9 years of leasing to have spent the same amount of money as you would have spent buying it outright.

A 10-year-old Honda Odyssey is worth about $8000. Possibly more for trade-in. New, it was right at $30K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like owning things especially things like a house and car. I don’t like paying rent on a house or leasing a car. Yeah, owning a house and owning a car are sunk costs but if you can’t afford those kinds of sunk costs, you probably should have a lower cost house and/or car.

I like being free to use my car, so I lease.


Different strokes


No need for 11 pages

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it was such a great deal, more people would be doing it
There are benefits to owning a car, like knowing that if you become unemployed you could sell the car if the payments are too much. You do not have that option with a lease.

If you leased you wouldn't have so much money tied up in a car. And you can walk away from a lease if you really need to.

Are you saying a person can cancel the car lease and return it anytime they want? Without ending in financial distress

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it was such a great deal, more people would be doing it
There are benefits to owning a car, like knowing that if you become unemployed you could sell the car if the payments are too much. You do not have that option with a lease.

If you leased you wouldn't have so much money tied up in a car. And you can walk away from a lease if you really need to.

Are you saying a person can cancel the car lease and return it anytime they want? Without ending in financial distress

If money is that tight you can stop paying. There will be consequences of course. Desperate times and all that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it was such a great deal, more people would be doing it
There are benefits to owning a car, like knowing that if you become unemployed you could sell the car if the payments are too much. You do not have that option with a lease.

If you leased you wouldn't have so much money tied up in a car. And you can walk away from a lease if you really need to.

Are you saying a person can cancel the car lease and return it anytime they want? Without ending in financial distress

You can sell a leased car as long as you pay the balance, just like a car with a loan balance. There’s a good chance you’ll be paying to make it happen on both, loan or lease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it was such a great deal, more people would be doing it
There are benefits to owning a car, like knowing that if you become unemployed you could sell the car if the payments are too much. You do not have that option with a lease.

If you leased you wouldn't have so much money tied up in a car. And you can walk away from a lease if you really need to.

Are you saying a person can cancel the car lease and return it anytime they want? Without ending in financial distress

You can sell a leased car as long as you pay the balance, just like a car with a loan balance. There’s a good chance you’ll be paying to make it happen on both, loan or lease.

You cannot sell a leased car as it is not yours.
Lease trader has some desperate owners who are in some cases willing to pay you to take the car

If you own a car you can get something for it when you sell it

This is a very big difference

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it was such a great deal, more people would be doing it
There are benefits to owning a car, like knowing that if you become unemployed you could sell the car if the payments are too much. You do not have that option with a lease.

If you leased you wouldn't have so much money tied up in a car. And you can walk away from a lease if you really need to.

Are you saying a person can cancel the car lease and return it anytime they want? Without ending in financial distress

You can sell a leased car as long as you pay the balance, just like a car with a loan balance. There’s a good chance you’ll be paying to make it happen on both, loan or lease.

You cannot sell a leased car as it is not yours.
Lease trader has some desperate owners who are in some cases willing to pay you to take the car

If you own a car you can get something for it when you sell it

This is a very big difference

If you lease a car you haven't sunk money into it that you have to get out. If you had invested it with the extra cash, you would be even richer.

It's about opportunity costs, not direct costs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lease.. I don't mind not owning a car. It's less money per month that I put towards other things.

That's what the buy buy buy buy crowd doesn't get. A car isn't an asset. It depreciates in value. Let someone else be liable for it while you use up the best part of its life.

I don't understand this. I have a paid-for 2008 minivan. It is an asset. I own it, its worth something, and I drive it around every day.

An asset stores or generates value. Your minivan is worth less and less every day and every mile you drive. A sunk cost. With leasing you could have kept that money free for proper assets.

It takes 9 years of leasing to have spent the same amount of money as you would have spent buying it outright.

I kept my last car for 12 years. There’s your “asset appreciation” right there. Then at 200k miles it started having problems and I sold it for $1,000.

Even disregarding the $1,000 I sold it for, I had it for 12 years. If it takes 9 years to break even then after 36 years, with me keeping each car for 12 years, the person that leases paid for 4 cars and I paid for only 3. Add on the fact that cars are only becoming more reliable and I can see myself keeping it longer. Plus when my kids are old enough to drive I can give them the car and buy a new one since I will own it free and clear.

It is my car and I can do as I please and drive as many miles as I choose and not have to worry about the dealer scamming me out of hundreds of dollars in fees after a “lease period” is over.

Lastly, when the car gets old and isn’t worth much, I can drop full coverage and use liability only to save even more money. Even if I keep full coverage, the insurance is cheaper because it’s less valuable. People leasing will always pay the maximum amount possible on auto insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it was such a great deal, more people would be doing it
There are benefits to owning a car, like knowing that if you become unemployed you could sell the car if the payments are too much. You do not have that option with a lease.

If you leased you wouldn't have so much money tied up in a car. And you can walk away from a lease if you really need to.

Are you saying a person can cancel the car lease and return it anytime they want? Without ending in financial distress

If money is that tight you can stop paying. There will be consequences of course. Desperate times and all that.

It is not easy: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/automobiles/let-the-lessee-beware-car-leases-can-be-the-most-binding-of-contracts.html

[Anonymous]

I like owning because I don't have to worry so much about my car.

I have leased before once and I always felt like I was "borrowing" it. Plus, there was stress about not going over mileage etc.

But I don't disparage people who lease. I know wealthy people who lease, I know people who financially struggle who lease.

People like to assert they are better/smarter because they buy, which is very annoying.

[Anonymous]

It looks like buying is better than leasing because after 6.5 years you have an asset (the vehicle) that can be sold when you get the new car. This brings cost of ownership below leasing before even considering rip off fees when you turn the lease in.

https://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/compare-the-costs-buying-vs-leasing-vs-buying-a-used-car.html