Leasing VS Buying

[Anonymous]

Another thing to think about with leasing is that you are buying a certain amount of miles. Say 15,000. You pay for them whether you use them or not. If you drive a lot, they will charge you .25 per mile over the limit.
If you park in the city, you'll get tons of bumper dings and door dings. You can't just turn in the car at tech end of the lease like that. They will charge you for the repairs and probably for new tires if the tires need replacing which after three years they probably will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: In 2005, I bought a 5 year old Camry for 8500. I've had it for 11+!years, and my repairs have been a battery, tires, brakes, and a timing belt. probably something I'm forgetting.

So let's say I'm in for $12.5k and I can sell it for $1.5k. That's $1000 a year I've paid. You guys are spending at least $3600/year leasing, plus whatever your down payment was. Over 11 years that's $40,000+ to my $11k.

Just buy a used Toyota or Honda sedan for under $15k and drive it until it's so old you're embarrassed to be seen in it.

You can't really compare the two when you are driving a junker, and they are driving new cars every 3 years.

Do you think someone who can't afford a $500 monthly payment should be driving new cars every three years? I didn't see the part where OP mentioned she was flush with cash and was too good to drive an older vehicle.

Op here. We can afford a $500 payment. We make close to 400-450k with no debt except a mortgage. I would like to avoid driving an older vehicle (unless it's our curent one) because I don't want to deal with the hassle or cost of repairs.

Audi/Bimmer PP here. We've already addressed the cost issue. Paying cash for Japanese cars is cheaper no matter how you slice it. As for the hassle, well, that can go both ways. I had an S4 for a while (3 year lease) and it left me stranded once and had to be towed once from my home due to a coolant bottle recall issue that Audi called me about and warned me not to drive it (they sent a tow truck). Know how many times my Japanese cars have left me stranded? I made more trips to the dealer with the Euro cars than I have to a mechanic with my Japanese cars due to stuff like the above or endless recalls, technology problems, new tires every 20k due to the fancy sticky low profile racing tires, etc. To me it's just as much of a hassle to drive to the dealer or meet a tow truck for a fancy new European car as it is to take a Japanese car into a mechanic on the rare occasion something goes wrong. I think you are trying to justify your wish to drive a fancy car and [b]appear like a big shot using financial and reliability metrics, but they simply don't work out that way. You make a decent income so if you want to drive a fancy car go right ahead. Just acknowledge it for what it is - a bad financial decision that you are willing to make to appear wealthy.

Huh? This is not what's going on. I just told you I make 400-450k with no debt except a mortgage and we have a paid off car. One car. We have a 15 year mortgage and I will be retiring in my late 40s. If we truly wanted to show off we'd already drive two expensive cars, a nicer house with a larger mortgage etc.

We need a new car because our car won't work for a baby and we are trying to decide between buying and leasing. I've just been surprised by the maintenance cost of an older car and it's made me consider possibly leasing. In the past I didn't think I would ever lease but it is looking more and more appealing. Fwiw this will be our only car as my husband bikes to work.

The best suggestion I've received on here is to buy a Japanese car and I think that's what we need to do.

Do you have to parallel park? How many kids do you plan to have? If you are the type of people who drive your cars for years, then buy. If you want a new car every 2-3 then lease. It will definitely cost you more. You'll have to pay sales tax on the cars 3x if you lease for a 10 year period but only once if you buy.
My suggestion is to buy a Hinda or a Totoya if you want it to last. Not a Nissan.

If you live in VA, you will be paying a very high car tax on the value of the car. If you trade every 3 years, you will always have a high value car to pay tax on. Older, low value cars have very low car taxes. A 50K new car is going to get you a 2K+ car tax bill yearly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: In 2005, I bought a 5 year old Camry for 8500. I've had it for 11+!years, and my repairs have been a battery, tires, brakes, and a timing belt. probably something I'm forgetting.

So let's say I'm in for $12.5k and I can sell it for $1.5k. That's $1000 a year I've paid. You guys are spending at least $3600/year leasing, plus whatever your down payment was. Over 11 years that's $40,000+ to my $11k.

Just buy a used Toyota or Honda sedan for under $15k and drive it until it's so old you're embarrassed to be seen in it.

You can't really compare the two when you are driving a junker, and they are driving new cars every 3 years.

Do you think someone who can't afford a $500 monthly payment should be driving new cars every three years? I didn't see the part where OP mentioned she was flush with cash and was too good to drive an older vehicle.

Op here. We can afford a $500 payment. We make close to 400-450k with no debt except a mortgage. I would like to avoid driving an older vehicle (unless it's our curent one) because I don't want to deal with the hassle or cost of repairs.

Audi/Bimmer PP here. We've already addressed the cost issue. Paying cash for Japanese cars is cheaper no matter how you slice it. As for the hassle, well, that can go both ways. I had an S4 for a while (3 year lease) and it left me stranded once and had to be towed once from my home due to a coolant bottle recall issue that Audi called me about and warned me not to drive it (they sent a tow truck). Know how many times my Japanese cars have left me stranded? I made more trips to the dealer with the Euro cars than I have to a mechanic with my Japanese cars due to stuff like the above or endless recalls, technology problems, new tires every 20k due to the fancy sticky low profile racing tires, etc. To me it's just as much of a hassle to drive to the dealer or meet a tow truck for a fancy new European car as it is to take a Japanese car into a mechanic on the rare occasion something goes wrong. I think you are trying to justify your wish to drive a fancy car and [b]appear like a big shot using financial and reliability metrics, but they simply don't work out that way. You make a decent income so if you want to drive a fancy car go right ahead. Just acknowledge it for what it is - a bad financial decision that you are willing to make to appear wealthy.

