Leasing could be better than buying an unsafe old beater that broke down all the time. leasing = renting.
+1, I have seen leases where all routine maintenance is included including oil changes. That's a nice perk.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We learned that financing our own lease was even cheaper! Bought a new $33k Odyssey in 2011 for cash. Drove it for 39 months. Decided we wanted the built in DVD player (one package higher than we had) and the aftermarket ones were crap. So, we traded it in for a new 2014 with DVD. The new check we wrote for the difference was $8500. My husband is a great negotiator. So we drove the 2011 for $218/month all in. Way cheaper than the lease would have been, but no pressure to turn it in if we hadn't wanted to. We may try it again with this van, we'll see.
It was eye opening.
But, if you invested the 33K in the vanguard index 500 fund, you would have ended up with in excess of 50K.
Anonymous wrote:We learned that financing our own lease was even cheaper! Bought a new $33k Odyssey in 2011 for cash. Drove it for 39 months. Decided we wanted the built in DVD player (one package higher than we had) and the aftermarket ones were crap. So, we traded it in for a new 2014 with DVD. The new check we wrote for the difference was $8500. My husband is a great negotiator. So we drove the 2011 for $218/month all in. Way cheaper than the lease would have been, but no pressure to turn it in if we hadn't wanted to. We may try it again with this van, we'll see.
It was eye opening.
Anonymous wrote:We learned that financing our own lease was even cheaper! Bought a new $33k Odyssey in 2011 for cash. Drove it for 39 months. Decided we wanted the built in DVD player (one package higher than we had) and the aftermarket ones were crap. So, we traded it in for a new 2014 with DVD. The new check we wrote for the difference was $8500. My husband is a great negotiator. So we drove the 2011 for $218/month all in. Way cheaper than the lease would have been, but no pressure to turn it in if we hadn't wanted to. We may try it again with this van, we'll see.
It was eye opening.
Anonymous wrote:I don't think the type that "drive cars to the ground" should ever lease. They probably will pay heavily at the end for trashing/damaging the car (beyond normal wear and tear).
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Buy a 2012 used car for about $17k.
How does this address the issue at all? The point is that there's a higher monthly cost to owning than leasing, and in certain circumstances, that money could better be spent on other things.
Because in three years you have no more car payment, and you probably won't for five years, and you have a car worth $10k.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Buy a 2012 used car for about $17k.
How does this address the issue at all? The point is that there's a higher monthly cost to owning than leasing, and in certain circumstances, that money could better be spent on other things.
Anonymous wrote:Right. When you compare leasing to buying as an isolated comparison, you're not considering the opportunity cost of not spending as much money per month on the same vehicle.
Buying is basically paying additional money up front for a reasonably certain and reasonably strong payoff 6-15 years from now. It is often a great buy, but you still need to consider what else you could spend the money on.
Trying to dodge this analysis by saying that anyone who has better things to spend their money on must be overspending on a car misses the mark. Buying costs more than leasing even for non-luxury compact cars.