Leave a Prius, good or bad idea?

[Anonymous]

Sorry in advance if this is a stupid question but I’ve never leased a car before, I’ve always owned. I currently drive 10yr old Prius and I’d like to lease one for my next car. Is it a good or bad idea to lease? I usually drive my cars into the ground so I’m not worried about reselling. I’m a nanny so I do drive the kids for work but they don’t make messes in the car (older kids).

People keep telling me it’s bad to lease but not why. Help please!

[Anonymous]

If you are not good with keeping the car tidy, or more importantly , itemizing work related expenses during tax time, I wouldn’t recommend leasing.

[Anonymous]

There are many pros and cons to leasing; my best recommendation is to research your options online, namely googling the company you seek to lease from for customer reviews. Also there are many articles and online calculators that can give you insight, just google keywords “lease versus buy” “car financing dos and donts”

[Anonymous]

Financially leasing usually works for people who want new cars and trade often. It doesn’t sound like that is you. Buying outright makes more sense if you buy and drive a car into the ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Financially leasing usually works for people who want new cars and trade often. It doesn’t sound like that is you. Buying outright makes more sense if you buy and drive a car into the ground.

Agree— I am not all anti-leasing but it’s probably not a good idea for you

[Anonymous]

Don’t lease a Prius especially if you keep the car for years you have to pay taxes every time you lease, and Toyota’s hold their value very well. Buy with very low interest and sell in a few years of you must. You’ll come out way ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t lease a Prius especially if you keep the car for years you have to pay taxes every time you lease, and Toyota’s hold their value very well. Buy with very low interest and sell in a few years of you must. You’ll come out way ahead.

Does anyone know if the excise tax exemption for hybrid vehicles in DC apply to leases as well?

[Anonymous]

If you drive your charges around a lot in your car and have to run errands for your family, then you might not want to lease. Many leases come with a limit to how many miles you can drive in a year and if you go over that, they charge you extra. They try to keep the wear and tear on leased vehicles to a limit since leased vehicles often end up being sold by the leasing company after use and they try to retain as much value in the car as possible for the resell. You need to figure out what your typical driving pattern is and research leases before you need it so you can tell whether you are in danger of going over the limit and know which companies have higher limits or lower limits. The higher the annual limit, the more expensive the lease is likely to be.

[Anonymous]

If you’ve been with this family for a while, they should help you in some way with getting a car.
The legal rates for use of car for work in no way covers for the wear and tear you get from kids and car seats.
Parents should really provide a nanny a car to haul their kids.