Huh? This is not what's going on. I just told you I make 400-450k with no debt except a mortgage and we have a paid off car. One car. We have a 15 year mortgage and I will be retiring in my late 40s. If we truly wanted to show off we'd already drive two expensive cars, a nicer house with a larger mortgage etc.

We need a new car because our car won't work for a baby and we are trying to decide between buying and leasing. I've just been surprised by the maintenance cost of an older car and it's made me consider possibly leasing. In the past I didn't think I would ever lease but it is looking more and more appealing. Fwiw this will be our only car as my husband bikes to work.

The best suggestion I've received on here is to buy a Japanese car and I think that's what we need to do.

Do you have to parallel park? How many kids do you plan to have? If you are the type of people who drive your cars for years, then buy. If you want a new car every 2-3 then lease. It will definitely cost you more. You'll have to pay sales tax on the cars 3x if you lease for a 10 year period but only once if you buy.
My suggestion is to buy a Hinda or a Totoya if you want it to last. Not a Nissan.

If you live in VA, you will be paying a very high car tax on the value of the car. If you trade every 3 years, you will always have a high value car to pay tax on. Older, low value cars have very low car taxes. A 50K new car is going to get you a 2K+ car tax bill yearly.

I'm in va and just got my tax bill. I think it's around $2k, and the car is 3 years old with a value of $38k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: In 2005, I bought a 5 year old Camry for 8500. I've had it for 11+!years, and my repairs have been a battery, tires, brakes, and a timing belt. probably something I'm forgetting.

So let's say I'm in for $12.5k and I can sell it for $1.5k. That's $1000 a year I've paid. You guys are spending at least $3600/year leasing, plus whatever your down payment was. Over 11 years that's $40,000+ to my $11k.

Just buy a used Toyota or Honda sedan for under $15k and drive it until it's so old you're embarrassed to be seen in it.

You can't really compare the two when you are driving a junker, and they are driving new cars every 3 years.

Do you think someone who can't afford a $500 monthly payment should be driving new cars every three years? I didn't see the part where OP mentioned she was flush with cash and was too good to drive an older vehicle.

Op here. We can afford a $500 payment. We make close to 400-450k with no debt except a mortgage. I would like to avoid driving an older vehicle (unless it's our curent one) because I don't want to deal with the hassle or cost of repairs.

Audi/Bimmer PP here. We've already addressed the cost issue. Paying cash for Japanese cars is cheaper no matter how you slice it. As for the hassle, well, that can go both ways. I had an S4 for a while (3 year lease) and it left me stranded once and had to be towed once from my home due to a coolant bottle recall issue that Audi called me about and warned me not to drive it (they sent a tow truck). Know how many times my Japanese cars have left me stranded? I made more trips to the dealer with the Euro cars than I have to a mechanic with my Japanese cars due to stuff like the above or endless recalls, technology problems, new tires every 20k due to the fancy sticky low profile racing tires, etc. To me it's just as much of a hassle to drive to the dealer or meet a tow truck for a fancy new European car as it is to take a Japanese car into a mechanic on the rare occasion something goes wrong. I think you are trying to justify your wish to drive a fancy car and [b]appear like a big shot using financial and reliability metrics, but they simply don't work out that way. You make a decent income so if you want to drive a fancy car go right ahead. Just acknowledge it for what it is - a bad financial decision that you are willing to make to appear wealthy.

Huh? This is not what's going on. I just told you I make 400-450k with no debt except a mortgage and we have a paid off car. One car. We have a 15 year mortgage and I will be retiring in my late 40s. If we truly wanted to show off we'd already drive two expensive cars, a nicer house with a larger mortgage etc.

We need a new car because our car won't work for a baby and we are trying to decide between buying and leasing. I've just been surprised by the maintenance cost of an older car and it's made me consider possibly leasing. In the past I didn't think I would ever lease but it is looking more and more appealing. Fwiw this will be our only car as my husband bikes to work.

The best suggestion I've received on here is to buy a Japanese car and I think that's what we need to do.

Do you have to parallel park? How many kids do you plan to have? If you are the type of people who drive your cars for years, then buy. If you want a new car every 2-3 then lease. It will definitely cost you more. You'll have to pay sales tax on the cars 3x if you lease for a 10 year period but only once if you buy.
My suggestion is to buy a Hinda or a Totoya if you want it to last. Not a Nissan.

If you live in VA, you will be paying a very high car tax on the value of the car. If you trade every 3 years, you will always have a high value car to pay tax on. Older, low value cars have very low car taxes. A 50K new car is going to get you a 2K+ car tax bill yearly.

I'm in va and just got my tax bill. I think it's around $2k, and the car is 3 years old with a value of $38k.

This is something to be careful of when leasing. A lot of people have various, often incorrect notions of how leasing works - no maintenance costs, no vehicle registrations, no taxes, no sales taxes - it does not work that way. Don't count on the salesperson to explain this or even to know how it all works. A lease is very different than a purchase, and not many people even at the dealership understand it all. You will still want to negotiate a purchase price, which then is the starting value for lease calculations. You will want to negotiate your interest rate, which on a lease is called a money factor. Multiply the money factor by 2400 to get the interest rate. It should be the same as what you would pay for a purchase loan.

Leases can be very good deals, but you have to be very careful in negotiating one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another thing to think about with leasing is that you are buying a certain amount of miles. Say 15,000. You pay for them whether you use them or not. If you drive a lot, they will charge you .25 per mile over the limit.
If you park in the city, you'll get tons of bumper dings and door dings. You can't just turn in the car at tech end of the lease like that. They will charge you for the repairs and probably for new tires if the tires need replacing which after three years they probably will.

You need to maintain a leased car pretty much per specifications. If you are the type to run your tires until you see the steel belts or go 20K mile on an oil change, you probably should not lease a car.